In almost a discreet way, Nokia showed off their new Windows Phone powered handsets, the Lumia 800 and 710, at Nokia World 2011. Although neither of the phones will be available in the United States until sometime in early 2012, the phones got plenty of attention in Europe where they will be rolled out over the next two months. One key thing to note about the phones was reported today is that the new Lumia smartphone will include the much anticipated Windows Mobile Lync application. Some are calling the Windows Mobile Lync app a “metro style app”. There is a couple of screenshots available online with the app powered up on the new Nokia phones.
Even though the Lync app is only in the beta testing version, early reports showed that the app did not support video on the Lumia 800. Besides the lack of video support, the mobile app also lacks support for on other mobile devices, even those from Microsoft. During the last quarter earnings call Microsoft called Lync a success with sales of the app up about 25 percent. This might be attributed to the rollout of the Microsoft Office 365 software which includes Lync as one of the options for the cloud service.
With the app in beta testing mode, it is really hard to get a grasp on any of the features since most of them do not work yet. Instant messaging, Web conferencing and routing phone calls are all features that many are waiting to try out, but none of them are available for use as of today. Lync 2010 shipped sometime last year, but many are waiting for the mobile client to show up for the iPhone, BlackBerry and all the Windows Phones.
Most of the time that Microsoft has at the moment is being spent on trying to figure out how to configure Lync into their recently purchased Skype. If the company is going to spend all that time trying to figure out something nobody is asking for, maybe they should just concentrate on the things that people are asking for? Apple iPhone users have an option to access the Lync server through third-party apps like iDialog. Android users also have an option to gain access through an app called Damaka, which is also available on the iPhone.
October 31, 2011 at 10:04 am
Lync mobile will definitely work on windows phone devices other than Nokia. And according to InformationWeek interview with Lync exec, it will work on other mobile platforms as well.
For a properly sourced article on this subject take a look at:
http://windowspbx.blogspot.com/2011/09/its-official-microsoft-releasing-lync.html