Blackberry to support Microsoft’s Live Communications Server

Microsoft recently announced that they were bringing their Live Communications Server functionality to the mobile platform. As a result, users of this software can access the servers from their handheld devices when they are out of town or on road. The exciting news is that the very popular mobile device RIM’s Blackberry is also going to support this technology.

The news means that now both Windows Mobile powered devices and Blackberry would be able to communicate to the Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005. Blackberry is manufactured by Research in Motion. The ways a user can communicate to the server through a handheld is through instant messaging, e-mail and short messaging service (SMS), as well as video conferencing and Web conferencing.

Gurdeep Pall, vice president of Microsoft’s Real-Time Collaboration Group spoke to the media and said: “Information workers spend a lot of time away from their desks for meetings, travel, customer visits and other demands, and having mobile access to enterprise-grade real-time communications can help them work smarter and more efficiently.”

A beta release is expected to come out of the company during the second half of the current year itself. Research in Motion has also communicated that they would be developing a client for BlackBerry devices that will work with Live Communications Server. Both these software updates are expected to be widely available by the end of the year.