Vodafone to offer Microsoft IM Solutions on their products

World’s biggest software company Microsoft is collaborating with Britain’s Mobile Phone Company Vodafone to give Instant Messaging solutions to their customers. Vodafone has announced plans to support Microsoft Corp.’s instant-messaging service, which will provide subscribers with PC-to-mobile phone communication facility. This would also enable customers to see whether their friends and family are online and available to exchange messages.

This deal would result in a mergence of Microsoft’s MSN Messenger service with Vodafone Messenger. Vodafone Messenger lets Vodafone users to stay in touch with each other in real-time. Customers would be given an option to prepay or pay for the service through their monthly bill. MSN Messengers would be paying Microsoft to make use of these services.

Microsoft’s MSN Messenger is one of the world’s most popular Instant Messaging solutions with around 165 million subscribers. Vodafone on its hand have nearly 155 million customers worldwide with most of them based in Europe. This gives both of the companies a big opportunity to gain new customers worldwide.

Peter Bamford, chief marketing officer for Vodafone said in a statement released to the media: “IM is a growing part of the increasingly important mobile messaging market. By bringing our collective customers together, we’ll deliver more options for staying in touch when messaging.” The service is expected to be out in the market by the end of the current year.

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