Almotamar.net Google Sci/Tech - Microsoft is partnering with nine hardware companies to offer a range of office phones and devices optimized to work with its new "unified communications" software, it announced Monday.
The 15 devices from makers including LG-Nortel, NEC, Samsung and Tatung are designed to take advantage of features in Microsoft's Office Communications Server 2007 and Communicator 2007, due out in the next two months.
Paul Duffy, Unified Communications group product manager, said companies have had a limited choice of phones to go with traditional PBX systems. They were usually sold only by the network provider, locking out other hardware vendors and providing little flexibility for different worker needs, he added.
"It's really a case of opening the doors to an industry that have been closed, " Duffy said.
The devices range from USB headsets to full-featured desktop phones that integrate with unified-communications features such as presence, which allows users to see if the person they are trying to reach is available.
Microsoft/SanDisk
Little storage cards to hold lots of data
Microsoft and SanDisk plan memory-storage devices that hold the contents of an entire computer on a card the size of a pack of gum, allowing users to take the data anywhere.
Users can call up the data on the cards once they're hooked up to a computer running Microsoft's Windows, the companies said last week. They get the same functions they would on their home computers and leave no data behind when they unplug the device from a public or shared computer.
Microsoft and SanDisk are betting they can build on consumers' appetite for other devices that allow them to carry video, songs and photos.
Wal-Mart Stores
Skype phone items to appear on shelves
Wal-Mart Stores is adding Skype phone gear to the electronics section at more than half of its 3,300 U.S. outlets, bringing the provider of cheap calling over the Internet to a huge mainstream audience.
The dedicated Skype section will feature handsets, headsets and webcams designed to work with Skype, a provider of free and very cheap long-distance calls, including to phone numbers abroad.
Wal-Mart will offer the first prepaid cards for Skype calls to be sold in the U.S., the companies were to say today.
Merck
Mylan acquiring generic-drug unit
Mylan Laboratories agreed to buy Merck's generic-drug unit for $6.7 billion in cash to become the world's third-largest maker of copycat versions of drugs.
Canonsburg, Pa.-based Mylan said Sunday it would pay more than its own market value to buy a unit with annual sales almost double its own. It beat out Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries of Israel, the world's largest maker of generic drugs.
The combination will let Mylan achieve economies of scale in manufacturing and gain access to new markets and products, Chief Executive Robert Coury said. The acquisition will let it sell cheap versions of AstraZeneca's Prilosec ulcer pill and Zocor, a cholesterol-lowering medicine of Germany-based Merck.
The enlarged company will have 10,000 employees and would have had 2006 sales of about $4.2 billion, Mylan said.
The German Merck isn't affiliated with New Jersey-based drug maker Merck & Co.
E-commerce
Clothing beats out computer sales
Consumers spent more money online for clothes than computers in 2006, the first time that's happened, the National Retail Federation's Shop.org reported Sunday.
The report found apparel, accessories and footwear sales hit $18.3 billion in 2006, while computers were $17.2 billion.
The group predicts 10 percent of all clothing sales will be online this year, a dramatic change in how people shop.