The Mouse That Soars

The Logitech MX Air packs a lot of technology into a small package
by Cliff Edwards
I had to stifle a yawn last month when a Logitech International spokeswoman called to schedule a meeting so she could show off the company's latest mouse. Over the years, Logitech (LOGI) has delivered plenty of innovations to make this time-honored device more versatile. But at this late date, is there really any way to build a better mouse?
The answer became clear a week later, when I actually got my hands on Logitech's cordless, rechargeable MX Air mouse. At $150, it's their most expensive model so far, and it really does change the definition of a product most of us use every day. More like an airborne remote control than a traditional mouse, it eliminates the need to make cramped dragging motions on a flat surface next to your keyboard. Instead, you can surf the Web, play games, and control a home theater PC from up to 30 feet away. This turns out to be a more natural way to interact with many devices.
Like the controller on Nintendo's (NTDOY) Wii game system, the MX Air stuffs a lot of advances into a little package. It has motion-sensing technology from Hillcrest Labs, including a gyroscope that senses the nose of the mouse angling up and down or side to side, and an accelerometer that tracks the device's movement in any direction as you point it at the screen. This mouse always knows which way is up, so you don't have to worry about holding it perfectly level. And an onboard processor is constantly crunching motion data so it can filter out things like a slight shaking of your hand.
The Cool-Factor
In the few weeks I've spent playing with the product, I've found that some things take practice. Positioning the cursor and clicking on tiny text or icons when standing away from the screen can be tricky. But I had no trouble hitting any of the large icons on the home screen of Windows Vista or Mac OS X. And as a lefty, I was pleased to discover that the mouse works equally well in either hand. For PC users, there's additional software that lets you set different ways of moving the mouse in the air to perform tasks using Microsoft (MSFT) Office applications, Adobe (ADBE) Photoshop, iTunes, and WinDVD. In no time, I figured out how to wave the mouse like a baton to turn up the volume on an iTunes song, launch YouTube (GOOG) videos, and flip through Yahoo! (YHOO) news tabs.
There's also a cool-factor at play. Wielding the MX Air is like holding a work of art. Crafted with help from Design Partners in Ireland, it looks a bit like an elongated teardrop, with an onyx finish and silver trim on the bottom. When you move the mouse, amber lights just below the surface illuminate buttons for play/pause, volume, back, or select. Logitech also replaced the ubiquitous scroll wheel with a thumb-operated swipe pad. It lets you move a page up or down on your PC screen and emits clicking sounds that speed up as you scroll more quickly through the pages. I was a little concerned about interference when I learned that the MX Air eschews Bluetooth wireless in favor of an alternative standard that runs on 2.4 GHz radio spectrum—the same as Wi-Fi, microwave ovens, and other gizmos. But I've had no trouble so far. Logitech says that's because the mouse senses when there's interference and hops to a slightly different frequency to avoid it.
The MX Air hints at the kinds of things Logitech may be planning in the area of home electronics. Taking a page from Apple (AAPL), the company made the whole experience completely intuitive, allowing users to be up and running in a matter of minutes. Over time, I expect to see both better software support for the Mac and other products that will really be able to take advantage of gesture-based commands. Given Logitech's proven ability to surprise, we may all soon find ourselves fighting over the mouse instead of the remote.
Steve Wildstrom is on vacation.

Pakistan to Get 'World's Largest' WiMAX Network
May 25, 2006
Motorola is announcing this week that it will serve as primary supplier for an 802.16e WiMAX broadband network in Pakistan, to be operated by Wateen Telecom.

In a Motorola announcement, Tariq Malik of Wateen Telecom calls the Motorola agreement a "milestone" in its Broadband Pakistan initiative. He says Wateen's will be "the largest 802.16e WiMAX network in the world with over one million users," will give access to "a range of voice, Internet, data and value-added services" and will provide coverage to underserved areas in Pakistan.

The network will employ Motorola's MOTOwi4 WiMAX access network and subscriber units and will allow Wateen to offer residential and commercial services, including Internet access, data services, voice, VPN and public hotspots. Reports say that Wateen plans to unroll 193 WiMAX sites by the end of September 2006 and 600 by end of June 2007.

Motorola describes MOTOwi4 as "a portfolio of wireless broadband solutions and services that create, complement and complete IP networks. MOTOwi4 includes Canopy broadband fixed wireless for point-to-multi-point and point-to-point, Mesh, Broadband over Powerline, WiMAX and Point-to-Point solutions for private and public networks." This week at the WiMAX World Europe event in Vienna, Austria, Motorola unveiled and demonstrated its new carrier-class WiMAX solution.

Walkman w580i: Smooth Operator

A cheaper alternative to the iPhone: Sony Ericsson's music phone also features FM radio, a full HTML browser, and a fitness application
by Olga Kharif
I am smitten. Europeans have been raving about Sony Ericsson's Walkman music phones for several years now, but it wasn't until the past year that the first handful of the 20-plus models available overseas arrived on the U.S. market. Now, due in August, comes a sixth called the w580i, an exceptional feature-rich handset that in many ways gives the far pricier Apple (AAPL) iPhone a run for its money.
The first "slider" in the Walkman line of phones, the w580i comes with an FM radio, a two-megapixel camera, a full HTML browser for mobile Web surfing, and a fitness application. Though it suffers from the same limited built-in memory as just about every music phone but the iPhone, the w580i has a slot for Sony's Memory Stick Micro card that offers four gigabytes of storage for songs and photos.
But despite all the extras, the w580i is expected to sell for less than many less capable devices: from $50 to $100 with a two-year contract (a wireless carrier will be announced shortly), or $349 without any new service commitment. Compare that with $500 or $600 for Apple's iPhone, or roughly $100 with a two-year contract for either of the two new music phones just launched by LG: the Muziq from Sprint (S) and the new Chocolate from Verizon Wireless (VZ, VOD) (see BusinessWeek.com, 7/13/07, "The Mobile Sound of Muziq" and BusinessWeek.com, 7/20/07, "New LG Chocolate: Even Sweeter").
Objet D'Art
More than anything, it was the snazzy design that made me fall in love with the w580i. The bottom is curved, making it easy to slide the dial pad from under the main screen with a push of the thumb. And when you do slide it open, narrow strips on both sides of the handset light up with pink and green lights. Little details like these, including the splash-like icon found on all Walkman phones, made me feel I was handling an object of art, and not just a phone.
Unlike many other music players out there, this gadget isn't trying to be like—or look like—the iPod. Its round control wheel, for example, looks more like a metal-etching machine than an iPod-like sensor. That said, I had to operate the w580i's controls with a firmer touch.
The front of the device features lots of dedicated keys. One launches the music player, another takes you back one step in any screen menu, and another lets you close out applications quickly.
Direct-From-CD Recording
But the biggest selling point, as one might hope with a device that goes by the name of Walkman, was the w580i's music-playing capabilities. Even without a headset, the sound was stellar, which is not the case with most music phones. The computer software that comes with the w580i also makes it easy to load music over a USB cable from your hard drive or even directly from a CD in the optical drive.
And unlike so many other phones, this one lets you use any other application—such as Web browsing, texting, or e-mail—while you're listening to a playlist or the radio. Most other phones either run one application at a time or perhaps allow a couple of key functions while you play music.
A few words about the radio application. Sure, other phones offer radio. But in most cases, they only let you listen to Web radio stations such as Pandora. You can't listen to the live broadcast of your local hit-music station. With the w580i, you can. The radio antenna resides within the headphones that come with the phone, but you can listen to a broadcast through either the ear buds or the handset's speaker.
Fitness Freak, Dieter's Delight
Another huge feature on this device is the full HTML browser, which enables you to view any Web page as it would appear on a computer, be it a news portal or an online retailer. I loved that. With most cell phones, Web browsing is typically limited by a special browser that can only show those sites specially formatted for a mobile device, as well as carrier restrictions governing which sites are "authorized" on their networks. The freedom to roam anywhere on the Internet is a headline feature on the iPhone, and while the w580i's screen is smaller, Web pages were relatively easy to view.
I also loved the pedometer application, which records your steps and miles as you walk or run (for the most accurate results, the phone has to be placed in a special armband). The software can even count the calories you've burned after you enter your height, age, and weight. Despite all these features, the w580i offers really good battery life: nine hours of talk time and up to 20 hours of music playing.
One gripe: It took me a while to learn the controls. To get started with the phone, I had to read the manual —which has not been the case with other music phones such as the Chocolate. But once I figured out all the buttons, using the device was clear sailing.

Microsoft Takes On Salesforce

The world's biggest software company plans to directly challenge the leader in online customer-relationship management programs
As growth slowed in recent years at Microsoft's Office division, which specializes in such business productivity applications as e-mail and spreadsheet creation, the software company looked for opportunities in other areas. Customer-relationship management (CRM) software seemed an ideal candidate. The programs help sales staff track leads and fit well with the contact lists and calendar applications in Office's Outlook program.
But Microsoft (MSFT) initially stumbled in its CRM effort, attempting to build the business from scratch while at the same time trying to absorb two large acquisitions. And just as Microsoft began gaining traction in CRM, creating software that businesses used, an upstart, Salesforce.com (CRM), pioneered a new way of doing CRM, hosting the application as a service online.
A new report from market research firm Gartner (IT) lists Salesforce.com and Oracle's (ORCL) Siebel CRM as the "leaders" of the salesforce-automation business, relegating Microsoft to a "challenger" role.
So, at its worldwide partner conference July 10 in Denver, Microsoft unveiled the pricing for a new version of its CRM software that it, too, will host online, something only its partners have done up to now. The new iteration, due later this year, puts Microsoft in direct competition with Salesforce. And Microsoft, which analysts expect to post $51 billion in sales for the fiscal year that ended June 30, has come out with aggressive pricing, beating the competition by 40% or more in some cases.
The president of Microsoft's Business Division, Jeff Raikes, talked with BusinessWeek Seattle Bureau Chief Jay Greene about his goal to take momentum from Microsoft's offline CRM business and amp up the competition with Salesforce.com online. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow.
Why are these products so important for Microsoft?
We've always felt that that intersection of bringing together how people use their office tools with business process systems is a unique opportunity for us to create value. So, being in customer relationship management is extremely important. We think this will be one of the things that really show to people what we mean by the combination of software plus software-based services.
Microsoft has been somewhat late to the online CRM party. Why was that?
Well, we did put a real emphasis on being able to have a strong offering in the on-premise (packaged software) area, and that's been excellent for us. We've developed great momentum. We're over 400,000 users now, approaching 500,000. I think that was the smart way for us to come at that.
I would turn it around, though, and say if you think about what customers really want, we are not the one who's late to the party. What customers really want is that ability to have a choice in terms of the implementation. And so if we are correct in that view of the market, the ability to have a very, very strong CRM offering that can be hosted by Microsoft, hosted by our partners, or implemented on-premise by our partners is really the triple play.
Is that really what customers want? If you look at the success that Salesforce.com has had, I think you could argue that customers really want something that is simple, lightweight, and not expensive.
We've developed a lot of momentum on-premise, and they've developed some momentum online, but now we're going to really see what customers want. Simplicity of use, ease of implementation, low total cost of operation: Those are all very important things that customers want. And we have been offering that very successfully in on-premise. We now have a great offering that is both online and on-premise.
You have been very aggressive in terms of pricing. Help me understand the strategy behind that.
It's in our DNA to be the high-volume, low-cost provider of software solutions.
This is one piece of a much bigger business for Microsoft. Is this a loss leader?
No. This is a great business for us. Our Dynamics business now overall is about a billion dollars [a year]. And CRM is a very important part of it, it's growing 100% [year over year]. Because we bet on big volume, we can afford to invest broadly.
Gartner recently put out a report on this segment, and Salesforce as well as Oracle's Siebel CRM business were at the top. Microsoft is described as a "challenger." Is Gartner's analysis right?
Well, certainly I think the trajectory that we're on will position us as a leader, and it's just a matter of time.
Microsoft executives have been saying that with regard to this market for years. What's different this time around?
The key is we've got a great product, and we already have a lot of momentum with the product. The user experience from within Outlook is something that people love, and they've been gravitating towards that; the simplicity, the ease of use. But one thing I should be clear about: I'm very satisfied with the success we're having in this business. We've got a business that in a couple years has gotten up to more than 400,000 users. It's got terrific growth, and it's getting even better. Another way of saying it is there's nobody else's position in the industry that I would want.
Does this put you in any competition with your partners, who have been hosting CRM services online on top of Microsoft software?
I think there may be some partners that will want to migrate their solutions to be more specific to some customer segments. The partners who host will do the best if they decide to go ahead and focus on a given industry. So, the partners that are doing more horizontal things will probably change their strategy. We've been very clear with the partner channel about our plans so that they can make those kinds of adjustments.