A little more than a month ago, Bill Gates defined Microsoft's vision for real-time, integrated communications and unveiled a roadmap for Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005 and its IM client Office Communicator 2005 (a.k.a Istanbul). Today, Microsoft described another plank for its ambitious real-time platform, announcing plans to deliver a new client for Windows Mobile-based devices. While details are still sketchy, Ed Simnett, group product manager for LCS, said the mobile client will provide a consistent IM and presence-enabled application experience across PCs and handheld devices, and will provide integration between mobile applications and tools such as e-mail, phone, IM, SMS, video conferencing and Web conferencing across a variety of devices and wired or wireless networks. "This will allow enterprises to deploy one infrastructure," Simnett said.

A beta version isn't expected until the second half of this year. In terms of cost, Simnett said, "It's too early to talk about pricing." While the look and feel isn't finalized, it will be based on Office Communicator with the goal of lessening the learning curve for Live Communication Server 2005 users, according to David Sokolic, lead program manager for LCS. "The key aim of the client is to give end users the same real-time communication experience when on a mobile device."