Microsoft Agrees To License ActiveSync To Google 133
JacobSteelsmith writes "Microsoft agreed today to license ActiveSync to Google. Google is using ActiveSync as part of Google Sync, which enables the synchronization of data between mobile devices and, presumably, Google Calendar and your contacts stored at Google. 'Microsoft's vice president of intellectual property and licensing, Horacio Gutierrez, said in a statement that the Google license is "a great example of Microsoft's openness to generally license our patents under fair and reasonable terms so long as licensees respect Microsoft intellectual property."'"
Hah! That's a joke (Score:1, Interesting)
"a great example of Microsoft's openness to generally license our patents under fair and reasonable terms so long as licensees respect Microsoft intellectual property."
Ha ha yeah, my ass.
What Google has just done is to license PPP from Microsoft. Nice job.
Don't believe me? Read this. [handhelds.org]
All the "Activesync Protocol" is, is good old PPP.
What'd they license? (Score:3, Interesting)
Does anyone actually know what was licensed here? Was there even a patent involved or is this journalist just expecting sense to spew out of the mouth of a Microsoft executive when he should know better?
Re:Hah! That's a joke (Score:3, Interesting)
"a great example of Microsoft's openness to generally license our patents under fair and reasonable terms so long as licensees respect Microsoft intellectual property"
I translate this as: "we bought this thing ages ago, we used it to drive somebody we didn't like out of business, it no longer provides us with any competitor advantage, and the code base is a mess anyway."
Isn't industry moving to SyncML? This guy was watching ActivSync creep up 3 years ago [funambol.com].
Phillip.
Re:The bottom line... (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not clear at all from the article that Google are actually using the "Microsoft Active Sync" software directly. It says they licensed the "technology".
I expect they made their own "two way" sync product for google that does not interoperate with active sync, maybe?
It's an incredibly obvious idea, just another lame patent locked down by big dollars.
You could argue that two way information sync has been going on since the first two people had an agreeable conversation.
This Benefits Both Companies (Score:4, Interesting)
Google benefits because they can now easily sync to Exchange servers. Before, Google's Exchange synchronization tool required you to keep Outlook as you default Email account and have it installed on your PC and your PC up and running and logged into your account. Even then, it wasn't too smooth.
By licensing ActiveSync, Google can now synchronize their calendar (and gmail) to people's MS Exchange server calenders (and email).
For Microsoft, it takes a bit of pressure off of businesses who are finding Exchange's proprietary technology confining.
Microsoft's Exchange Server is one of the major components that tie businesses to Microsoft based solutions. This monopoly is beginning to fray. Non-Windows portable devices keep on multiplying, and employees are demanding to be serviced by the IT department. In order to prevent companies from abandoning Exchange Server, Microsoft is allowing non-Windows devices some access.
By allowing non-Windows devices access to Exchange, Microsoft hopes to keep their Exchange monopoly alive. Windows systems are still first class Exchange citizens, but by allowing basic synchronization with non-Windows devices, Microsoft has relieved the pressure on companies to abandon Exchange.
Re:What'd they license? (Score:3, Interesting)
An above poster suggested that they licensed the Exchange ActiveSync protocol, which would allow Android phones to grow support for syncing contacts/calendar-events with your exchange server, and receiving push email. I have no doubt that a patent is involved, but the licensing also mostly likely included protocol documentation and permission to implement such a system. That makes good sense to me, so I'd put money on this being what was licensed. This has nothing to do with the PCPhone ActiveSync protocol.