Microsoft launches communication apps

Microsoft plans to release its much-anticipated Office Communicator 2005 client and a service pack for Live Communications Server 2005 in the next 90 days.

Live Communications Server 2005 will allow interoperability with MSN, AOL and Yahoo, the three major public instant-messaging networks.

Formerly code-named Istanbul, Office Communicator 2005--expected to be released into manufacturing by midyear--integrates instant-messaging, voice, video and telephony support and access to the LCS 2005 web conferencing server.

Microsoft said the client was tightly integrated with Office 2003 Outlook and SharePoint and had "rich presence" features letting users offer extra availability data to co-workers, such as next-available meeting times and out-of-office messages.

It also had PC-to-phone integration, the company said.

The client wouldn't be available until next quarter, and pricing and licensing information weren't disclosed.

Microsoft said the client would be multi-platform and pricing would be announced before shipping.

Microsoft also launched a service pack for LCS 2005, due for wide availability in April.

The LCS 2005 update had enhanced federation between realtime communications servers at different locations to better enable company-to-company interaction and "spim" filters to reduce spam over instant messaging.

The service pack also had connectivity to AOL, Yahoo and MSN instant-messaging networks.

Public IM Connectivity (PIC) functionality would come as a separately licensed, per-user, per-year subscription from 1 April. The LCS 2005 platform was launched late last year.

Microsoft also launched a third product for its enhanced, realtime communications (RTC) platform, Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2005.

The enhanced LiveMeeting hosted service had broad integration with Office so users could launch a web conference with co-workers from within Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Project and the new Office Communicator 2005 client.

Office Live Meeting 2005 would be available from 11 March, the company said.