But that's only part of the strategy. When Microsoft introduced and then later cancelled its "HailStorm" strategy of providing a broad set of general-purpose Web services, many companies assumed that the shared .Net services were dead. Nothing could be further from the truth. Microsoft has steadily been building support for its MSN Alerts service, providing toolkits and direct support to corporations that want to integrate applications with the MSN Messenger service. But it has really created a niche by building a business around hosted routing and location services on MapPoint .Net. The location services platform Microsoft MapPoint .Net is a hosted service that provides maps, driving directions, distance calculations, and proximity searches. By exposing MapPoint as a programmable XML Web service, Microsoft makes it simple to integrate this data into your own corporate applications and Web sites. In fact, many companies now use MapPoint as part of their standard business processes. For example, I'm working with a company to develop a dispatching and truck-routing application that relies on MapPoint to provide directions to pickup and delivery locations optimised for the device which accesses it. Cell phones will get text directions from their current location (using the GPS capability built into the newer cell phones), and PocketPCs or laptops will get maps showing how to go from their current location to the destination. These GPS-equipped devices can even track and display the driver's progress locally and report the truck location remotely so that the home office and the end customer can track the vehicle's progress online. Mobile devices key to Microsoft future By combining the power of hosted MapPoint services and the development tools provided by Visual Studio .Net, corporations can now develop location-aware applications that make their internal corporate data available to a wider range of customers on a broader range of devices. For example, customers using cell phones can use a dealer locator to find the closest dealer for your company's products based on their current location. Restaurants and cinemas are already using these services to allow patrons to find them, and soon you'll also be able to order tickets or make reservations. Microsoft hopes to increase corporate adoption of these services by providing a rich, easy-to-use platform. Perhaps more important, Microsoft wants to use these types of services to replace revenue lost by the aging of the PC infrastructure. Corporations that want to develop location-aware applications will be the primary beneficiaries.
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