Hutch inks deal for Microsoft Live services

NEW DELHI: Hutchison Essar and Microsoft on Wednesday joined hands to announce an alliance in India to provide mobile search and other key Windows Live services to the telecom provider’s over 21m subscribers. The alliance, announced in the presence of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, will enable Hutch customers to access mobile content and information through an integrated search platform powered by Windows Live Search.

Also, Hutch users will soon get to search local business listing and services across major Indian cities. This facility can also be accessed through SMS.

“India is a mobile country. It’s adding more mobile subscribers that any other country in the world. I am also confident that more PC users will be added in the years to come. Tools such as Instant Messenger, are allowing people to express and communicate,” Mr Ballmer said.

Stating that Microsoft was committed to achieving leadership position in internet search, Mr Ballmer said: “We are not the market leader in this segment and have a long way to go — we know that in 50% of the searches, the user does not get the exact answer. We have the best technology and constantly working towards improving this.”

Responding to a query on open source, Mr Ballmer said, “This (open source) is important as there’s a long-term need for interoperatability between Windows and other software products. Even as we compete with other products, it is essential that our customers get interoperatability,” he added.

Mr Ballmer also had an interesting observation when asked if India (25% of all engineers graduating globally are Indian) was producing employable professionals.