Microsoft, Sprint to Announce Mobile Partnership

Microsoft is expected to announce a strategic partnership with Sprint that would highlight the company's Windows Live offerings, BetaNews has learned. Sources close to Microsoft say the two companies would initially offer Redmond's Windows Live Search as early as Thursday, with additional services to come.

Sprint's implementation is believed to not only allow for searching of location-based results, but also to search Sprint's own catalog of services, including ring tones and the like. Additionally, targeted advertising opportunities would be available for businesses.

While the first version of the service would not take advantage of the GPS capabilities of some Sprint phones, future versions are in the works that would make this possible, say sources.

For example, a search for a specific term would not only bring up results for a specified location, but also matching Sprint services or content. Such a partnership would be the first of its kind with a carrier for Microsoft, although it also recently struck a Windows Live Search deal with handset manufacturer Nokia.

It is believed that the Windows Live Search deal is only the beginning, and that both companies plan to integrate more of their services together in the coming months. Sources say that Sprint and Microsoft plan to bring together new functionality through the Connected Services Framework.

The Connected Services Framework was created by Microsoft in February of last year and provides a group of middleware services on the web level for supporting and translating between particular communications devices.

Microsoft says that this relationship speeds to market new services, and allows companies to do so at a lesser cost.

Other parts of the deal apparently include development and marketing efforts, although it was not immediately clear whether that meant Microsoft would promote Sprint's wireless services within Windows Live as a result.