Hutchison Essar, Microsoft in Mobile Tie-up
Hutchison Essar, India's fourth-ranked mobile services provider, has formed an alliance with Microsoft to offer search, mail and messaging services to its 21 million customers.
Hutchison Essar, India's fourth-ranked mobile services provider, has formed an alliance with Microsoft to offer search, mail and messaging services to its 21 million customers, the companies said today.
"Our alliance with Hutchison allows Microsoft to... bring the power of software-based services to Indian mobile customers," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement.
Ballmer expected rapid growth in Microsoft's Windows Live Search, which already has tens of millions of users globally.
"With India being the fastest growing mobile market in the world, providing a rich set of online services for mobile subscribers is more important than ever," he said.
In December, Microsoft said it would invest $1.7 billion over four years to deepen its presence and develop more applications for cost-conscious firms in Asia's fourth-largest economy.
More from News AnalysisMicrosoft already sells its software in several Indian languages, and outsources a lot of development work to domestic software exporters such as Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Wipro Ltd.
India's wireless services market is attracting some six million new users each month.
Why AI notetakers are raising serious privacy and security concerns
China's low-cost AI models are changing the global AI race. Here's why Silicon Valley is worried
China's Kimi K3 challenges US AI leaders with frontier-level performance at lower cost
How did Instagram run ads promoting child abuse in India?
Why has India halted WhatsApp’s username feature before launch?