Microsoft on Tuesday theatrically unveiled communications software it claims will do to business telephones what e-mail did to corporate memos.
"Unified Communications" technology, made globally available on Tuesday, streamlines workplace communications and cuts the cost of using voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phones in half, according to the US software giant.
"The shift to software-based telephony is as profound as the shift from typewriters to word processing software," Microsoft chairman Bill Gates said onstage during a press conference in San Francisco.
The software tailored to businesses lets companies merge e-mail, instant messaging, Internet telephone calls, schedule calendars and teleconferencing to enable workers to connect "immersively" through their computers.
"The era of dialling blind ... playing phone tag ... missed communications; that era is ending," Microsoft business division president Jeff Raikes told the press conference.
Gates showed off a "Roundtable" device, reminiscent of a table lamp, with microphones embedded in the base and a ring of cameras on top. The device, priced at 3,000 dollars, can be placed on conference room tables to project everyone there into a virtual meeting with people with like devices in other places, Gates explained.
Microsoft's Unified Communications software is seen by some analysts as a wake-up call to telecom giants that technology may loosen their tight grip on the market. "UC makes all kinds of communications available from users' desktops with just one click," said Etienne de Verdelhan, chief technical officer of French fragrance firm L'Occitane en Provence, which helped test the software.