Microsoft announces its plans for VoIP service and other communications products:

Microsoft unveiled its Unified Communications product road map and announced new technologies that will be part of the forthcoming Microsoft Office system 2007.

Microsoft plans to bring together the corporate e-mail offerings of Microsoft Exchange Server, which includes new unified messaging capabilities, Microsoft Office Outlook, and Microsoft Speech Server, with updated versions of its real-time collaboration technologies and a set of new communications devices to form a cohesive unified communications solution.

"Unified communications will reduce complexity by putting people at the center of the communications experience. Our goal is to integrate all of the ways we contact each other in a single environment, using a single identity that spans phones, PCs and other devices. Our vision is to make it easy for people to reach each other using the mode of communication that is the most productive, on the device that is most convenient, while at the same time providing individuals with the highest levels of control over when and how they can be reached, and by whom," stated Microsoft’s Bill Gates.