When Microsoft Corp. realized that enterprises needed help deploying and managing mobile phones, it turned to a partner it first found in the 1980s.
Microsoft approached Mort Rosenthal recently with the idea of starting a company that could help enterprises design, deploy and manage Windows Mobile mobile phones and services, Rosenthal said. He plans to formally launch the company, called Enterprise Mobile Inc., on Tuesday at the CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment conference in San Francisco.
Microsoft is a minority stakeholder in the Watertown, Mass., company, which has quietly been doing business since June.
Rosenthal began working with Microsoft in the 1980s when he founded Corporate Software, a company that resold software to large companies and offered them technical service and support.
The enterprise mobile market looks similar to the software market at that time, when software was largely sold through retail stores without channels or support for enterprises, he said.