Motorola plumps for Microsoft in an emergency

Motorola plans to enhance the reliability of its emergency services software applications by integrating them on the Microsoft platform, the companies announced on Tuesday.

The effort is designed to better serve law enforcement agencies and emergency service providers by increasing the reliability of the software and allowing continuous access of data.

Under the partnership, Motorola will develop applications for law enforcement agencies, emergency response services and the criminal justice system using Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Microsoft Windows Server System software.

Timothy Boyle, Motorola vice president of business development, said in a statement: "Mission-critical environments demand unparalleled reliability and continuous data access. The Microsoft platform allows us to meet, even exceed, those demands."

Motorola's applications are designed to allow these public agencies to handle incident information, as well as record, store and retrieve department records.

Motorola's existing NetRMS records management system and Motorola Computer Aided Dispatch software applications will be the first to run on this Microsoft platform.

The two companies already have working relationships in other areas. Motorola's mobile phones use Microsoft's Windows Mobile, for example. However, Motorola in July announced it would expand its use of Linux beyond high-end products and into mid-range items by revising most of its phones to run on Linux.

Dawn Kawamoto writes for CNET News.com