Microsoft's Ballmer calls for bondage in the tech biz

MICROSOFT NUMBER two, the shy and retiring Steve Ballmer, has urged tech companies to stick together.

Ballmer told the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona that if the industry was going to go anywhere it would have to "stick together like glue".

He said that there was a growing demand for multi-media gubbins and telecommunications and technology companies needed to work more closely, to meet it.

Ballmer called for better use of communal technology standards to make sure that everything worked together.

This would mean that mobile operators would succeed in selling bundled packages of voice, e-mail and video users, he claimed.

It was announced last week that Volish technology will support a mobile TV service in the UK in conjunction with BT and Richard Branson's Virgin Mobile.

More calls for unity at the Microsoft site, which is here. µ