Microsoft's Mobility Group, the company's division charged with bringing the software giant into the wireless realm, was preaching the gospel of education at a partner showcase in Austin Sunday night.

The event, held in conjunction with Wireless Data Forum's Wireless Agenda 2000 conference in Austin, featured ten of the companies working with Microsoft's Pocket PC initiative. Each of them stressed the need to educate people -- from CEOs down to people you meet on the street -- on the concept that wireless delivery of data is more than a new toy or gadget for American consumers.

"Our model has changed a bit. Instead of 'all the time, everywhere,' it's 'anytime, anywhere,' and that's a key difference to our philosophy on wireless," said Microsoft Mobile Internet Business Unit leader Mark Ledsome.

The Mobility push has been aided by the acquisition of two companies: STNC, which enables WAP support of WML/HTML content, and Entropic, which deals in server-side voice recognition and Voice-Over-IP technology.

Microsoft also pulled back the curtain on their wireless strategy, and how they will deploy their troops in the 'air-link' space.

The Pocket PC (rolled out for the press last month) will run on Windows CE 3.0, the latest generation of their palmtop operating system. New WAP phones will also have a Microsoft alternative with Microsoft Mobile Explorer, a WML/HTML hybrid browser that will be available later in the year. Ericsson has reportedly agreed to include the browser on all future WAP phone releases.

The Exchange server environment will get a facelift with Airstream, delivering gateway services for content transformation -- converting existing HTML and XML documents to mobile data platforms.

Also mentioned was 'Stinger,' the code name for a high-end smartphone under development.