Bill Gates showed off the forthcoming Office Communicator 2005 client (codename "Istanbul") at a launch event in San Francisco today. Gates also announced that the Live Communications Server 2005 will get a service pack release in April. The new client combines instant messaging and telephony into a unified client application that will be tightly integrated into Office, Exchange, and Sharepoint.
A slide from Bill Gates presentation
eWeek has a detailed report on the launch event here. Excellent analysis from Microsoft Monitor here.
