The movement toward a world where voice and data networks converge.

Microsoft, Alcatel, and Sun Microsystems are among those pushing the design envelope of the once-staid telephone, unveiling new products and services at the CeBIT 99 and underlining movement toward a world where voice and data networks converge. Microsoft today launched an Internet-enabled telephone called Hermes, based on its Windows CE operating system and initially to be produced by Matsushita Electric Industrial_s Panasonic, Philips, Acer, and others. The next-generation phones will meld a traditional receiver with a display and smallish keyboard, and will be aimed both at consumers without PCs and those who have a PC but want more convenient access to Internet-based services, Microsoft said. Email and full Internet browsing are a few of the services planned in conjunction with address book and caller ID functions. Microsoft is working with other telephone companies and Internet service providers to set up more partnerships that produce Hermes products and services. The first devices are expected to be on the market early next year. Microsoft already offers a cordless phone that hooks up directly to a PC, although the device isn_t a full fledged Web-phone. The software giant_s push into the phone market coincides with similar announcements from a variety of other companies angling for a stake in emerging markets for digital information appliances. The convergence of the once-distinct consumer electronics and PC industries comes as phone companies upgrade networks to digital technology, enabling them to move voice and data communications over one path to a single device.Observers say the key to future growth for such technology is adding new capabilities to devices people are already familiar with, such as phones and televisions.