Passport is currently most used by individuals logging into their Hotmail accounts and presently claims to accommodate 165 million accounts. It will now be marketed to e-commerce companies as a means of conducting business transactions between web sites. Microsoft hopes that businesses will eventually adopt Passport as their log-in system for business to consumer and business to business transactions. Microsoft says it already has 75 corporate partners using Passport in this manner.
This represents another move in Microsoft’s plans for web services. The company also announced this week that it is renaming the Hailstorm suite of .NET services as .Net My Services.
The new Windows XP operating system will drive more users to Passport due to a controversial feature of its design which attempts to tie users to the on-line service. Dell, Compaq and Gateway are already including versions of Windows XP on new PCs and reports suggest that some businesses and consumers will obtain Windows XP as early as 24th September, one month ahead of its official launch date.