Microsoft is readying an addition to its Office Live services line up that will target mobile devices.

Code-named Project Bronx, the technology could be released to beta later this month, according to a post on the Neowin.net Web site.

A Neowin poster described Bronx as "an effort within Mobile Information Worker group that aims to bring Microsoft Office experience to all mobile phones using SMS." The poster said that Microsoft was soliciting testers for the technology, which will be part of the company's Office Live initiative.

Office Live is the name of the family of service add-ons to Microsoft Office which the company began beta testing earlier this year. Unlike Microsoft's burgeoning group of Windows Live set of services, the Office Live services so far have been aimed at PC, rather than device makers. On the Windows Live side of the business, Microsoft has introduced some services, such as Windows Live Search Mobile, which are being designed for cell phone and PDA users.

Microsoft wouldn't say much about Project Bronx. When asked for more specifics, a company spokeswoman issued the following statement: "Project Bronx is one of a number of efforts to deliver new productivity value in the 2007 Microsoft Office system. While it is related to mobile technologies and SMS, we are in the process of mapping out all the details and will have more information to share in the future."

Last fall, Microsoft testers said the company was hinting about new Office 12 technologies it was planning to introduce for mobile devices.

While he had not heard about Project Bronx specifically, Directions on Microsoft analyst Matt Rosoff said he could see Microsoft introducing "some sort of SMS tie to Live Communications Server and Exchange, and perhaps the ability to sign up for some kind of alert in Office Live," that could send a text message to a user when a certain task is completed. "But it's hard to imagine much outside of these basic communications and alert scenarios," Rosoff added.

In related news, on May 8, Microsoft officials said they had completed the first major update to the Office Live beta code the company delivered in February. Among the new functionality added to the Office Live beta is support for the Office Outlook Connector in the Office Live Essentials SKU. Microsoft also is providing monthly activity reports to testers of its Office Live Basics, Office Live Collaboration and Office Live Essentials releases. The reports will provide statistics on storage and bandwidth use; unique visitors and page views and referring domains.