Exact numbers aren't available, but this week, Microsoft doubled the number of signups it will allow in its beta, or "technology preview," of the Live Mesh service to anyone with a Windows Live ID.

Users can sync their files and data across multiple devices through feeds and access free online storage (also see this week's MobileMe experience, on the Apple side). But what's in store for Live Mesh as a development platform? What interest does this platform and set of online services hold for the enterprise?

Mary Jo Foley breaks it down for Redmond Magazine this way: Because Ray Ozzie is enamored of the customization of technology trend, he seems to be the reason there hasn't yet been a strong message about what either customers or businesses will want to do with Live Mesh. But the enterprise could find it useful for getting existing apps onto the Web, federating Web services, shuttling all sorts of data around the data center through the mesh, and relying on the Mesh Operating Environment to facilitate offline access to Web apps.

Muddying the picture a bit, Foley points out, is that Microsoft also has a Sync Framework team working on a business-oriented synchronization and collaboration platform. It is not clear what effect this project might have on the company's efforts to shepherd businesses toward or away from Live Mesh as it matures.

And as sessions are being added to the schedule for the Professional Developers Conference 2008, to be held October 26-30 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, more Mesh sessions likely will be designed, to go along with these:

Live Platform: Mesh Services Architecture Deep Dive You've heard about Microsoft's new software-plus-services platform Live Mesh, combining the world of the Web and the world of digital devices. Come take a look under the hood and learn about the underlying service architecture behind this mass-scale cloud service and client platform. We look at services such as FeedSync-based synchronization, accounts and security services, P2P communications, pub-sub infrastructure, and the Mesh Operating Environment.

Live Platform: Building Mesh Applications The Live Mesh cloud services and client platform provide powerful FeedSync-based data synchronization capabilities, device P2P and cloud-relay communications, pub-sub infrastructure, and an extensibility model for applications. This session describes how you can take advantage of the Mesh developer platform, protocols, and APIs to mesh-enable your existing and future Web services and client applications, allowing you to target unique new scenarios and reach new users.