Microsoft yesterday set the scene for what is likely to be a fierce struggle to establish the standard operating system for the next generation of mobile phones.
The company announced deals with handset manufacturers Mitsubishi and Birmingham-based Sendo in addition to an earlier agreement with Samsung. Microsoft will hold trials of its system, called Stinger, with networks including Vodafone in Britain, Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile, Telstra in Australia and Spain's Telefonica Movile.
Microsoft described the agreements as a "significant leap forward" in its attempt to break into wireless.
Although a relative latecomer in the mobile phone market, Microsoft's ubiquity in the PC market means it is likely to provide a formidable threat.
It is lining up against Psion, the British handheld computer group which is the lead shareholder in the Symbian operating platform, US business Palm and the i-Mode platform developed by NTT DoCoMo of Japan.
Symbian yesterday announced a separate agreement to supply its operating software to next generation "smartphones" for Siemens, now the second largest mobile phone manufacturer in Europe. The deal prevented the Microsoft announcement from denting Psion shares, which closed 6p higher at 192p.
Alive to the fact that access to the internet is moving away from the desk to mobile phones and television sets, Microsoft has been hurriedly adapting its software for different platforms.
The Psion-led Symbian consortium took an early lead in the mobile market with a set of investors including four of the world's top five handset manufacturers: Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson and Matsushita.
Microsoft's agreement with Sendo is to develop handsets bearing the branding of the network operator, the mobile equivalent of own-label. Microsoft hopes it can erode the market share of some of the larger manufacturers by stealth - in doing so displaying a willingness to adapt its usual more aggressive approach to market. Sendo makes phones for Virgin Mobile.
Microsoft presented the system at the GSM World Congress in Cannes, the annual mobile phone conference.
The company hopes the first of its phones will go one sale before the end of the year taking advantage of GPRS technology, the interim between the current standards and the third-generation phone networks.
The phones will offer large colour screens, email, faster mobile internet access than the current Wap phones as well as a diary, database of contacts, music and video. It also provides secure corporate web access. Microsoft's Stinger platform is built on a version of the Windows CE 3.0 operating system.
GPRS, which has been dubbed 2.5G, is expected to provide a significant change in the use of wireless internet, providing much faster speeds. It will introduce "always on" technology, unlike WAP which requires users to log on every time they want to go online.
The first Microsoft phones were about 30% smaller than the present average phone, the company said.
