Microsoft launches Windows Phone in swipe at rivals

Microsoft is launching a full-frontal assault on Apple's iPhone and
Google's embryonic mobile phone platform Android with a global advertising campaign to promote the launch of its new Windows Phone software that will run to "several hundred million dollars".

Windows Phone - technically Windows Mobile version 6.5 - will appear on over 30 devices in 20 markets across the world, including the UK, by the end of the year. Deals with handset manufacturers including Toshiba, Samsung, LG and HTC were unveiled on
Tuesday.

As well as press and poster advertising across multiple markets, Microsoft is using TV spots in the UK, US, France and Germany to push its mobile platform for the first time.

The new range of Windows Phone devices will battle with a slew of new handsets to be released in the next few weeks, in time for the crucial Christmas trading season. On Wednesday Orange will launch the Motorola Dext, which uses Google's Android platform, while Sony Ericsson will launch the Satio, which has a mammoth 12.1 megapixel camera, and the rather more compact Aino. From next week, meanwhile, O2 will be selling the Palm Pre.

Tuesday, meanwhile, saw America's largest mobile phone network Verizon - which is part owned by Vodafone - join forces with Google to create, market and sell a range of consumer devices using Android. Verizon Wireless chief executive Lowell McAdam said it wants to create a range of smartphones and netbooks using the software, with the first two phones appearing in the next few weeks.

Phones using Microsoft's software have actually been available since 2002, but the company has failed to grab anything like the market share it has in the PC world. In addition, the recent emergence of the iPhone and Android phones have made Windows Mobile look very stale and tired.

Microsoft has shipped about 50 million Windows phones in the past few years, but recently its annual shipments are estimated to have been overtaken by sales of the iPhone.

To appeal to the wider consumer market and move away from its roots as a business tool, Microsoft has updated its mobile phone software so that it sits easily on the new generation of phones with touchscreens.

Windows Phone, which was initially revealed in a 'beta' test version in February, sees the company jettison the traditional Windows menu system in favour of a new 'today' screen which gives the user a quick overview of their email, calendar, calls, instant messages and texts and provides easy access to web browsing through a new version of Internet Explorer which - crucially - supports Flash, unlike other devices such as the iPhone and Pre.

Microsoft has also made use of the 'lock' screen to provide the user with notification of calls missed as well as new emails, texts and instant messages received. It is also looking to capitalise on the boom in downloadable mobile applications with its own Windows
Marketplace. At launch, however, it only has 60 applications in the UK,
compared with over 85,000 for the iPhone, and British customers will have to pay by credit card if they do download anything - unlike their American counterparts who are offered the chance to pay through their phone bill.

Windows Phone also includes a service called MyPhone which allows a user to automatically store all the content - including contacts - of their phone on the web so that it can be retrieved if the handset is lost or stolen. MyPhone also allows users to track the location of their handset - handy if it gets left in the back of a taxi, for example.

Kevin Keith, general manager of Windows Mobile Marketing, said Microsoft believes the emergence of touchscreen handsets has heightened consumer interest in the actual software and services that run on new devices and this could give the company an edge over some of its rivals.

"What's great about a smartphone is that it is the software and the
services that people start to get attached to and that plays to our core
strengths," he said.

He admitted that the company has performed poorly in the mobile space up until now.

"People don't know that Windows has a phone," he conceded, with less than 10% of people who use Windows PCs understanding that there is a mobile phone variant they could also use. "Our main goal with the launch is to make people aware Windows Phone exists."

He refused to put a figure on the global marketing push, saying only that it runs into the "hundreds of millions of dollars".

But Microsoft's push to present a unified front against Android and the
iPhone is likely to suffer as some of its handset partners will continue to put their own 'skins' on top of Windows Phone in order to personalise devices either for particular markets or particular operators.

Microsoft's mammoth marketing push also hardly received a ringing
endorsement from one of the software company's own UK retail partners, Phones4U, at Tuesday's launch event in London. The retailer's marketing director, Russell Braterman, said it will be selling Windows devices on its website rather than in its store.

"It is quite a subtle story which we will lead with the handset," he said, adding that the company will be pushing the Samsung Omnia II phone.

In the UK, Windows Phone is available on the HTC Touch II and HTC Touch HD II from T-Mobile, the LG GM750 from Vodafone, the Toshiba TG01 from Orange and the Samsung Omnia II and Samsung Omnia Lite across several of the mobile phone networks.

Customers with an existing T-Mobile HTC Touch Diamond II can upgrade to the new version of the software, as can Vodafone customers with an HTC Touch Pro II. The HTC Snap S552 can also be upgraded.

At the end of the month, Windows Mobile will also appear in the UK on the Samsung Omnia Pro and Sony Ericsson X2, from Vodafone, while in late November, O2 will start stocking the Samsung Omnia Pro B7610.