MONTREAL - Microsoft wants consumers to start asking for "Windows phones" when they're shopping for cellphones, but it remains to be seen whether the dominant force in personal computer software can be as successful in popularizing its brand in the mobile world.
The U.S.-based software giant is updating its Windows operating system for mobile devices, already used in a number of handset by various manufacturers -- such as HTC, Palm and Samsung.
South Korea's LG Electronics said at the Mobile World conference in Barcelona, Spain, that it would increase the number of phone models that will use the Microsoft operating system.
"Microsoft doesn't want to make a phone of its own," PC Magazine's Sascha Segan said Monday. "They don't want the hassle."
What the software company may be trying to do is take a bite out of Apple's iPhone.
"The other thing that Windows phones offer compared to the iPhone is diversity," he said from Barcelona where he is covering the show.
"You can get the Windows phones in all different shapes and sizes on all different carriers. The iPhone is one-phone-fits-all."
Segan said Microsoft wants to emphasize how well these so-called Windows phones connect with consumers' personal computers running the Windows operating system.
"They want you to think of it like the integration between the Mac and the iPhone, " said Segan, who is the U.S.-based technology publication's lead analyst for mobile devices.
Microsoft also introduced a new backup service called My Phone, which allows users to back up their phones to the Internet and upload photos on it or edit contacts from the web, he added.
"So they're really trying to make it easy to transfer information between your phone and the other devices in your life as opposed to the phone just being a black box."
Canada's Nortel Networks Corp. (TSX:NT) was also at the Barcelona show, demonstrating its advanced LTE wireless technology for mobile phones with Germany-based T-Mobile.
LTE, or Long-term Evolution, is a next-generation wireless broadband technology that's promising a faster experience for consumers who surf the Internet, watch videos or play games on their mobile devices.
It will provide the same type of experience that consumers have on their PCs at their homes and offices, said Nortel's Daniel Locklear, director of LTE product management in Richardson, Tex.
"All of those those applications in today's wireless networks would bring a network to its knees if lots of users got onto them," Locklear said from Barcelona where he is attending the show.
"So what it's now going to allow you and I to do is to be mobile and be able to have the same capabilities," he said.
LTE is expected to be adopted globally by major carriers and Nortel, now under bankruptcy protection, is among telecom equipment companies such as Sony Ericsson competing in this field.
Verizon is expected to launch an LTE service commercially in the United States in 2010.
BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (TSX:RIM), which competes against Microsoft in the smartphone market, said on Monday it was recruiting 3,000 workers to keep pace with demand.
"We have grown our employees base by 50 per cent in 2008. And we're still hiring and we plan to keep hiring. We have growth in our business," co-chief executive Jim Balsillie told AFP.
RIM has said it hired about 4,000 people in 2008.
Other handset makers such as Nokia, the world's biggest, announced 1,200 job cuts late last year.
Also at the Barcelona show were solar-powered mobile phones and camera phones with high-resolution touch screens.
Segan noted it may be more economical to buy a basic cellphone and a good digital camera because combined devices such as camera phones can be expensive.
He noted he has heard little about keeping prices affordable for consumers in the weak global economy.
"I have been hearing a lot about these ambitious, expensive products. There has been a big theme of environmental responsibility too, but there hasn't a big theme of being easy on the pocketbook."
