Microsoft unveils upgrade to its mobile platform

Microsoft yesterday unveiled an upgrade to its mobile operating system as the US software giant seeks to regain lost ground in the competitive handset market.

Chief executive officer Steve Ballmer presented the Windows Phone 7 Series at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, ending months of speculation about what Microsoft had in store for the industry's biggest trade show.

"We're taking a step, I think a big step," Mr Ballmer said, adding that devices fitted with the new software would be available in time for the winter holiday shopping season. "I'm enthusiastic about the direction that we're heading."

Microsoft has been up against strong competition from internet giant Google's Android.

"The primary goal of Windows Mobile 7 is clearly to address Microsoft's shortcomings in the consumer mobile market," said Charles Golvin, analyst at research firm Forrester. "All plaudits for their persistence aside, in my view this is their final chance to get it right," Mr Golvin said.

Google has made a splash in the mobile phone industry with its Android operating system, launched in 2007, and phone makers have announced that they would release several more smartphones with this platform this year.

Smartphones fitted with Microsoft's operating system had 7.9 per cent market share in the third quarter of last year, a drop from 11.1 per cent in the same period in 2008, according to research group Gartner.

In the meantime, its rivals grew: BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion saw its market share increase to 20.8 per cent and Apple's iPhone rose to 17.1 per cent, according to Mr Gartner.

And Android phones took 3.5 per cent of the market in just a few months of existence.

In its upgrade, Microsoft completely changed the platform's interface and installed the capabilities of its Zune MP3 player, which has only been available in the US.

The system includes six "hubs" that group services by themes, such as a "people" inbox that includes emails, text messages and updates from social network activities, or an Xbox Live icon for online games.

Microsoft-powered phones will be rolled out later this year in partnership with several device makers including Qualcomm, Samsung and LG, as well as operators from AT&T to T-Mobile and Vodafone, Microsoft said.

The new device provides Microsoft a "chance to have a major impact on the market," Mr Ballmer said.

Nicolas Petit, director of Microsoft's mobile division in France, said the software titan had no intention of following its rivals and creating its own phone.

"It is not in our DNA to build hardware," he said. "We have partners who do that better than us."