November 2002

The long-awaited Smartphone mobile phone operating system from Microsoft finally made its world debut in London this autumn, and the first mobile network operator to support it is Orange, whose SPV model (Sound, Pictures, Video) is now available.

Smartphone aims to roll together mobile phone and PDA functions in a single phone-sized device with a full colour high-resolution screen. Other features include a built-in Texas Instruments 133Mhz processor and provision for SD and Multimedia card expansion. The software is designed to synchronise with Microsoft's Outlook PIM software.

Juha Christensen, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Mobile Devices group (above), has called it "the perfect marriage of smart software and small, stylish handsets".

However, so far Microsoft is rather short on users. A limited range of mobile phone manufacturers and service operators have committed to the platform, including Samsung and UK-based Sendo - although both companies also support the Series 60 platform, which uses the rival Symbian operating system. Symbian is also supported by Matsushita, Siemens and Nokia, and is considered the system that Smartphone will really need to challenge in order to achieve mainstream acceptance.