Microsoft's Phone Platforms Gain Support

Application and device options for Microsoft's phone platforms will expand, according to announcements coming Monday at the CTIA Wireless trade show in New Orleans.

Research In Motion, in Waterloo, Ontario, plans to help users of Microsoft-based phone devices take advantage of its Blackberry wireless e-mail technology, and this year U.S. mobile operator Sprint PCS Group will deliver two more CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) devices that use the Microsoft platform.

RIM will announce its intention to develop a software client for its Blackberry wireless e-mail technology to run on the Pocket PC Phone Edition and the SmartPhone software platforms, said Ed Suwanjindar, lead product manager for Microsoft's Mobile Devices Division. The company did not provide a date the software would be available.

The software will not be demonstrated at CTIA, according to Microsoft.

Handy Hardware

Two new Pocket PC Phone Edition devices are coming for customers of Sprint PCS, a unit of Sprint in Westwood, Kansas.

One of the Sprint PCS phones, called the PCS Phone by Samsung SPH-i700, is a combination phone and handheld computer with an integrated 640-by-480-pixel digital camera. It is scheduled to become available in the second quarter for Sprint's PCS Vision service.

The other phone, called the PCS Phone by Hitachi G1000, is a combination phone and handheld with a built-in QWERTY keyboard; it will be delivered in the second half of the year. The unit has an integrated rotating digital camera.

The devices will allow users to take pictures and share them with other customers on the Vision network, Suwanjindar said. Pricing is not yet available, he said. Sprint currently offers the Microsoft Windows-Powered PCS Phone Toshiba 2032.

The Samsung and Hitachi devices will be demonstrated at CTIA, which will run from Monday through Wednesday. The show is sponsored by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association.