Microsoft has launched the latest version of its mobile phone operating system to rival Apple’s iPhone – the Windows Phone 7 series.
Microsoft hopes its new mobile phone operating system will allow it to replicate its desktop dominance on the next generation of smartphones.
The software has a redesigned user interface and incorporates many Microsoft services such as Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music service.
The software was introduced at an event at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
According to research firm Canalys, Microsoft’s software currently holds around nine per cent of the smartphone market.
That puts it fourth in the global market behind Symbian, Rim (makers of the Blackberry) and Apple’s iPhone OS.
The new system follows the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 in October 2009.
“This is obviously a huge step forward,” analyst Pete Cunningham of Canalys said.
“Microsoft have really struggled with windows mobile 6 and 6.5 and have been losing market share off the back of it.”
Still, he said, Microsoft should not “rest on its laurels”.
“Although it looks good today and competitive today, the other other firms haven’t revealed their hand.
“It doesn’t launch for another eight or nine months and that’s a long time in the mobile world.”
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