Microsoft’s latest mobile phone operating system software (pictured above and below) will make its first appearance in New Zealand on an LG handset, scheduled for release through Vodafone by the end of this month.

The touchscreen, Windows Mobile 6.5-based LG GM 750 model ($699; below right) is available exclusively through Vodafone..

Telecom will also offer a handset from Taiwanese phone maker HTC Touch Pro2
with Windows Mobile 6.1. Customers will be able to software upgrade the phone to Windows Mobile 6.5 in the New Year. It will retail for $1499.

An increasingly crowded mobile landscape sees Microsoft's Windows mobile vying for the attention of phone makers like Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and HTC - all of whom are also being wooed by Google (with Android) and Nokia (with Symbian - historically the first choice for Nokia, Motorola and other traditional phone makers' high-end models. Nokia recently bought Symbian, which was previously collectively owned.)

Many phone makers are hedging their bets. LG, for example, is also readying models based on Google's Android software.

So far there's been no sign of the Samsung Intrepid - the hero handset for Windows Mobile 6.5's US launch. Samsung is also having a buck each way, with Android models in the works.

Windows (New Zealand) mobile channel marketing manager Ursula Lawgun said Windows 6.5 had been released overnight in the US and had a range of new features that combined corporate and consumer needs.

Ms Lawgun said it was important Windows 6.5 was as secure an environment as Windows 7 for desktops will be when it is released. “It [Windows 6.5] will increase productivity within a secure environment, its low cost. Handset should be no different to desktops. They should be treated just as another asset within the corporate network.”

Ms Lawgun said Windows 6.5 would meet corporate needs through Outlook and consumer needs through games and social networking applications such as Twitter and Facebook. The new software will also accommodate Windows Live of which there are one million users in New Zealand (people who log on at least one a month) and 650,000 instant messenger users.

There are around 50 million phones enables with Microsoft software worldwide, of that there are 30 million enables with 6 and 6.1 – later versions of 6.5 “It’s about connecting people to information and connecting people to people who are important to them.

Turning on to Adobe Flash Lite
The four key features of Windows 6.5 include an improvement in user interface, which makes accessing information and applications within the menu easier. Improved browsing capacities, Adobe Flash Lite enabled technology, which allows users to view media downloads such as YouTube, and My Phone are all new to Windows’ phone software.

My Phone web service
My Phone is a free web service that saves a user’s contact details, text messages, photos, emails and other personal information on phone, so that if a user’s phone is stolen all their information is stored online. The new technology also includes MarketPlace, where users’ can buy business applications for their devices.

Ms Lawgun said a recent surveyed showed that 91% of respondents found the thought of losing their phone hugely upsetting, which made the My Phone application all the more important to corporate and consumer users.