Microsoft wants to create software buzz on mobiles

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer knows that people buying a mobile phone focus on the hardware.

He noted in an interview on Monday that “the thing that people buzz about is the actual thing they go and buy, which is the phone, which comes from one of our partners”.

Microsoft aims to help their partners with its new effort unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona: to persuade consumers to buy smart phones – the fastest-growing segment of the handset market – because the handsets are running Microsoft operating systems (OS).

The new OS will be Windows Mobile 6.5 – but will be marketed to consumers simply as Windows Phone, with a new user interface and a new browser.

As Ballmer puts it: “Many phones times a small amount of money hopefully is enough to make this all make sense.”

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.