Microsoft Corp, the world's biggest software maker, is working on developing software with China's mobile phone companies, predicting a jump in sales once the government issues high-speed wireless network licenses.

 

"We're going to see dramatic growth," Scott Horn, general manager of Microsoft's mobile and embedded devices unit, said in Beijing. "The launch of third-generation mobile services in China is going to require new services."

 

China, the world's biggest wireless market, may grant licenses for 3G services that allow faster access to the Internet and e-mail later this year, although the government hasn't set a timetable. Competitors such as Symbian Ltd, a maker of mobile operating systems that is partly owned by Nokia Oyj, and Research In Motion Ltd's BlackBerry device are also trying to tap the 400 million mobile phone users in China.

 

"The launch of 3G in China will give Chinese mobile users broadband and as a result rich media content applications," said Edward Yu, chief executive of Analysys International, a Beijing-based technology market research company. "Microsoft has a lot of experience in this area. But so does Symbian."

 

Symbian, based in London, leads Microsoft in the market for software for more advanced wireless devices such as hand-held computers and mobile phones that allow users to check e-mail, listen to music and transmit photographs. The market for such devices grew by 75 percent in the third quarter to 13 million units, according to UK-based researcher Canalys.com.

 

China Unicom Ltd, the nation's second-biggest mobile-phone operator, this month started selling Redberry, an e-mail service similar that used in Research In Motion's BlackBerry device.

 

The service is available to mobile-phone subscribers, according to a statement on the website of Unicom's parent company, Beijing-based China United Telecommunications Corp. The company chose the name because of its connection to Research in Motion's device, the statement said.

 

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft is working with operators China Mobile (Hong Kong) Ltd and China Unicom to develop new mobile applications. Data can be transferred on 3G networks faster than existing services, allowing for more sophisticated software.

 

This year, Microsoft helped China Mobile introduce a service that allows users in Beijing to use their phones to search and chat with people who are online, Horn said.

 

Makers of mobile phones and portable e-mail devices will introduce dozens of handsets that use Windows this year in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Horn said. The company works with 47 cell-phone makers, many of them based in Taiwan and the mainland, he said.

 

In 2005, mobile-device makers around the world sold more than 6 million units that use the Windows operating system, Horn said, without giving a forecast for growth this year. Windows Mobile software enables phones to link to the Internet, run Office programs, read e-mail and play music.

 

Microsoft's mobile software business is its fastest growing, according to Horn. Microsoft said on April 4 that it won its biggest contract for mobile-phone software, an order from the US Census Bureau that covers 500,000 handsets. The company didn't reveal the value of the contract.

 

Sales of handsets with Windows will double to 20 million units in 2007 as corporate customers opt for those devices instead of the BlackBerry, Pieter Knook, a Microsoft senior vice president, said at the time. Such revenue would still be a fraction of Microsoft's almost US$40 billion in annual sales.

 

Microsoft has already won contracts to supply software for Palm Inc's Treo and Motorola Inc's new Q, after five years of delays and problems with its product.

 

(China Daily April 13, 2006)