Microsoft unveils software for CDMA phones

SEATTLE: Microsoft has announced its decision to make a software for mobile devices available for CDMA-based wireless networks in the US, a widely used mobile phone system. The new releases of Microsoft's Smartphone and Pocket PC software for mobile phones and wireless-enabled handheld computers lets the software giant tap into a larger base of more than 100 million potential users as it seeks to expand its software beyond the desktop.

"This enables a broader addressable market, with more choice for customers and a new platform," said Ed Suwanjindar, a mobile devices product manager at Microsoft.

CDMA, or code division multiple access, is the wireless technology developed by Qualcomm Inc. that runs the mobile networks of Verizon Wireless the biggest U.S. wireless carrier and fourth-ranked mobile operator Sprint PCS Group.

Those operators, which have more than 100 million CDMA users, are currently upgrading their CDMA networks to third-generation technology, which will allow mobile phone users to browse the Web, send e-mail and swap pictures -- features that are nearly ubiquitous on computers using Microsoft's software.

Microsoft already makes mobile device software for the GSM/GPRS networks, a competing wireless standard more widely used around the globe that has 17 million users in the United States. Phones featuring Microsoft's new software for CDMA networks will be available later in 2003, said Suwanjindar.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. and Japan's Hitachi Ltd. will introduce CDMA-based mobile devices that use Microsoft's software later this year, the companies said in a statement.

© Reuters