Microsoft to unveil Pink phone

 
Microsoft Corp, whose mobile version of Windows has lost market share to Apple Inc and Google Inc, will try to drum up excitement for the software by introducing its own phone, Jefferies & Co said.

The company will probably show the phone at the Mobile World Congress conference in Barcelona next month, said Katherine Egbert, a Jefferies analyst in San Francisco. The device, described as the “long-rumored ‘Pink’ phone,” will include high-definition video and a camera, she said.

Microsoft’s share of the smartphone-software market dropped below 10 percent in the third quarter, according to Gartner Inc, while Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android operating system gained customers. Microsoft will be unveiling a new version of its mobile software at the same February conference, a person familiar with the matter said last week.

“The one area where they have really lagged is the mobile market,” Egbert, who recommends Microsoft’s stock, said in an interview. “They have to stay relevant to the consumer. They lost a lot of consumer imagination to Apple and Google.”

If the phone isn’t shown next month, the company may unveil it at the CTIA show in March, she said. Microsoft has forged partnerships with a few manufacturers to make the phone, Egbert said. The move would echo Google’s introduction of its own phone, the Nexus One, earlier this month.

Zune, Facebook
Windows Mobile 7, the next version of Microsoft’s mobile operating system, may become available at the same time as the new phone, Egbert said. The operating system will probably work with Microsoft’s Zune video store and offer the ability to buy songs and music subscriptions, she said. It also may connect to social-networking services like Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft’s own Xbox Live gaming service.

Microsoft President Robbie Bach, who oversees the company’s mobile business, has been critical of Google’s attempts to sell both a phone operating system and its own phone. In an interview this month, Bach said it’s hard to do both without alienating the handset makers that produce phones with your software.

Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, rose 24 cents to $31.10 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares climbed 57 percent last year.

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