Korea’s LG is putting flesh behind the agreement it announced with Microsoft last November, promising to launch over 50 Windows Mobile smartphones and mobile internet devices over the coming three years. This will be a major boost for Microsoft, whose mobile OS has been looking increasingly threatened by the open source activities of Symbian and Android – both of which will also be supported by LG.
LG’s excellence in handset and user interface design for the high end of the market make it a significant partner for Microsoft, which aims to work with fewer, high quality partners in future, but to make a serious pushback into smartphones next year with the release of the delayed Windows Mobile 7.0. Most of LG’s promised devices are likely to come with that OS rather than the current 6.5 release, widely seen as a stopgap – 26 of its planned models will be launched in 2012.
The new Windows Mobile roadmap represents a tenfold increase in the number of gadgets LG will offer based on the OS. “The Windows platform brings flexible and customer friendly software that ties into the web and the PC, giving our phones a wide range of new capabilities to address an increasing number of segments and markets,” said Yong Nam, LG’s CEO. The two companies will also cross-market some of the products, which could help take LG into Microsoft’s enterprise heartland, and its partner further into the Asian channels.
It is not clear how far LG is seeking to differentiate itself by making a clear choice of its primary mobile OS, rather than following its traditional approach of supporting all major platforms. It has committed to Android, though less vociferously than Samsung, but the number of Windows phones promised suggests this will be LG’s primary smartphone platform. This would be a gamble, given the huge amount of developer interest in Android, Symbian and iPhone, but would also give LG the driving hand behind Windows Mobile, which could be important for grabbing a head start in the emerging MID category. This was hinted at in the R&D venture that it signed with Microsoft four months ago to work on ‘converged mobile devices’ from development through to sales and marketing.