Microsoft smartphone and Google netbook for 2009?

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Microsoft smartphone and Google netbook for 2009?

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 28 November, 2008

READ MORE: Google | Handset | Microsoft | Netbook

The mobile world is becoming a key battlefield in the war between Microsoft and Google to control the internet experience. So as PCs and smartphones start to converge, it's no surprise that speculation is mounting that they will tread on each others' toes in hardware too.

If we believe the 'insiders', next year will see an iPhone-like smartphone from Microsoft, based on the Nvidia Tegra chipset and geared to advanced multimedia. And we will also see a netbook running the Android software platform, taking Google into the hybrid PC/phone sector that looks like one of the only growth areas for 2009, and one where the dominance of Windows is not guaranteed.

The idea that Microsoft would create its own smartphone has been around for years, and usually focuses on a 'Zune phone' that would put mobile connectivity into its music and video player, taking on the iPhone/iTunes and the Sony Ericsson Walkman combinations. However, Zune could be too lightweight a platform to compete in the smartphone market, and Microsoft may now be considering a multifunction offering with fully fledged Windows Mobile.

Leaks indicate that the phone will be more video-driven and could debut at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February. It will use the Nvidia Tegra 650 chipset, say sources, which incorporates an ARM processor plus processors for high definition video, audio and imaging, and an ultra-low power GeForce graphics processing unit.

Several key questions remain around any Microsoft phone launch. Will it run the classic Windows Mobile interface, which is losing ground against alternatives like Series 60 and iPhone, to the extent that many Windows handsets like Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1 disguise the UI heavily? The likelihood is that Microsoft would take the opportunity of a new platform to address the weaknesses of Windows and create something that would be different from the systems of the Windows Mobile licensees, and take advantage of Nvidia's capabilities. Nvidia has already demonstrated Windows Mobile prototypes using GeForce, and their interfaces are significantly different to any seen before, with features like finger-flick-and-roll screens and accelerometer-based reorienting 720p video.

Over at Google, the emerging netbook category is an obvious driver of the company's web services and internet advertising, but in its bid to define the mobile internet, the search giant is likely to want more control than just running its apps on top of Windows or the main Linux system for netbooks, Ubuntu. How long will it be before its own Linux-based Android environment appears on these highly mobile, low cost laptops, which are increasingly being sold via the same carriers that will adopt Android phones, with similar data plans? Of course, since Android is open source, any netbook maker could choose to apply it to a sub-notebook range, but we suspect Google will aim to have more involvement than that in an important growth platform for mobile internet services.