LG to deepen relationship with Microsoft for ‘mobile convergence’

LG Electronics Co. said today it will work more closely with Microsoft Corp. on converged devices, likely smartphones the Korean vendor is pursuing.
The two parties announced the signing of a “memo of understanding” for “strategic collaboration in mobile convergence” on the occasion of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s visit to Korea.
Specifically, the parties said they would work together on “research and development, marketing, applications and services.”
LG has been a Windows Mobile licensee since at least early 2007. The Korean vendor is also a member of Google’s Open Handset Alliance and a Symbian licensee, according to analyst Avi Greengart at Current Analysis.
LG has a touchscreen smartphone running Windows Mobile 6 Professional and one handset model running Symbian shipping outside the United States, Greengart said.
LG is pursuing a deeper smartphone portfolio and Microsoft is eager to have as many device vendors as possible offering smartphones running its signature operating system, which competes with Nokia Corp.’s Symbian OS, various Linux OSs (including Google’s Android), Apple’s proprietary OS X and Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry platform.
Purveyors of smartphone operating systems are battling for market share by partnering with as many handset vendors and network operators as possible, in order to win as much of the coming software-and-services market as possible.
Currently, among the top device makers, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Motorola Inc., Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, HTC Corp., Hewlett-Packard, Palm Inc., Pantech and iMate sell smartphones running Windows Mobile.
Most handset vendors are pursuing a variety of smartphone OSs as they sort out their place in the growing smartphone space, choices often influenced by their operator customers.