Microsoft offers ‘cloud’ feature with My Phone launch: New wireless technology follows similar offerings by Nokia’s Ovi, Apple’s MobileMe

Microsoft Corp. is the latest company to jump on the cloud-computing craze with a free new service for Windows Mobile users.
The software giant unveiled My Phone, a Web-based service that synchs contacts, appointments, messages and multimedia content between the Internet and mobile phones. The site went live Friday after plans for My Phone were discovered by Engadget.com. Microsoft said it will offer details about an upcoming limited, invite-only beta service at next week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
“My Phone provides an easy-to-use Web portal where people can access and manage content on the phone, and share that information with others,” the company said in an e-mail distributed to the media. “This is a significant milestone for Microsoft as it connects the phone to the PC and Web, making mobility a key pillar for the company’s software and services strategy.”
The service aims to compete directly with Apple’s MobileMe, which stumbled out of the gate last summer, but there are several clear differences. Apple charges $99 a year for its offering, which is available to iPhone and iPod Touch users, and offers 20 GB of storage vs. My Phone’s 200 MB. Microsoft’s new service synchs overnight daily in addition to an available manual synch option, while MobileMe synchs instantly.
Nokia Corp. is also targeting users with a cloud-based component to its Ovi service, an umbrella brand that combines mobile content, social networking features and personal data management. Nokia added a synch component to Ovi last fall.