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By Ben King, 23 July 2001 17:06

NEWS Microsoft has invested £10m in UK mobile phone maker Sendo, as part of its bid to build its presence in the Smartphone market. Smartphones combine many of the functions of a PDA, such as web browsing and messaging applications into a device the size and shape of a phone with a large screen. Microsoft has launched a product to develop an operating system, code-named Stinger, to run on Smartphone devices. Sendo is developing a Stinger-based Smartphone, which will be launched late this year or early next depending on the progress of the GPRS networks which it will run on. Stinger has been attacked for having too large a "footprint" for mobile devices, taking too much memory and computing power - a claim that can legitimately be directed at Microsoft's operating system for PDAs, Windows CE. A final version of Stinger has yet to be released, but a Sendo spokesman rubbished these allegations: "We chose Stinger because it has a very small footprint, and because of the compatibility with Microsoft's Outlook applications. "Microsoft also has more than six million application developers worldwide." As for Microsoft, the spokesman added: "They invested in us because they are interested in becoming a force in the mobile industry, and this will strengthen their offering in the hardware business." Many industry commentators feel that Microsoft's size and its dominance over the desktop space will enable them to take over mobile markets, whether or not their operating system is the best one. However, most Microsoft watchers were expecting a deal with one of the larger handset makers, such as Nokia, Motorola, or Ericsson. Those companies seem wedded to the rival Symbian project, and the EPOC operating system. Nokia has already released an EPOC Smartphone, and the others remain members of the project. Microsoft has acquired less than 10 per cent of Sendo, but it has options to buy more, a spokesman confirmed. Sendo is a private company, whose investors include Bowman Capital and Hong Kong-based CCT Telecom. The company ships around 10,000 handsets a year, mostly in Europe. Sendo phones are available in the UK on the Vodafone and Virgin networks. See silicon.com's new Hot Topics channel Wirefree Working