Microsoft Corp unveiled a new version of its Windows operating system

Microsoft Corp has unveiled a new version of its Windows operating system for mobile devices that adds such features as PowerPoint viewing while making it easier for gadget makers to equip phones and handheld computers with typewriter keyboards and iPod-sized hard drives.

Windows Mobile 5.0, introduced by chairman Bill Gates at the company’s annual conference for mobile software developers in Las Vegas, also marks an about-face in marketing by eliminating the distinct Pocket PC and Smartphone brands of the operating system.

Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect, Microsoft, said, “In the past five years, there’s been a profound shift in the kind of data and services people access on their mobile devices from multimedia to business applications. Windows Mobile 5.0 enables our industry partners to develop exciting new hardware designs and solutions that will revolutionize how customers use mobile devices.”

Mobile 5.0 will offer device makers new technologies like “push-to-talk”, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth integration, hard drive support, video conferencing, better memory storage and the Microsoft Office programs like PowerPoint. The new OS says, Gates, will help users be more efficient and productive with their mobile devices.

Other feature enhancements include updates to the mobile versions of Microsoft Word and Excel that better maintain HIP formatting of documents created on a computer and allow charts to be created from a spreadsheet.

The elimination of Pocket PC brand for PDAs and separate Smartphone label puts Windows Mobile on the same page as rival mobile device platforms such as Symbian and BlackBerry.

Windows Mobile accounts for a tiny fraction of Microsoft’s business. Combined, software revenue from mobile and embedded devices, such as auto dash systems, and totalled $80 million in the first three months of 2005. It also announced that it will make a major push into China’s Internet market with two joint ventures that will expand its MSN Internet services for China.