Redmond-based software giant Microsoft is reportedly planning a great investment in the development of its mobile operating system. The company has just unveiled a new version of its mobile platform, namely Windows Phone 7 OS, and announced that the first handsets powered by it would arrive on the market before the end of the ongoing year, but it seems that it will also continue the development of its older OS version, Windows Mobile 6.x.

Bill Koefoed, who manages Microsoft's investor relations, reportedly stated that Microsoft planned investing around $1 billion in the development of Windows Mobile. According to analyst Brendan Barnicle, this means that Microsoft does not intend to purchase a mobile phone maker, but that it will work on building its own mobile platform.

Previous speculations around the Internet suggested that Microsoft might consider the purchase of Palm or Research In Motion so as to lay the ground for the development of its mobile operating system. However, Brendan Barnicle says that the large investment the software giant plans on making in the mobile area can only suggest that it will walk its own road, and that the purchase of another handset vendor is unlikely.

Moreover, he also cites Koefoed stating that the operating systems Palm and Research In Motion are pushing to the market at the moment “have their own set of development challenges.” This phrase can be interpreted as the company's response to claims that “Microsoft will have its work cut out in terms of building a meaningful developer community around the WinMo operating system,” Taylor Buley notes on his blog.

However, it should be noted that Microsoft's market share in the mobile operating system segment is in the single digits area. According to Gartner, Windows Mobile accounted for only 8 percent of the market in 2009, much lower than Nokia (47 percent), Research In Motion (20 percent) or Apple (14 percent), but higher than Google (4 percent) or Palm (1 percent).