Microsoft was in panic on Wednesday after a prototype phone loaded with top-secret software created to rival Apple's iPhone was stolen, prompting fears of industrial espionage.
By Fiona Govan in Madrid
Last Updated: 3:04PM GMT 19 Feb 2009
The company unveiled plans this week to challenge the dominance of Apple's hugely successful iPhone with a new mobile operating system to be offered on the market by the end of the year.
But within hours of announcing the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a phone fitted with the new generation software was stolen from an executive's pocket.
The theft will no doubt embarrass Australian telecommunications giant, Telstar, whose CEO Sol Trujillo was reportedly given the device by Microsoft to test the system ahead of the launch.
He in turn handed the top secret product to an unnamed executive who was pick-pocketed during an evening function at the trade convention.
A spokesman for the Australian company confirmed the theft had happened. "One of our product executives was given the phone to test the system. He had it with him at an organised evening event and it was stolen from him – we don't know by whom."
There are fears that leaks regarding the features and early bugs in the software could mar the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 which the company hopes will give it the edge over the iPhone and the new Google Android operating system. The new product includes support for touch-screen technology similar to that found on the Apple iPhone.
Among the features offered in the new service unveiled by Microsoft's chief executive, Steve Ballmer, on Tuesday, is a version of Windows Marketplace for Mobiles, which is set to compete with the popular Apple's App Store and provide easy ways to download music and products to mobiles.
Microsoft also unveiled plans for a Myphone service offering users a free online backup service for all their mobile data, including personal contacts, text messages and documents stored on their phone.
The MyPhone synchronisation service will make it easy for people to keep copies of files stored on their mobile phone, and will simplify the process of moving data between handsets when a device is lost or a phone is upgraded.
A spokesman for Telstar said it was not clear to what extent the theft of the phone could jeopardise the launch of the product.
"I'm not clear on what the security implications of the theft will be," said the Telstar spokesman. "That is for Microsoft to say."
Microsoft itself refused to comment. "We have nothing to say on this subject at this time," said a spokesman from their London office.
Petty crime in Barcelona, the capital of Spain's northeastern Catalonia region, is rife and there have been calls from planners of the annual Mobile World Congress, which ends today, to move it to another city.
Organiser GSMA has warned the Mayor of Barcelona that they would search for another venue if the city failed to improve levels of street crime after repeated incidents of theft were reported by attendees.
Source: Telegraph
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