The company signed separate agreements with chipmakers Intel and Texas Instruments to develop reference designs that will power the next generation of smartphones.

The deals break the tradition of customizing the technology for each cell phone manufacturer, all in an effort to speed up the process of getting the next generation of wireless phones into the marketplace.

"With these reference designs, the entire product is a ready-made solution for manufacturers," Microsoft product manager Ed Suwanjindar told CNET. "They are essentially recipes to get products to market later this year."

Microsoft also introduced its Phone Edition application, which will transform handheld devices into all-in-one communication devices for accessing data and making voice calls. The software runs on the PocketPC 2002 operating system and will be used with Hewlett-Packard’s Jornada 928 Wireless Digital Assistant. The application will allow a mobile worker to dial a colleague directly from their contact list and to add an appointment to their calendar on a PC and have it appear on their handheld. But, unlike Palm’s i705 or RIM’s BlackBerry, devices supporting Phone Edition will not enable always-on access, so users will have to set synchronization times.

Unlike the Windows Powered Smartphone 2002, formally known as Stinger, which is designed for voice-centric devices, the Phone Edition is for data-centric devices first and voice communications second.