LG kicks off Windows Mobile deal with LG-GM730

LG Electronics made a number of announcements at GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009, one of which was its alliance with Microsoft to make Windows Mobile the primary operating system for the company's smartphones. As part of the agreement, LG said it would create a tenfold increase of Windows Mobile devices in 2009, and it got things started with the introduction of the LG-GM730.

LG expects to ship the GM730 during the first half of 2009, so unfortunately, it will run Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional Edition. But the company said it would release a Windows Mobile 6.5 version in the second half of the year.

What you do get right away is LG's new S-Class 3D user interface. S-Class features a cube layout with four customizable home screens that you can rotate through with the flick of your finger. It slightly reminded us of HTC's TouchFlo interface on the original HTC Touch, but much, much cooler.

Unfortunately, we don't know much else about the smartphone. We do know that the smartphone will have Internet Explorer Mobile 6.0 and is 0.46-inch thick. LG plans to announce more specs soon and hopefully some news about a North American release. Wishful thinking?