Microsoft announced availability of the beta version of the Software Developer Kit (SDK) for the company’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 OS. Andy Lees, senior vice president of mobile communications business for Microsoft, made the announcement in a keynote at the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference, which runs from July 11-15.

Microsoft hopes to create mobile solutions that offer deep integration between Windows Phone 7 and the company’s suite of business productivity software such as SharePoint Server, Exchange Server, Microsoft Office and Business Productivity Online.

Meanwhile, the official Windows Phone 7 blog yesterday confirmed that the new OS will support Windows Phone Live, a new Web-based service, similar to Apple’s Mobile Me. Windows Phone Live will offer mobile device support in the form of sync backup for contacts and photos, as well as tools for recovering a lost or stolen device with remote wipe and locate features. At launch the service will offer a SkyDrive with 25GB of remote storage, Office and Zune support for media sync.

The latest version of Microsoft’s OS comes as the battle of the smartphone platforms rages this summer between Android and Apple’s iOS 4. Both Microsoft and Research In Motion (RIM) are expected to have launched devices running their latest operating systems by the end of the year.

3 Scandinavia has deployed the OZ Mobile Email Solution for access to MSN Hotmail

Available on LG and Sony Ericsson devices, the OZ Mobile Email Solution is pre-loaded on the LG U300 and the Sony Ericsson K610 devices. Additionally, the OZ Mobile Email Solution will be available as a download on the LG U880 and the Sony Ericsson K608 devices. 3 Scandinavia has operations in Sweden and Denmark and also holds a license in Norway.

Once installed, users have access to their existing MSN Hotmail accounts.

The service will be free of charge until the end of September and then it will be a subscription based service.

“We will be announcing more operators before the end of the year” said Oz Manager, Marketing & Communications Beverly Wilks.

Industry analysts are speculating that Canadian vendor Nortel may be planning to spin off its UMTS business following rumours of organisational changes within the company.

Nikos Theodosopoulos, analyst with investment bank UBS, said that he has received information which suggests that Nortel has organisationally separated the GSM and UMTS access businesses, “a move that may presage a potential spin-off/disposal of the UMTS access business”.

Nortel is one of the largest vendors which has remained noticeably uninvolved in the recent spate of equipment manufacturer mergers. The recently announced four year strategic alliance between Nortel and Microsoft as well as a focus on enterprise channel partnerships, indicate that the enterprise space continues to be an area of increasing focus.

Motorola is another manufacturer that has not participated in any of the mega-mergers that have seen Lucent and Alcatel and Nokia and Siemens come together in recent months. But the vendor yesterday formed a UMTS kit partnership with Chinese vendor Huawei, which could be an indicator of future strategy.

Nortel has also been wrong-footed this week by the departure of the vice president and general managers for WiMAX and Converged Core Networks including IMS. No replacements have yet been identified and the developments could put Nortel in a predicament as UBS points out that both IMS and WiMAX are two of three key strategic areas of focus for Nortel.