Written word works better than spoken for Microsoft

Bill Gates yesterday announced the pen is mightier than the keyboard as the Microsoft chairman launched the long-awaited Tablet PC.

He predicted the sale of "hundreds of thousands" of the new devices, which use the company's software to enable users to write on the screen of a flat notebook-style computer.

Microsoft is understood to have pumped upwards of $400m (£256m) into developing the device, which will be manufactured by companies including Hewlett Packard and Toshiba.

The launch came as Microsoft found its ambitions to stake a claim to a lucrative slice of the mobile phone market blocked by a Midlands-based company.

For two years, Sendo, headquartered in Birmingham, has been working with Microsoft to develop a 'smartphone' which in cludes many features of Microsoft Windows. Yesterday it dumped the US software firm in favour of Nokia.

Sendo manufactures mobile phones which contain software customised to the requirements of particular phone operators. It sells to 50 companies worldwide.

Chief executive Hugh Brogan said Microsoft refused to give Sendo the technical data - known as source code - needed to alter the handset's look and feel. As a result it pulled the first smartphone despite having started production.

"We got the Microsoft smartphone approved by customers and were ready to ship, but customers were looking for things that we could not give them" because of Microsoft's intransigence, said Mr Brogan. The first phone using the new Nokia codes is expected next year.