Microsoft prepares to Swivel
Microsoft has trademarked the term ‘Swivel’ for a mobile phone operating system. It’s also trying to trademark ‘Sift’, though that application appears to be on hold.
There’s not much known about the ‘Swivel’ trademarking, other than that the application stated it was intended for “operating system software for mobile phones (cell phones)”. That would certainly be a major shift away from the Windows Mobile brand.
It could have some benefits though: manufacturers could sell a phone running ‘Swivel’ without having to worry as much about customers who are frustrated with Windows on computers steering clear of it in a mobile device.
The name also throws up several possible uses which are more to do with hardware. For example, it could be used for a redesign of Windows Mobile for switching from portrait to landscape views on smartphone displays, or even for a device which physically swivels. Mary Jo-Foley at ZDNet suggests it could even be used for the much-rumored Zune phone.
The application for ‘Sift’ is more wide ranging, noting its potential uses as “operating system software for mobile phones; computer search engine software; computer programs for searching email, text messages, address and contact information.”
It’s the latter uses which are attracting the most attention, with one popular theory being that Microsoft intends to use separate brand names for its desktop and mobile search tools. It’s already known that Microsoft is testing a new search system titled Kumo which will likely serve as a replacement for its Live Search service which has struggled to compete with Google.
Of course, it’s easy to read too much into such trademark applications. The firm has also registered ‘Bing’ and ‘Hook’ in recent months, which probably doesn’t mean it has plans for a new brand logo featuring Matthew Perry in an eyepatch.
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