SEATTLE – At this year's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), Microsoft isn't touting only the current and future versions of Windows to its hardware partners. It also is pushing Windows Live services as another platform around which device makers can and should be building.

Windows Live are software services designed to complement Microsoft's Windows operating system. Microsoft is fielding and refreshing its stable of Live Services – many of which are focused on search in some way – almost every week.

A few early Windows Live devices are starting to hit the market now, such as the Uniden and Philips Windows Live Messenger phones that allow users to rely on their Live Messenger buddy lists to check other users' availability and place calls when appropriate.

But Microsoft sees a much bigger potential market for Windows Live devices, company officials told attendees of this week's WinHEC show. And it is planning to make more developer and marketing resources available to potential partners to get them to think outside the plain-old Windows box when designing new form factors.

Microsoft is lining up partners to deliver new Windows Live phones, headsets and Webcams, among other devices. Among the OEMs on board to develop these devices are Creative, Logitech, Motorola, Plantronics and Microsoft's own hardware business unit. Microsoft is set to unveil officially in June new Webcams, branded as Microsoft LifeCams, that are expected to have tie ins to Windows Live services. And during his May 23 keynote at WinHEC, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates highlighted Motorola's plans to field new Windows Live dual-mode cordless phones before the end of 2006.

(As described by Microsoft, dual-mode Windows Live phones "plug into both traditional phone lines as well as PCs, allowing customers to see their buddies' presence on the phone and enabling a variety of voice and messaging capabilities, including traditional phone calling, PC-to-PC calling at no additional charge, and inexpensive PC-to-phone calling.")

"A lot of partners are doing the peripherals that connect these ways, for example, not only that Microsoft Webcam, but one from Creative, as well, and one with Logitech, as well," Gates told keynote attendees. "So there's a lot going on around Live that's going to change how people use PCs.It's going to change what all of us want to bring together to fit into these new applications."

In the short term, Microsoft is focusing its Windows Live hardware evangelism on three of the 18 or more Live services that are in various stages of beta/final availability. These three are Windows Live Messenger instant messaging service; Windows Live Mail, the successor to Microsoft's Hotmail Web mail program; and MSN Spaces, the Microsoft blogging platform expected to be officially rechristened Windows Live Spaces some time in the future.

According to Microsoft's data, there are 230 million registered Windows Live Messenger users; 230 million Windows Live Mail users; and 120 million MSN Spaces users.

To convince more device makers to tap into the Windows Live market, Microsoft is making available for download in August new Live software development kits (SDKs) designed to help them make use of the Live programming interfaces when designing new hardware. The SDK will allow partner devices to work with Live services either through the PC or directly from the Windows Live network.

Microsoft also is fleshing out a hardware-focused component of its soon-to-be-launched Windows Live development portal. (In the interim, hardware vendors can view new content and information on the Microsoft Developer Network site.)

On the marketing side, Microsoft officials unveiled at WinHEC new retail branding plans around Windows Live devices. Microsoft is readying what it's calling "Windows Live End Cap" displays that will debut in a number of retail outlets this summer. These displays will prominently feature Windows Live devices from Microsoft and third-party partners. The displays will debut in 1,250 Best Buy, CompUSA and Circuit City stores in the U.S., company officials said.

Microsoft's ultimate goal is to extend all of its Windows Live services onto devices, Microsoft executives said at WinHEC. Microsoft sees VOIP and the subset "video-over-instant-messaging" markets as the nearest term targets for Live devices, but hardly the limit of where partners can take Microsoft's services.