Symbian is reporting a 136 per cent increase in the number of handsets that use its operating system, nearly four times the projected growth for Microsoft's Windows Mobile.

"Roughly one phone every second is sold worldwide with the Symbian OS," David Wood, the executive vice president of Symbian, told vnunet.com.

"This is the fourth year that sales have increased by over 100 per cent. That's not something Microsoft can match."

Wood said that Bill Gates claimed at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show that he expected five million Windows Mobile handsets to ship, a growth rate of 36 per cent. 

What made these figures more damning is that Microsoft is new to the market whereas Symbian, as the dominant player, was showing much faster sales growth.

But Microsoft is fighting back in other areas with a series of alliances with manufacturers. The latest of these will bring Windows Media Player to Motorola handsets.

"Our relationship with Microsoft is about making the mobile world seamless with the desktop world and allowing consumers to experience music wherever and whenever they want," said Richard Chin, corporate vice president of global product marketing at Motorola.

"Building on our existing relationship, this expanded collaboration can further enrich the mobile music experience and expand the mobile music offering to our operator alliances and consumers."