For some time, handset manufacturers, such as Nokia (NYSE: NOK) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) have been targeting developing countries to increase their global marketshare. Now Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) is entering the fray, but it seems for different reasons—to spread information-technology, similarly to how ultra-low-cost laptops are a goal, IDG reports. The phone is based on a prototype called Fone+, and is part of Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie’s job, as head of the Unlimited Potential Group. The group had been focused on cheap laptops, but IDG reports that it now appears to be shifting focus towards Windows Mobile handsets. It’s been said that for many people around the world, their first experience of the Internet will be on a mobile phone, rather than a computer. After testing prototypes, Mundie says such devices do seem to lower the cost of computing for the poor. No word on when these prototypes would hit the market.