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Microsoft has spent more than eight years and millions of dollars developing both its Windows Mobile smartphone technology and an enterprise marketplace for it.

Despite that hefty investment, the company says it is now poised to push into consumer markets—but not using Windows Mobile.

Instead, it plans to turn to Danger, Inc., a vendor of consumer smartphone software. Microsoft said Monday it would acquire the privately held firm for an undisclosed sum.

Since its founding in 2000, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Danger has established a platform, a reputation and an audience for its popular consumer handset technologies—embodied in the Sidekick, a phone sold by wireless carrier T-Mobile, built by Motorola and powered by Danger's systems and applications software.

Now, Microsoft has decided that Danger is a must-have purchase if it wants to speed up its quest to become a heavy-hitter in the high-volume, less-expensive realm of consumer smartphones and their accompanying services.

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