Kim: Entrance into handheld space is just a matter of "when"

While the spotlight over the past few months has very much been on Microsoft's home hardware and the possibilities of Project Natal, the company hasn't forgotten about the portable online market, or on previously announced project Live Anywhere, according to Microsoft vice president Shane Kim.

"We've chosen to focus on the living room experience from a hardware standpoint, if you will, but we're building a service in Live that will extend to other platforms. No question about it," Kim revealed in an interview with Kikizo.

"For us, it's a matter of focusing on 'when', because if we chased after a mobile or handheld opportunity, we would not have the resources and ability to do things like Project Natal."

Microsoft understands, says Kim, that customers don't want "an island experience" - they want to be connected to the rest of their lives. "We talked about Live Anywhere a few years ago," the exec said. "Live is like the connective tissue."

It's something that users are starting to see now, says Kim, as the company integrates services such as Netflix, Facebook and Twitter into the Xbox Live experience.

But it is searching for the best opportunity into the portable space too, Kim confirmed, in a way that will fit with the Xbox brand.

"The question will be, how do we enter into that market? Do we do our own device, do we create our own phone? That's a question for the company itself. Do we continue to go down the Windows Mobile path which is that path that we're on today, etcetera, etcetera.

"But believe me, we understand the importance of that device in people's lives," he concluded.