Microsoft has launched a new mobile software initiative aimed at delivering applications to low-end feature phones. The US software giant described ‘Microsoft OneApp,’ announced yesterday, as a software application that will allow feature phones to run mobile apps like Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live Messenger, and other popular applications and games. It is targeted at users in emerging markets that use feature phones that can connect to basic data services and install applications but have limited memory and processing capability. OneApp uses ‘cloud’ services to help shift processing and storage weight from the phone to the Internet, which means is has a small ‘on-phone’ footprint of just 150KB. It also claims to use data networks very efficiently to help lower data access charges.

Microsoft’s South African partner, Blue Label Telecoms, will be the first to launch the service. OneApp is part of the release of a Blue Label service called ‘mibli, powered by Microsoft OneApp,’ which will ship with over a dozen new mobile apps, including a Mobile Wallet. Customers in South Africa will be able to download and install mibli for free. Blue Label has plans to offer more apps over the next year, focusing on areas such as healthcare. “Our hope is that OneApp will develop new business opportunities for partners like Blue Label Telecoms and create more opportunities for the industry as a whole,” said Microsoft’s Tim McDonough on the company’s official developer blog. The OneApp software developer kit is expected to be available for developers by the end of this year.