The company first unveiled plans for the Marketplace, an application store for users of the next version of Windows Mobile, in February and has slowly been releasing details of how the store will work. Windows Mobile 6.5 and the Marketplace are expected to be available on phones in the second half of this year.

In launching an application store, Microsoft is catching up to Apple and Google and potentially Research In Motion, which is rumored to be launching its store at CTIA. Palm and Nokia are also developing application markets.

They all will have to work hard if they want to compete with Apple, which popularized the idea of buying mobile applications with its iPhone App Store. According to research from ComScore, 59.2 percent of iPhone users have download apps. That's 511 percent more than the average mobile user and 133 percent more than Windows Mobile users, ComScore found.

In addition to the Marketplace and application news, Microsoft also plans to showcase some new customization options that will be available in Windows Mobile 6.5. Some were designed by Isaac Mizrahi, a celebrity fashion designer. He has created some "themes" for the phones, including wallpaper and scroll-bar designs, Woodman said.