MANILA, Philippines — Microsoft needs to do some serious catching up in the smartphone and online search segments, where its products and services have not registered much on the impact scale. Windows Phone 7 smartphones, the software giant's Nokia love affair notwithstanding, could use a lot of push and consumer awareness, while its Bing browser, despite its well-designed features, is virtually a dwarf battling Google, the online world's 800-pound gorilla, for market share.

But in the consumer tech market's drive for gesture-based, remote-control-less user interface, the Redmond company plays second fiddle to nobody.

Microsoft's Kinect motion-sensor system, which enables gamers to control the Xbox 360 videogame system with their body movements and gestures, provided much of the industry's progress in gesture control in the past year. Similar systems now let consumers turn on their TVs and switch channels without a remote control.

Hmm. Soon, we'll be using gestures and voice commands to take control of our TV viewing experience.

Lumia 900 Comes to America

Nokia is showing its US consumers some love, and if rumors prove to be true, will be sending them its latest Windows Phone smartphone, the Lumia 900 as early as on March 18. Rumors say that AT&T will offer the smartphone for $99 with a two-year contract, making the Lumia 900 one of the most affordable high-end phones ever in the American market.

Analysts believe that this price tag will help Nokia promote its Lumia line of smartphones in the United States. But how would the consumers, who paid $49 for the lower-spec Lumia 710, react to this development?

I guess many would not be too happy with that.

Motorola Sues Apple

Lately, Apple has been filing patent-infringement lawsuits against other tech companies in various courts worldwide. I guess this makes Apple not only the world's coolest company. It also makes Steve Jobs' enterprise one of the most litigious on the planet.

Of course, Apple has had its own share of lawsuits and court appearances. And the latest of these legal (mis)adventures is Motorola's lawsuit in Florida. The Google company claims that Apple has infringed on six of the mobile technology firm's patents, and incorporated them into the iPhone 4S and the iCloud cloud computing service without the licenses required by the law.

Clearly, this lawsuit has Google's blessing. According to earlier reports, the merger deal between Google and Motorola includes a provision that requires Motorola to get the online search giant's prior approval before it initiates any "intellectual property action."

This whole thing, apparently, is just another facet of the Android-iOS wars.

That's all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.