Microsoft has announced that they have won the biggest contract ever for their Windows Mobile OS and its with none other than the U.S. government! Well sorta – it’s with the U.S. Census Bureau as they’ve signed up for a whopping 500,000 smartphones made by the folks at HTC. These smartphones will run the Windows Mobile OS and they’ll be used to take the 2010 census.

Aside from the fact that the U.S. Census is using Windows Mobile, it’s an interesting tidbit since this is the first time the Census has ever used anything high tech in taking the national census. Previous census results were tabulated using paper and pen. 

The Microsoft contract is part of a larger 600 million dollar contract involving Harris Corporation which will develop an automated way of field data collection.

[Check it out]

No Tags