Microsoft officials agreed that one of the best selling points of Windows Mobile from a security perspective is the handheld product's close ties to its other systems.

The software giant won't try to keep up with every security feature on the smartphone software market, but it believes its technologies can already provide the sort of baseline protection that enterprises are seeking.

"We're not going to try to go tit-for-tat on every security feature. Some rivals might have more built in, but this process isn't all about features; it's how the technology can be implemented that makes the big difference," said Samir Kumar, mobile devices product manager at Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.

"It's not about Windows Mobile having more security features than any other platform; it's about enterprise customers who already see a need to align mobile security and device management with how they do things in the desktop world," he said. "If they have existing management tools and policies for Windows desktops and laptops, it's logical and effective to extend that to handheld devices."

Security experts contend that there are still far too many different products in people's hands and that Windows Mobile commands far too little share of the wireless market for there to be anything close to a similar level of risk as the dangers associated with today's Microsoft desktop monoculture.

As the OS does become more widely used, however, the risk of attack will grow, according to security specialists.

"It's true there haven't been many mobile viruses, and you can still debate whether those will ever be as prevalent as desktop attacks," said Curtis Cresta, general manager of anti-virus maker F-Secure North America. "But you can also look at the history of IT and decide what will happen as more users adopt each OS; as more smartphones become available and more people are using them, the pool for each OS gets bigger, and we believe there will also be a bigger pool of attacks."