The Palm OS, Symbian S60 & UIQ, RIM BlackBerry and Windows Mobile for Pocket PC: These are the smartphone and PDA platforms supported by the Avantgo mobile Internet service. Notably absent from the list is Microsoft's ever more capable and increasingly popular - think Cingular 2125 and T-Mobile SDA - Windows Smartphone platform.

Today, the iAnywhere Solutions division finally rectified the situation with the release of a Beta version of the free Avantgo browser for Windows Smartphone users. It may have taken Avantgo so long to release a version for Windows Smartphones because these devices tend to look and act more like a traditional mobile phones than a Pocket PC Phone, with – and this is key - a far more limited feature set to boot.

So there's no touch screen, the maximum display resolution - with Windows Mobile 5.0 – just went up to 240 x 320 pixels (QVGA), and these devices are usually much smaller than Pocket PC Phones; although this last difference is slowly changing .

With the Beta, users of Windows Smartphones can access the over one thousand Avantgo Web Sites for reading on their handsets for the first time. In addition, there's the recently launched Travel Guide tab and a fairly new RSS reader that optimizes feeds for small mobile device screens, among many other features.

The Beta supports Windows Mobile 2003, 2003 Second Edition and Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone handsets.

Could a Linux Avantgo client be next on the menu?