In a series of announcements at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft and Nokia have announced a new, low-cost version of the Windows Phone, and in addition have announced distribution in 23 additional countries. The new phone, the Nokia Lumia 610, which runs the Qualcomm 7x27a processor with 256 megabytes of memory, should cost substantially less to build, and thus buy, than existing Lumia smartphones.

Microsoft, in its Windows Phone blog, said that the company was modifying Windows Phone 7.5 to run on the slower processor and with reduced memory. The less expensive phone will allow Microsoft and Nokia to compete with low-cost or free Android phones globally. According to Microsoft's Terry Myerson, the company will make all WP7.5 apps run on this lower-powered platform. He said in the Microsoft blog that the company is planning to convert a lot of Android users to the Windows platform.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced that the company is bringing Skype to Windows Phone, another must-have for global users. The combination of announcements indicate that Microsoft and Nokia are in the process of quietly spreading their combined products through portions of the world where Nokia is still the dominant brand, and where high-end phones are out of reach for most people. However, Nokia hasn't forgotten high-end phones, and also announced that the company will be selling its well-reviewed Lumia 900, another Windows Phone, outside of the United States.

While each of these actions taken by themselves might not seem like much, taken together, they indicate that Nokia and Microsoft are taking aim at portions of the market that aren't buying iPhones or high-end Android devices, which is most of the phone-using population.

However, Microsoft and Nokia aren't brushing off the United States. The companies announced that they would be bringing LTE Windows Phones to the United States during the first half of 2012 with AT&T as the exclusive carrier.

The global expansion of Nokia phones running Windows is important to U.S. users because it expands the market for apps for Windows phones, and ultimately will expand the availability of Windows Phones for business users. Currently, the Nokia Lumia 710, which has been Nokia's mass-market phone, does not support full business functionality. Considering that the Windows Phone is currently the only smartphone that is not subject to the recently revealed WebKit vulnerability, business users may gain interest in Microsoft's offering in a hurry.