Google Inc.’s plans to enter the mobile market with a cell phone platform might have impressed many in the industry but not Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft Corp., one of Google’s biggest competitors.

Ballmer sidestepped a request to make any specific comments on Google’s Android software platform during a Tokyo press conference today. “Well of course, their efforts are just some words on paper right now; it’s hard to do a very clear comparison [with Windows Mobile],” he said.

Ballmer noted the success his company has had with its Windows Mobile platform, which commands a sizable share of the smart-phone market, especially in North America. Windows Mobile is on 150 handset models and is available from more than 100 different mobile service providers, he said. Microsoft will likely license 20 million Windows Mobile handsets this year, he added.

“We have great momentum — we’ve brought our Windows Mobile 6 software to market, we’re driving forward on our future releases, and we’ll have to see what Google does,” Ballmer said. “Right now they have a press release, we have many, many millions of customers, great software, many hardware devices, and they’re welcome in our world.”

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Competition from flash memory and increased shipment of PCs and consumer electronics are driving down prices and fueling demand for hard disk drives, according to a survey released by iSuppli yesterday.

Average pricing of notebook hard drives tumbled, falling to $53 in the third quarter of 2007, from $86 in the same period during the previous year. Desktop hard drive prices fell to $51 in the third quarter of 2007, compared to $52.75 the previous year, according to the survey.

Overall, about 134 million hard drives shipped in the third quarter of 2007, compared to 114 million the previous year, a 21 percent year on year increase, iSuppli found.

Prices also dropped from intense competition between six hard drive vendors: Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Fujitsu, Toshiba and Samsung, said Krishna Chander, senior analyst at iSuppli.

“Prices will always come if there is enough competition. If one vendor is bringing [the price] of a drive down, everybody wants to bring it down,” Chander said.

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BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd is rolling out a professional software package aimed at small and medium businesses with up to 30 wireless users, the company said on Monday.

The BlackBerry software will let small or mid-sized companies have secure wireless access to e-mail, as well as Internet and intranet applications, “while meeting the need for an in-house solution that is affordable, simple to install and easy to manage,” RIM said in a statement.

It is based on the same software that RIM has been offering to governments and large corporations.

The Waterloo, Ontario-based company is pricing the package at $499 for five users and $849 for 10 users. Either option can support up to 30 users if additional licenses are purchased.