With Apple announcing iPhone 3.0 and some cool medical accessories and devices that will interface with the Cupertino company’s smartphone, Microsoft is launching a similar campaign. However, Microsoft’s medical device accessories for Windows Phone and the Windows Mobile platform may be catered more to hospitals and practitioners, rather than consumers.

According to Engadget Mobile, Microsoft gave researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, MO a grant to develop some ultrasound probes. The probes, which will interface with Microsoft’s handhelds via a USB cable, will be significantly cheaper than traditional ultrasound machines. Costing around $500, the probes can be deployed for ambulatory care, at-home care, and in developing countries.

Pocket PC and Windows Mobile devices have been used in industrial, commercial, and medical sectors for a while. There are a few attachments that make the Windows Mobile devices stand out among the crowd, including credit card readers and terminals (which Apple retail stores have used as a point of sales system for quick checkout), bar code scanners, and others. Adding more accessories, geared at enterprise and consumer segments, will only help increase the adoption rate of mobile devices, especially if such devices and their attachments are offered at a significantly lower cost than the standalone devices that they are intended to replace.