When talking about the best smartphone released ever, the discussions are mainly focused around Apple iPhone and Android smartphones. But unexpectedly, Verizon is throwing weight behind Windows Phones.

Verizon Wireless CFO Fran Shammo and his team is all set to launch a marketing campaign for the third mobile platform -Windows Phone - that can compete against Google and Apple in smartphone wars, by backing Microsoft.

Previously, Verizon has greatly helped Google's Android OS to spread its roots in the U.S. market. Now the company is ready to do the same thing with Microsoft's mobile platform. Cell phone manufacturers are already lining up to grab the code of Microsoft's next installment in smartphone world, the Windows Phone 8 (codenamed Apollo), which is expected to hit the market in second half of 2012.

The WP8-powered phones are expected to debut in 2012 Christmas Holiday season and Verizon could be the first network carrier to launch Apollo-powered Windows Phone in the U.S. market. "We're really looking at the Windows Phone 8.0 platform because that's a differentiator. We're working with Microsoft on it," Verizon's chief financial officer said in an interview with Reuters.

Currently, the company has only one Windows Phone in its portfolio - HTC Trophy. On the hand, AT&T is offering Nokia Lumia 900 on a $99 2-year contract deal. At the moment, Microsoft has not announced whether the Windows Phone 8 update will hit existing Windows smartphones or not. But, Verizon's intensions clearly indicate that the company is working on something bigger.

Windows Phone OS is expected to take the smartphone war on to a whole new level. It is difficult to predict which mobile OS will emerge victorious in this war. However, at the moment, market figures are clearly against Windows Phone OS. According to research firm ComScore, Windows Phone market share has dropped to 3.9% in Feb. 2012 as compared to 5.2% market share in November last year. Android continues to dominate the market with about 50 percent market share, followed by Apple at 30 percent.

However, the new OS i.e. Windows Phone 8 Apollo could redefine the smartphone market. And Verizon's strong desire to market the third smartphone platform reflects that something as big as iOS and Android (if not bigger) is on the way.

Moreover, Verizon has a sound reason to back Windows Phone. Android smartphones and iPhones have flooded the market and adding a third player into the mix would increase the competition among the smartphone makers, which would lead to better devices being released as well as lower costs for both consumers and carriers (carriers have to pay the full retail price to smartphone makers for the devices they sell, despite the subsidized price offered to the comsumer).

(reported by Johnny Wills, edited by Surojit Chatterjee)