Although I've previously noted hints that Apple and Steve Jobs are fans of the Aloha State, they're certainly not the only company to pay tribute to Hawaii. And now, Microsoft is sporting some island style with its "Project Hawaii."

Not only that, but within "Project Hawaii," you'll find the "MAUI Project."

"Project Hawaii" is an attempt to inspire "a set of cloud-enabled mobile applications and associated support services," and the focus of the "MAUI Project" is in its backronym: Mobile Assistance Using Infrastructure. All are exciting technologies, to be sure, but they obviously have little in common with Hawaii besides its name.

See also Wiki, Akamai, and Mahalo.com.

Still, the project's overview presentation [PowerPoint file] refers to "Hawaii applications" and "the Hawaii platform," which incorporates a mix of Microsoft's tools, including Widows Azure. It would be... interesting if, someday, "Hawaii" became brand shorthand for Microsoft's overall mobile-slash-cloud strategy.

If that happens, I only hope people are more likely to say, "Hawaii rocks," rather than, "Hawaii keeps crashing."

As ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley notes, Microsoft has used Hawaiian-themed names before. Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 was code-named "Hawaii." And the proposed consumer-version of its Microsoft Surface computer was code-named "Oahu."

For "Project Hawaii," there are three universities that are using the Windows Mobile platform to build class projects (USC, Duke, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison). I wonder if the University of Hawaii will sign on? The official site includes tools and resources for instructors and students.