Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Stephanie Ferguson, GM of Business Experiences at Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business is going to deliver the kick off launch presentation of Windows Mobile 6.5 on Monday, May 11th at 1:00PM – 2:15PM. This TechEd 2009 session focuses on one of the biggest launches in the history of Windows Mobile..."

Start marking your calendars everyone! May 11th is not that far down the road and on that date we will finally get a new release to Windows Mobile! Now the real question is - how long do we have to wait to get our hands on some of these new Windows Mobile 6.5 powered handsets?

"Microsoft Corp. expects several phones on the U.S. market to be powered by its Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system after it launches in the fall of 2009, according to a company executive. "We will have over 10 phones available in the U.S. alone. We expect to see that grow," said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division said during his keynote speech at the CTIA wireless technology showcase."

With all the talk of Windows Mobile 6.5 lately I find myself growing a little more excited every day. Unfortunately Mr. Bach did not mention how long it will take to have over 10 devices running Windows Mobile 6.5 available here in the United States. I'm also curious as to how many of those devices will be running the Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard platform. It is, however, nice to see Microsoft starting to gain a little momentum moving forward in the "Smartphone Wars" after such a long period of being stale and feeling dated.

"Starting on 6.5 though we are adding a new option for developers out there… “Windows Mobile Widgets”. A good way to think of a Windows Mobile Widget is as a “Portable chunk of the web” or just basically a rich internet application. Widgets are written using all the web technologies we know and love (HTML, CSS, AJAX, JavaScript) and, since they are powered under the covers by our new internet browser, they have full access to flash and other ActiveX controls available on the device (Like MediaPlayer)."

This is good news for a lot of developers out there that would like to contribute to the Windows Mobile ecosystem but are unfamiliar with C, C++, or .NET. I feel this is a great step in the right direction for Microsoft as well. Making the platform easier to write for will allow designers and developers alike to bring new applications with more refreshing user interfaces to market. At the same token it is not often that a mobile phone application will have functionality that would require anything more than basic HTML, CSS, and javascript to create. As nice as this new feature is there is still the 800lbs gorilla in the room that seems to go unnoticed... All of Microsoft's latest news releases to the public regarding Windows Mobile 6.5, especially the recent widget screenshots they released, are all from the Windows Mobile Professional platform. Where the heck is the Windows Mobile Standard love, guys?! Are we getting left out in the cold when it comes to all of these awesome new features? Hopefully when it comes to widget support Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard will receive the same new functionality.

"Windows Mobile 6.5 will have a widget engine, allowing applications built from HTML and JavaScript to run using the IE 6 Mobile engine, but without the "chrome" (IE menus, address bar etc) one normally associate with web pages."

This looks interesting - and probably not before time. Samsung for instance already have flash-based widgets for their WM devices, so to have Microsoft putting this capability right into the base OS is great. Maybe WM6.5 will be worth the wait after all, and I can imagine just how much better WM7 will (hopefully) be.

"Ballmer re-affirmed his oft-repeated statement that Microsoft will not be making a Microsoft Phone, saying it was committed to the licensing model... Regarding the operating system itself, Steve Ballmer mentioned the unveiling of Windows Mobile 6.5 last week, and also clearly stated Windows Mobile 7 will be coming next year. He noted that he felt the continuing expansion of the smartphone segment into the whole phone segment should help Windows Mobile to continue growing despite the downturn in the economy, and that Windows Mobile is particularly well suited for low cost smartphones with many different from factors."

I personally felt one of the best things Microsoft could have done was to release their own handset. I completely understand that doing so would have been nothing sort of a disaster as it would have strained their relationships with Windows Mobile OEMs, but not doing so in my opinion cements Microsoft's position firmly into a slow and painful death in the mobile world. Windows Mobile 6.5, which was announced last week, is not expected to start shipping on new devices until Q4 of 2009. I wouldn't expect updates for existing handsets to start popping up until maybe Q1 or Q2 of 2010 - almost a year after the platform upgrade was announced. On top of this we won't start to see Windows Mobile 7 phones on the market until around the latter half of 2010, meaning that upgrades for Windows Mobile 7 will start to trickle out 3-6 months after this much anticipated milestone release. The process of moving to a new version of Windows Mobile takes incredibly too long and in this world of constantly updating gadgets. Microsoft's slow-and-steady take on the platform is no longer as intriguing as it was not only a few years ago as there are now way to many cooks in the Microsoft kitchen. Microsoft creating a self branded device would have drastically cut down on this. A handful of devices are a lot easier to upgrade than an army of devices. One has to wonder, when Windows Mobile 6.5 or even Windows Mobile 7 finally does make it into the mainstream, how far behind will the operating system be compared to competitors that are pushing out updates every few months?

"I like the new Windows Mobile 6.5 interface, specially the new home screen, which is brilliantly executed. Running on the new HTC Touch Diamond 2, everything looked smoother, cleaner, and matched the iPhone's lick factor."

Jesus Diaz of Gizmodo was lucky enough to get a little touchy feely time with not only Windows Mobile 6.5 but also the HTC Touch Diamond2. From what we can see from the video posted on Gizmodo, the new version of Windows Mobile looks really nifty, though a bit sluggish at times. It is my understanding that the platform is not production ready yet so hopefully by the time we start seeing some of these drool worthy devices popping up at our favorite retailers in the near future a lot of the kinks and jerky movements that are seen in this video will be a thing of the past.

Say hello to Windows Mobile 6.5 - a handful of screen shots from the current alpha code that is. Windows Mobile 6.5 represents a significant departure from previous versions of Windows Mobile in terms of user interface, finger friendliness, and certainly in terms of browser functionality. The screen shot above is the new home screen - and you can see the Zune-like qualities it has. The home screen supports gestures, so you can swipe left or right to drill into certain options.

I'm not sure that home screen is optional, or whether third-party plug-ins will be allowed to modify it, because at first glance my thought is that I can't see my upcoming appointments, which I like having. Love it or hate it, for those that have complained that Windows Mobile has looked the same for years, you can't say that any longer! Check out all the screen shots after the break. Read more...

"I've been curious about how Microsoft plans to try to catch up with its mobile-phone competitors given the slow, plodding pace at which it has been rolling out new versions of its Windows Mobile platform. After asking around, it sounds like the Softies are definitely aiming to speed up development. While Windows Mobile officials won't talk about ship-date targets (hmmm... sounds like Windows client), some folks familiar with Microsoft's plans are talking. Here's the latest I'm hearing from my sources..."

According to Mary-Jo Foley, Windows Mobile 6.5 devices will be coming out from device makers in September, Windows Mobile 7 is released to testers (meaning it's basically code complete except for bug-squishing) in November of 2009, and we'll see the first Windows Mobile 7 devices in April 2010.

"While the arrival of Windows Mobile 6.5 for the year 2009 was announced here and there, then confirmed by Steve Balmer himself at the PDC 2008, Smartphone France is very pleased to present exclusive World 2 first screenshots of what should be Windows Mobile 6.5. If for the moment there is no real information on the new version of Windows Mobile, what is happening is that Microsoft has finally decided to redesign the interface of the aging systems to try to catch up with his lags behind its competitors."

While the above screenshots are fun to look at I highly doubt these are official screenshots from Windows Mobile 6.5. For starters a large majority of the icons look awfully jagged, as if someone did a horrible job cutting them up in Photoshop. Secondly, these so called screenshots barely resemble anything graphically relevant to what is currently released, or soon to be released, by Microsoft. Over the past few years we have seen Microsoft start to make graphical tweaks and changes throughout its product line to bring their products closer together in likeness - not... this. This looks like someone’s attempt at making a homescreen, or at least mocking one up in Photoshop.

The above images are nowhere near the quality of a product created by a company with billions of dollars at their disposal. Sure we can say the same about the previous versions of Windows Mobile, but the very reason we heard that Microsoft is releasing Windows Mobile 6.5 is because they understand as far as design goes they are nowhere up to par with the competition. Knowing that, I have faith that Microsoft will put together something that is pleasing to the eye and doesn't look like something thrown together by some kid in his bedroom over the weekend. Then again, I could be wrong. What do you guys think?

"In talking about Windows Mobile 6.5, Steve Ballmer did not go in to specifics but did hint at an improvement in the interface and flow of the software. It is believed, however, that this will be the first release to contain the reported Zune software integration instead of the much delayed Windows Mobile 7 release. Though there was no specific date given for Windows Mobile 7, it was believed to be scheduled for as late as the third quarter of 2010, two years away."

It looks Microsoft is expected to release Windows Mobile 6.5 to device manufactures within the next few months, which matches up with the previously suggested Q1 2009 release date for new Windows Mobile 6.5 devices or upgrades. I wouldn't bank on having the Zune software integrated into the upcoming new version when it is released, but I would be pretty excited if it did happen. The Zune user interface is heaven when compared to the current Windows Media Player way of doing things. Hopefully now that Steve Ballmer has broken the seal, more news will slowly start to trickle down in the next few weeks.

"... Motorola will open a new office in Seattle "in order to work closely with Microsoft to deliver differentiation" via the Windows Mobile platform, he said. Motorola expects to release a phone based on Windows Mobile 6.5 platform in the second half of 2009, and an Android-based device for the 2009 holiday season... 'Windows Mobile 6 has not delivered the experience that I think Apple has been able to deliver, but as you look at the plan that is Windows Mobile 7 and even 6.5, I think there are significant new added features which will help the platform,' Jha said."

Suddenly the wait for Windows Mobile 7 doesn't seem as torturous as it once did. I am a little disappointed that we had to hear about a new version of Windows Mobile from Motorola and not Microsoft, but I am ecstatic for the news regardless. Not much is said about Windows Mobile 6.5 besides the fact that they are heavily working on "experiences," which I hope is just marketing babble for "usability." With Windows Mobile 6.5 devices slated for release around the second half of 2009, that hopefully means we can expect to start hearing some news on the new platform sometime as early as December or February. Hopefully now that the cat is out of the bag Microsoft will give us a little more to work with besides the usual tight lipped approach they have currently been taking.