Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

Photo courtesy of Engadget

Oh Windows Mobile 7...what a rough time you've had, and you're not even here yet. We first heard about you years ago under the code-name "Photon", and early peeks looked promising. Years went by, and you never managed to make an appearance. Things have changed in the market - that iPhone thing turned out to be a pretty big deal after all - and Windows Mobile isn't exactly on sure footing at the moment. Windows Mobile 6.5 looks like an improvement, but we're really waiting for you Windows Mobile 7 - you're the version that's supposed to really change things up. Looks like the Big Boss Man is telling people that you haven't exactly been handled properly, and they've brought on some new talent to ensure you're properly fed and cared for. The question is, if your creators are just now hiring people to create some of your core features - in this case social networking - when exactly will you make your debut? It feels like we've been waiting forever for you Windows Mobile 7...

"Thing is, well-trained eyes at UX Evangelist have found a Moto software engineer's job experience on LinkedIn with app development and migration to Windows Mobile 7 beta -- yes, beta -- listed front and center. The project's mentioned for a device codenamed "Caesar," which would slot in nicely with Moto's trend of assigning ancient rulers' names to smartphones ahead of release."

This year has seen a slow but increasing migration by Windows Mobile OEMs and ODMs towards alternative OSs like Android, to the point where you have to wonder about the future of Windows Mobile. Granted, since the iPhone's release two years ago there was always the possibility that WM would be relegated to a niche - but that threat has never been so clear as it has been in the last six months or so. On that basis, it's encouraging to see a major device manufacturer still trying to progress with WM. Even if working on a beta of an OS not slated to be released in another year isn't exactly concrete proof of commitment, the fact that WM7 has some interest and backing this early means we'll at least see some devices in a reasonable timeframe. Whether that's enough to ensure future iterations would depend on how good the OS actually turns out. I'm hoping WM7 will do for Windows Mobile what Windows 7 is doing for the Windows franchise generally, which is to show that just occasionally Microsoft can actually do things right - changing branding every couple of years notwithstanding.

So, anyone looked at the video of the Zune HD in action? Anyone looked at what we think the GPU powering that experience is? Anyone compared that with the rumours about the Chassis 1 design for Windows Mobile 7 smartphones? Anyone want to connect the dots? I'm just throwing that out there for you to ponder this weekend...

"As far as I'm aware, the "connectors" and "Unified Storage" referred to here is a new concept for WM7. Unfortunately the job description doesn't go into any details, but in the context of communications, I'm predicting it's a new framework designed to handle all the communication storage needs on a phone in a single, structured and open-access system...If my prediction is correction, as opposed to the current method where each application has its own proprietary storage model (ex. Outlook Mobile, Facebook application, Twitter applications), this new framework would allow applications to store and retrieve any communications data on the phone in a consistent and managed manner, allowing for far richer integration."

We know that Windows Mobile 7 will be a big step forward from the past, and here's a hint as to what may be in store beyond a new UI and multitouch interface. Ironic what a "simple" job ad can reveal - especially about the potential for Zune intregation. Will all this come to pass? Hard to say for sure, but it's fun to speculate. Read on for more!

"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'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.

"As you know, Windows 6 series is available in 2009 and as compared to Android, we believe in 2009 Android is more competitive; more of our effort and focus in 2009 is going to Android, but in 2010 when Windows 7 will become available, we will then participate in a more focused way in Windows Mobile 7 in 2010."

If I were Microsoft, I'd be more than a little ticked off that my partners were blabbing to the media about the release dates of my products. On the other hand, I guess now we know that we won't see Windows Mobile 7 for at least a year - not surprising given than Windows Mobile 6.5 has yet to be officially announced.

"Carphone Warehouse looks set to give away free smartphones running Windows Mobile 7 with copies of the upcoming Windows 7 PC operating system, Register Hardware has learned. A phone manufacturer source familiar with the phone retailer's plans told us that the Windows Mobile 7 phone and Windows 7 bundle boxes will be released on the same day that the new desktop OS is launched in the UK, which he said could come during September or October 2009."

Not only is this pretty cool as far as news goes, at least if you are a resident of the United Kingdom, if all goes according to plan we can expect to see Windows Mobile 7 ship before or at the same time as Windows 7. We all speculated this would be happening, but with Microsoft being very hush hush on the subject of anything with Windows and 7 in the title, it is nice to hear some news from a source that might actually be privileged to that information. There is still no word on the details of this promotion but we'll keep our ears to the ground for you guys/gals!

"Recently it was revealed that the newest version of Microsoft's mobile operating system, Windows Mobile 7.0, would be delayed until as late as 2010. The updated version, which the company's partners had reportedly been hoping to have by early 2009, was aimed at giving Microsoft a bigger presence on the mobile stage. But delay or no delay, I don't think it would have been enough. With competition from a resurgent BlackBerry platform from Research in Motion, Apple's iPhone and most importantly, the Google Phone platform (I will analyze Nokia's Symbian platform in a separate post at a later date), Microsoft's mobile platform is facing its toughest environment yet."

Despite the title of this article I ran across on CNN today, Why Windows Mobile is in Trouble, it is not the usual doom and gloom scenario that appears to be popping up in the Internet consciousness as of late regarding Windows Mobile. Om Malik goes on to write a fantastic piece on how Microsoft is now more than ever fighting an uphill battle in the mobile handset world in a means to stay relevant in the consumers' eyes, especially with the release of Google's new Android platform which Malik describes as "Windows Mobile done right". This article also quoted VentureBeat in stating that we might not even see new Windows Mobile handsets until 2010! Read more...

"Good thing nobody's working on anything right now in the smartphone space, or this could be really bad news for Microsoft, whose current version of Windows Mobile lost the technology and usability edge a while ago, and is being bandaged up by the likes of HTC to keep the OS relevant to consumers. According to CNET, some of Microsoft's partners in the space are claiming that the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 has been pushed back to the second half of 2009, instead of the "early next year" they'd been expecting. Microsoft has yet to make a formal announcement about the release date of the OS or the specific feature set, so we can't exactly point our fingers and laugh, but we'd say crying big, mobile OS tears into our morning cereal is certainly appropriate."

At the moment I wouldn't consider this anything more than an Internet rumor since we never had a set date from Microsoft to begin with, but to be completely honest I really didn't expect to see Windows Mobile 7 hit the mainstream the latter half of 2009. When you look at the time it took between the release of every previous version of Windows Mobile and the amount of time it took device manufactures to update existing devices or even release new handsets with the latest and greatest operating system, it has been pretty close to laughable. Even if they announced something today, we wouldn’t see widespread saturation of new handsets until close to summer of next year. Seeing as how Microsoft is continuing to be incredibly tight lipped on the subject it is only logical to assume Windows Mobile 7 is still nowhere ready for the limelight.

The good news is that since Microsoft is taking so long to announce anything and it has been so many years since we have had a real update to the operating system - homescreen plugins don’t count - there is a good chance that Windows Mobile 7 will be the mythical merging of platforms that we have heard about in the past. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long to find out.

"If you're apt to believe it, supposedly a regional HTC GM by the name of Kevin Chen flapped his lips about the first Windows Mobile 7 devices launching in Q109 -- so between six and nine months from now. We reached HTC, which had no (further) comment on the matter, but everything we've seen about 7 so far kind of leads us to believe that 7-based devices launching before next year's Mobile World Congress sounds a bit premature, even if that doesn't necessarily jibe with the MWg roadmap (which promised devices possibly even later this year)."


[Photo courtesy of Engadget]

The possibility of have having a brand spanking new Windows Mobile 7 device in my hands by my birthday is pretty exciting - even if the thought of waiting until next year for Microsoft’s new mobile operating system is a little bit daunting. While I can completely understand Microsoft's recent stance at keeping every new product with a '7' in its name super hush-hush, I still wish the Powers That Be would throw us a bone and let us know how development is going. To be honest, I don't even care about feature XYZ; I just want a little reassurance from Microsoft that they're still in the game. Is that so much to ask?

"Maybe those calls for 'Vista light' on UMPCs and MIDs are getting answered with Windows Mobile 7. While you could use a Celio REDFLY paired to a Windows Mobile phone for a similar experience now, Qualcomm is already showing off a portable device on Engadget Mobile to exemplify the potential here. In fact, SVP Luis Pinada alluded to that just today: 'Microsoft Windows Mobile 7, which is made for chips used in mobile phones, will be more laptop friendly than older versions of Windows Mobile.'"


[Photo courtesy of Engadget]

According to Engadget Mobile, Qualcomm will be releasing a Windows Mobile 7 powered handset which will be powered by their Snapdragon mobile CPU. The device is supposed to make "big presence in Snapdragon-based devices at CES 2009" and pack a $299USD price point that is almost as tiny as the device pictured above. This tiny powerhouse will also come equipped with 3G mobile Internet technology. All and all, not too shabby Qualcomm! If only 2009 wasn't so far away...