Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

In Microsoft's press release today for the Windows Mobile 6.5 launch, there was a section that listed various Windows Phones available around the world, and I thought it would be helpful to re-publish that information here so we could get a handle on which devices are coming out in which markets:

In North America:

• HTC Pure from AT&T
• HTC Imagio from Verizon Wireless
• Samsung Intrepid from Sprint, available Oct. 11, 2009
• HTC Tilt 2 from AT&T, available in the coming weeks

In Latin America:

• Samsung Omnia II available in the coming weeks from TIM Brasil Read more...

"At the Mobile World Congress show, what Microsoft didn’t roll out is as interesting as what it did. During a February 16 press conference at the show..., CEO Steve Ballmer and Senior Vice President of Mobile Communications Andy Lees told attendees that the company is making some tweaks to its mobile strategy: It is no longer focusing primarily on business customers, but both business and consumer users; and is no longer thinking about mobile devices in a vacuum (instead it’s now about phones and software and services)."

If you feel like your head is going to explode from the massive amount of Windows Mobile news we were presented with today then you might want to take a second to check out Mary Jo Foley's cheat sheet to Microsoft's MWC goodies. One thing that has become painfully clear today is that Microsoft likes to play musical chairs with their branding scheme. I personally wish they would just pick a name and stick with it for more than a few years but a fresh new name could have been exactly what Microsoft needed to wash away the negative taste previous versions of Windows Mobile has left on our collective tongues. Some of the things Mary Jo covers in this cheat sheet are things like Zune Mobile, Windows Mobile 6.5, Windows Mobile 7, Microsoft's My Phone service and more. This is an exciting time to be a Windows Mobile user!