Windows Mobile 7... closer to being ready than we thought?

J

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Yes, I know it's a mobile OS, but it's Windows and this is the operating systems forum sooo...

Just noted this:

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20090817/hardware-already-exists-windows-mobile-7/

and it appears, if Long Zheng's interpretation is even relatively accurate, that we could be seeing Windows Mobile 7 released sooner than expected. This could be relevant in a lot of ways:

- Windows 7 is almost out
- The Zune HD is almost out
- It's about time for a new Windows Mobile OS
- This would really kick ass to have so much on the Windows platform all at the same time and have it all work together

Whaddya think...
 
My phone is WinMo6.1 and works with Win7 perfectly.

WinMo 6.5 is next release, I don't even think it's gone final yet. First phones for it are September last I heard. I wouldn't expect WinMo7 for many months beyond that, 6 months at least. It won't be before 2010 anyway, which is the timeframe I've been seeing tossed around, which could mean anything. It won't be this year in any form more than beta.

The evidence in the link is weak. Just because they claim they will support it means nothing. nVidia could claim tomorrow that their GPU's will be compatible with Windows 8, no one would doubt they will make drivers for it, but that doesn't mean Windows 8 is anywhere near release.
 
Hmmm

I thought 6.5 was the next great thing and confirmed as the OS for Zune HD.

My Jack can supposedly be updated to 6.5 so I'm excited to see what that brings.
 
So is this the Windows Mobile that's supposed to be "better than the last" and finally give WinMo a good name? Just like every release since WinMo 2003? :p
 
I thought they built the ZuneHD interface on top of WindowsCE? I think the Zune is showing off the design elements that will be built into WM7.
 
Peteman100 said:
I thought they built the ZuneHD interface on top of WindowsCE? I think the Zune is showing off the design elements that will be built into WM7.
Click to expand...

See, someone is paying attention... ;) WinMo 6.5 is the start of the "integrated" interface, based on the Zune's UI, and WinMo 7 will just further the evolution as time goes by. That's been a big gripe with WinMo over the years, the lack of a cohesive interface even though it tries to look like its desktop counterpart.

Hopefully, within the next 4-8 months, "Windows" will truly be a platform at least from the UI perspective; Windows 7 has it's base, and the WinMo 6.5/7 platforms will share the aspects with the Zune HD and perhaps even more items on the way... <hint, hint> :D
 
IMO this is where we'll be next year:

Windows 7 Mobile will still be a little cash cow that Microsoft can make licensing money off multiple companies for as they manufacture their stuff (Really good business to be in...).

Zune will eventually turn into its own phone and Microsoft will have a standalone product built from the ground-up by Microsoft.

Both will have the same Apps store, and both will run PPC apps.



Going out on a limb, but it would be hard for me to think that Microsoft won't stay out of the phone market. They can capitalize on the downfalls of Apple. IE, release the Zune on Sprint, Verizon, ATT. They also won't do stupid nonsense like Apple and lock you into a single browser, either...
As HUGE as the PPC market is, I really don't see how Microsoft wouldn't want to utilize the vast amount of PPC apps out there, either.
 
Microsoft is in a bit of a pickle right now. Apple and Google have both demonstrated that a 21st century OS can indeed scale from the enterprise to the desktop to the phone using a relatively common framework. The speed with which Apple was able to launch such a polished phone OS on its first swing is pretty clear evidence of this. The benefits are also compelling as we've seen them deploy multitouch across multiple platforms at once. Windows handles the enterprise and desktop parts, but until recently hasn't had a hope in hell of scaling down to a phone.

I think that's changing... First Server 2008 core modes and then a light, agile and responsive W7 desktop OS make me think that Microsoft has a software asset that can be taken as is and stripped down to mobile form. They'll have to do this. If they don't, they will find the competition implementing desktop innovations in the mobile space in months (and vice versa) while Microsoft takes years to do the same because of parallel and unconnected development efforts.
 
The reason Apple is so quick to develop items is because their platform is always limited - there's only one basic Macintosh, there's only one basic iPhone, there's not a lot of variety so, development can happen fast when you don't have to consider or deal with a nearly infinite variety of hardware components and how they may or may not "play well together."

Even with Windows Mobile in all it's myriad versions so far, there's never been one device that does it right because Microsoft itself hasn't ever made a PocketPC - they just make the OS and the developers and OEMs take it from there. There's a ton of different devices running Windows Mobile nowadays, just as there's always been a variety of PocketPC hardware from different manufacturers and every one of 'em is unique in their own ways.

I think soon enough we'll see a phone that's so close to the Zune's UI and functionality... it's bound to happen sooner or later, the question is whether it'll just be a product made by some other manufacturer running Windows Mobile 7 or... will Microsoft actually get someone to make their phone for 'em and brand it with Microsoft's name, as the Zune HD is...
 
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