Quote:
Originally Posted by Microsoft
"Regarding making IE Mobile available as a separate download or update, the rich media experiences that IE Mobile 6 enables require more powerful, advanced devices. That is why it will not be available as an upgrade or direct download for current phones, but rather will be made available on new phones."
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I'm calling BS on this. I can accept that it can't be a separate download due to OS changes, but why can't an OEM create a new build of WM 6.1 (or WM 6.5) that includes this? Is Microsoft claiming that WM 6.5 (which I presume will include the new browser) either won't run on existing hardware or builds for older hardware won't include the new browser?
And, while IE Mobile 6 may "enable" rich media (presumably Flash and maybe Silverlight) applications, which may require more powerful devices, why can't existing devices just not have Flash and/or Silverlight support? Is Microsoft claiming that rendering the same HTML pages we can view today now requires more power in IE Mobile 6?
Of course, given that Adobe has made versions of Flash for Pocket PCs available back in the WM 2003 days (or earlier), I'm not sure I even buy that line about rich applications. Maybe the new Flash 10 or Silverlight 2 are resource hogs, but how does that affect the rest of the browser?
And what about Windows Mobile Classic devices that typically have 500 MHz or faster processors? Phones tend to have slower processors to save battery life, but PDAs are usually faster.
BS, Microsoft, BS.
Steve