New Windows Mobile Launch Dates

[Nurhisham Hussein]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20090819PD210.html' target='_blank'>http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20090819PD210.html</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Microsoft is expected to officially launch Windows Mobile 6.5 on October 1, 2009 and add an upgrade version with a touch interface in February 2010, the sources indicated citing Microsoft roadmap."</em></p><p>So we <em>will</em> get an <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/94783/new-version-of-wm6-after-wm6-5.html" target="_blank">interim OS version</a> before WM7 is available. That's the good news. The bad news is that the same report states that WM7 will only be launched in Q4 2010, which is really disappointing to put it mildly. A dual-platform strategy to compete with Apple and Google's Android? Fragmenting your product offering and playing to your opponents' strengths doesn't strike me as a winning strategy - Microsoft's got to work harder and faster than this. To quote Terry Pratchett, "Early in the morning? My dear lad, you will need to stay up all night!&rdquo;</p>

[Fritzly]

I am not surprise about the release date for WM7; actually I will be surprised if there are no further delays.
What leave me astonished is the 6.5 path: people will have to buy a new device in October /November to get 6.5 and after less than six months an updated build of the OS will be available? The only way such a strategy could make sense would be if MS plans to directly push the updates to the devices but..... it seems very unlikely.
What about the people who bought a HTC DIamond or Touch 2 because of the guaranteed update to 6.5?
No, It does not make any sense.

[Paragon]

It's really beginning to sound a lot like WM7 is going to break compatability in a major way. Perhaps this is why they are taking a two platform strategy. For those who don't want the aggravation can continue on with WM6.5, and for those who want to can jump to WM7.

Regardless it is all developing too slowly and is becoming rather confusing.

As for the interim upgrade between 6.5 and 7 I and hundreds of others have been running it on our Diamonds and other devices for a couple of weeks. It moves the close (not close) button to the bottom left and makes many screens and menus much bigger and easier to use. Why this could not have been included in the RTM version of 6.5 I have no idea. It just muddies the waters even further by making it a later upgrade. It's all like Microsoft has increased their staff in the "Let's Piss Them Off Department" ;)

Dave

[Phillip Dyson]

I figured the only reason why they release 6.5 in the first place was to support their existing licensees. From everything I've read, they would probably have to retool their manufacturing lines to move to WM 7.

This way they get some additional life out of their hardware configurations and have a choice about when or if to move WM 7.

I suspect if all of MS' licensees were force to make a choice they would put more resources into alternative platforms like Android.

I'm thinking I'll stick with my Samsung Jack through all of this flurry and take a peak at the Zune HD. Maybe I'll dip my toe back in when WM 7 comes around.

[Fritzly]

It's really beginning to sound a lot like WM7 is going to break compatability in a major way. Perhaps this is why they are taking a two platform strategy. For those who don't want the aggravation can continue on with WM6.5, and for those who want to can jump to WM7.

Regardless it is all developing too slowly and is becoming rather confusing.

As for the interim upgrade between 6.5 and 7 I and hundreds of others have been running it on our Diamonds and other devices for a couple of weeks. It moves the close (not close) button to the bottom left and makes many screens and menus much bigger and easier to use. Why this could not have been included in the RTM version of 6.5 I have no idea. It just muddies the waters even further by making it a later upgrade. It's all like Microsoft has increased their staff in the "Let's Piss Them Off Department" ;)

Dave

I agree 100%; I have been running 6.5 for months on my Touch and undoubtely 6.5.1 or whatever it will be called is a substantial improvement over 6.5. The problem is how this upgrade will be pushed to people running 6.5: if MS wll let manifacturers or, even worse, carriers handle it I can foresee a PR nightmare.

[BBF]

MS usually isn't stupid when it comes to making money... so pushing Windows Phone 7 to Q4 2010 may have a reason.

Assuming that MS doesn't have some stupid internal management issues in their Zune/Xbox/WM Phone division (believe me, I've seen some pretty stupid company decisions made due to internal management squabbles and/or incompetence at the upper-middle management level) I would surmise that the late release of Windows Phone 7 is because of either:
a) They want out of the smartphone OS business
b) They're going to release a Zune Phone with most of the features of WP7 and more sometime before Q4 2010 and would like to screw their existing Windows Mobile Phone OS customers just like they did to their WMA Protected Music customers when they released the Zune.

[davea]

Regardless it is all developing too slowly and is becoming rather confusing.

It's all like Microsoft has increased their staff in the "Let's Piss Them Off Department" ;)

Dave

M$ is loosing many of us formally loyal Windows Mobile users with their lack of timely upgrade and enhancement of the Windows Mobile platform. iPhone, Blackberry and particularly Android platforms are consistently doing it RIGHT! Significant upgrades every 6months to a year "pushed" to our phones. That's what a responsive growing Smart Phone OS does. Windows Mobile is loosing market share and slowly playing dead in the marketplace. It's sad but so frustratingly true.

[whydidnt]

For whatever reason, Microsoft seems intent on continuing to treat the mobile space the same way they have the PC space. They like to segment the market, creating multiple versions of both their OS and Office apps (do I want standard, premium, ultimate or student?). To some extent that works in the PC world, because they hold a dominant position and everyone buys their product, with many prefering to pay less for fewer features.

I don't think the same model works in the mobile space. People don't want to think about the OS, they just want a phone with features they like, and they want it to work. Microsoft has been slow developing and upgrading WM, yet they are going to spread themselves even thinner and support a 4th mobile OS (WM Standard, Pro, Zune and now 7.0)? It makes no sense, I thought keeping standard and pro separate was a bad idea, but this is just getting silly.