There’s nothing like a bit of upcoming mobile OS speculation to get our juices flowing. When Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha dropped a hint that there would be a Windows Mobile 6.5 coming down Microsoft’s mobile OS pipeline, we scrambled to make sense of Microsoft’s Windows Mobile strategy in light of Windows Mobile 7. The industry had widely accepted Windows Mobile 7 as the next-generation upgrade to the Windows Mobile 6.1 platform that is currently on-market. Is Microsoft having problems ironing out Windows Mobile 7? Is Windows Mobile 6.5 something of an emergency stop-gap on the road to a revamped Windows Mobile 7? Who knows.
But, as fun as it is to speculate about the future of Windows Mobile, it’s even better getting solid confirmation on Windows Mobile 6.5’s release.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer went on record and confirmed the existence of Windows Mobile 6.5. Ballmer stated, “With releases we’ll make this year – releases we’ll make with 6.5 next year, Windows Mobile 7, I think we have a pretty interesting roadmap.”
We’re not sure what Windows Mobile 6.5 has in store for us, but we’d be willing to bet that the incremental Windows Mobile 6.1 update will bring with it snazzier UI elements and possibly even streamlined functionality. Microsoft would do well to take a page out of HTC’s TouchFLO 3D playbook for future Windows Mobile UI designs.
Windows Mobile 6.5 is great and all, but we want our Windows Mobile 7!
[Via: PocketNow]