In what could be construed as a mis-step by corporate strategists, Microsoft Windows Mobile team representative Khush has announced that the upcoming Internet Explorer Mobile 6 will only be made available on new Windows Mobile 6.1 devices. The revamped Internet Explorer Mobile 6, also known as Pocket Internet Explorer (PIE) 6 and casually referred to as “6 on 6” (Internet Explorer Mobile 6 on Windows Mobile 6), apparently won’t be available as an upgrade for existing Windows Mobile 6.1 devices.
The announcement drew the ire of dozens of Windows Mobile fans, resulting in a flood of angry and deprecating comments calling on Microsoft to 
re-think their Windows Mobile strategy altogether. Rather than making good on their promise to bring Internet Explorer Mobile 6 to the Windows Mobile 6.1 platform, as Microsoft had said at a press event at CTIA Las Vegas 2008, the company seems to have made a complete about-face with their Internet Explorer 6 roll-out plans.
Internet Explorer Mobile 6 has long been expected to bring Microsoft and their Windows Mobile platform up to speed with a new Internet Explorer web browser that offers full-HTML rendering in a more desktop-like browsing experience. To do this, Microsoft used code from desktop versions of Internet Explorer (JScript v5.7 support was ported from IE8) to allow Internet Explorer Mobile 6 to compete with mobile web browser newcomers like Opera, Skyfire, iPhone Safari, and Android.
Microsoft recently released an Internet Explorer Mobile 6 emulator for developers looking to get first hand development experience with the new mobile browser ahead of its release. The new Windows Mobile web browser is expected to sport the following features:
- Improved fidelity (support for full fidelity desktop rendering)
- Layout fixes to accommodate a mobile screen (text wrap)
- Enhanced Script and AJAX support (Jscript v5.7 from Internet Explorer 8 )
- Improved multimedia experience (Adobe Flash Lite 3.1 for Adobe Flash content)
- Deeper integration with search
- Enhanced cursor navigation model
- Touch and gesture support – pan support
- Multiple zoom levels
- Easy switching between mobile / desktop versions of sites by specifying UA strings.
Khush has updated the Windows Mobile blog, stating that Microsoft and the Windows Mobile team have read the numerous comments criticizing Microsoft’s decision to release Internet Explorer Mobile 6 only on new devices. He goes on to say that the company is evaluating their position on the matter:
“Your concerns have definitely been heard and acknowledged. We are aware of the areas we need to improve on and we look to you for feedback that would help shape our future releases. There’s not much I can say at this point but I do want to assure you that we’re working hard to address the feedback we’ve received so far.”
For Microsoft’s sake, we hope to see Internet Explorer Mobile 6 made available (as Microsoft had originally promised) to the millions of Windows Mobile 6.1 devices already on market.
[Via: Windows Mobile Team]