The State of Windows Mobile; WM 6.5 Updates

Given the way that Android and iPhone are surging ahead, and a very vocal impatience among Windows Mobile users, it’s increasingly important that Microsoft deliver timely and innovative software for mobile devices. This week I’ll point you to a great article about what steps Microsoft is taking, as well as note some newly available updates to Windows Mobile 6.5.

The State of Windows Mobile

Paul Thurrott has posted a short article on Winsupersite that gives details of Microsoft’s plan to revive Windows Mobile. One of the main problems right now is that the software was originally designed to be used with a stylus, and the mobile world has gone finger-friendly, thanks to the success of the iPhone and its imitators.

Windows Mobile 6.5 has addressed this somewhat, with its touch-friendly interface. The problem has been that once you get a bit deeper into the menu system, it’s no longer touchable and requires a stylus. Not good.

Thurrott explains that Microsoft underwent a realignment last year which delayed progress on Windows Mobile. Then the company hurried to get WM 6.5 out the door so that they could start competing with the iPhone and others in the new touch environment while also wanting to have something available before the holiday season. And, Thurrott says, they released software that had only partly implemented all of the intended functionality. We have yet to see the real WM 6.5.

He says that a more complete version will be available by the second quarter of this year. This new version will be touch friendly even as you get deeper into the menus as well as having multitouch capability and support for capacitive screens. Sometimes referred to as Windows Mobile 6.5.3, it will also have a friendlier user interface. And it will finally represent what Microsoft had in mind for this version of the software.

In addition, Thurrott says that Microsoft will unveil Windows Mobile 7 at a trade show in February and release more technical detail at an event in March, with availability coming at the end of this year. Nothing is known about this new version, but enthusiasts who’ve been given a chance to see it say that it’s a winner and will do more than hold its own against the competition. One feature that Thurrott expects is an updating system that’s more like that of the iPhone — with Microsoft making the updates available directly to your device rather than your having to wait for the carrier to release it. Hurray!

Of course no one knows for sure whether Microsoft will unveil WM 7 in February, and this post in Digitimes says that the announcement will be of WM 6.5.3 or 6.6, not WM 7.

Upgrades to WM 6.5

Speaking of WM 6.5, upgrades have been coming out. Microsoft’s page that tracks this seems to be out of date.

According to PocketNow, 6.5 is now available for T-Mobile’s Touch Pro2 and Dash 3G. And Windows Phone Thoughts says that the Sprint Touch Pro2 will get its update by the end of the first quarter. Verizon’s Ozone and Touch Pro2 now can be upgraded to 6.5 via a download from PCD, their third-party support channel.