Many Rumors Around Windows Mobile

There have been a number of rumors about Windows Mobile in recent days. Windows Mobile 6.5.3 is due out any day on devices. 6.6 is now rumored to be available to manufacturers in February and supposedly, WinMo 7 has been pushed back to 2011. Is there any truth to these rumors?Well, 6.5.3 is pretty much a sure thing, it is just a matter of when it will be on new devices or available for upgrade for existing 6.5 users. It should have a new onscreen keyboard that is finger friendly. Email threading in Outlook should also be there. Other UI tweaks include the move to touchable tiles rather than the current soft key approach for menus. You can see some screen shots of this at Microsoft's own MSDN site.

Digitimes is reporting that Windows Mobile 6.6 will be finalized next month. They say the build has the codename "Maldives" but the problem there is, Maldives is the codename for Windows Mobile 7, not 6.x. I suspect their source has confused things a bit and what is really coming out in February is a build, or perhaps release candidate, that OEMs can get their hands on and start building final hardware for WinMo 7's ultimate release.

And that brings us to the WinMo 7 delay rumors. These seem to have originated from one site that visited CES and is claiming companies like Microsoft, Nokia, Qualcomm, HTC and others as their sources. Microsoft hasn't really given a release date for WinMo 7. We expect it to be formally announced at Mobile World Congress next month and they may give a release date then. If they have no release date though right now, how can any date be a delay? I also don't get the source from Nokia. I don't know what Nokia has to do with Windows Mobile. Yes, Nokia licenses the Exchange ActiveSync component so some of their phones can sync with Exchange, but that really has nothing to do with Windows Mobile itself. I think Apple would be just as much in the know on WinMo's time table as Nokia, which is to say, they know nothing.

So that is my take on things. 6.5.3 is coming soon, and hopefully carriers will make it available as an upgrade to existing 6.5 users. There is no 6.6. I think 7 will still be out in 2010, though we should get more info at MWC in a few weeks. Everything else is rumor and speculation designed to drive page hits.