Windows Mobile 6.5

Microsoft has released version 6.5 of its Windows Mobile operating system and a shop for applications. Simultaneously it introduced various smartphones manufacturers that run on the new platform.

Windows Mobile 6.5 is the first revision of the OS since March 2008. With this version Microsoft also hopes to advance until early next year when it launches a completely new version 7. Version 6.5 contains mainly minor changes, including a new user interface and browser.

New Devices

The new devices with version 6.5 come from manufacturers such as Acer, HTC, LG, Samsung and Toshiba. Most devices are supplied in conjunction with a subscription to T-Mobile, Vodafone, Orange in several European countries. North America is relatively badly off with four models from Samsung and HTC. Microsoft expects more than thirty devices with version 6.5 on the market by the end of this year.

Marketplace for Mobile

Like Apple and Nokia, Microsoft has now an "app store" for mobile applications. It's called Windows Mobile Marketplace. For the Dutch market there is a local version set to be accessible from the PC. Through the Marketplace icon under the Start button on a Windows phone, the store already opens.

Initially, 246 "quality applications" are available, but Microsoft has over 750 developers building new apps. Also new is the free service MyPhone, to back-up user selected data and create a website for it that is password protected.

Catching up

Microsoft uses the launch of version 6.5 to present the new devices on which the software runs under the new brand name 'Windows-phones' (Phones Windows). Microsoft hopes to lift them to the reputation of Windows in the PC world and strengthen its position in the mobile phone market. The Windows Mobile market share is estimated at only 9 percent.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently had a meeting with analysts to discuss all the problems. The company had a significant  drop in the market for mobile telephony. Windows Mobile is overtaken by other vendors of operating systems for smartphones, including Apple (iPhone OS), Research In Motion (BlackBerry OS) and Google (Android).

If Windows Mobile 6.5 will change the market that much, is open to question. In the first tests, including the gadget site Tech Crunch, the software has been cracked. Version 6.5 has an illogical and chaotic user interface, and suffers half-hearted combination of screen and control operation with a pen (stylus). For the new Web browser Internet Explorer Mobile 6 TechCrunch had little appreciation.

Source: Automatiseringsschids.nl

Links

Windows phone

My Phone