14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Mobile 6.5, the latest phase of the evolution of Microsoft's mobile operating system, has been just released on the market, in line with the previously announced plans from the Redmond-based software giant. Since the new platform is out of the labs, the company is now shifting its focus towards the development of Windows Mobile 7, the next flavor of the OS.
Expected to be released to manufacturing sometime in November this year, with the first handsets to run under it set for launch in April next year, Windows Mobile 7 has been pushed back a little, and things have turned to another path. As previously mentioned, the platform is now set to make an appearance on the market sometime in the second half of 2010, about six months later than originally previsioned.
The latest bits of information that emerged into the wild also tend to sustain this theory. A recent post on msftkitchen provides a slide from a Microsoft presentation from August, showing that Windows Mobile 7 should reach RTM in Spring 2010. Basically, this means that Microsoft will have the OS pushed to OEMs about one year after WM 6.5 reached the same development stage, and it might also suggest that the first devices to sport WM 7 are to come to the market sometime at the end of the third quarter of 2010 or in the fourth one.
The original RTM time-frame has been pushed back with about six months and, if we're to follow this pattern, we can expect the first Windows Mobile 7-based phones to reach the market six months later than originally said, so the September – October window is the one to look for. Microsoft plans on packing a lot of new features in the upcoming OS, when compared with the currently existing ones, and this might be the main cause for the RTM delay, but things should run smoothly afterwards, and, hopefully, no future delays will emerge.
However, it wouldn't be a first for Microsoft to push back the release of its products, so anything might happen here. Even so, the company's CEO, Steve Ballmer, already said that the software giant was committed to making things right with WM 7, though it remains to be seen whether this will pan out or not. A WM 6.5 – WM 7 interim version of the OS has been also rumored to make an appearance on the market sometime at the beginning of the next year, linking the two platform flavors, yet nothing is official on this one either.