Microsoft to Include a Widget Engine with WM 6.5

According to the latest news on the Web, Microsoft might include Windows Mobile 6.5 with a widget engine, which would allow applications built from HTML and JavaScript to use the IE 6 Mobile engine, yet leaving aside the “chrome,” such as IE menus or address bar. Normally, the engine would only be associated with web pages, and not apps.

If the platform is indeed to come with widgets, it would provide companies with a fast and simple method of creating applications that would support their web services, the main focus of the online widgets these days. Some examples of such applications would be widgets used for tracking packages and auctions on Ebay.

It seems that the apps would come with the .widget extension, while coming as zipped HTML, JavaScript and graphics files. For the time being, it seems that Windows Mobile 6.5 builds that are available only include Live Search, MSN Money stock tracking and MSN Weather widgets.

In related news, we learn that Microsoft’s Kevin Turner forecasts that the company will be able to sell about 22 million copies of its Windows Mobile operating system during the ongoing year. It is still unclear whether he is referring to the calendar year 2009 or to the fiscal one. Assuming that he was talking about the fiscal year 2009, this would mean that the company expects to see a 22 percent increase in sales over the 2008 results of 18 million.

At the same time, we should also note that the previsions for last year initially pointed to 20 million copies sold, yet the company missed the target by 2 million units due to the fact that some of its partners delayed the launch of their products. Since the 6.5 version of the Windows Mobile platform is expected to be launched this year, and it has been reported to come with a series of nice improvements over the existing WM 6.1 platform, there is a good chance that sales will go up.