More WM 6.5.x Details, Touch Enhancements

Windows Mobile 6.5 is to have a successor before the next-generation Windows Mobile 7 will arrive on the market, this is no secret to anyone. However, there is a wide range of details about the so called WM 6.5.x version, unknown at the moment, including those regarding its arrival on handsets, as well as its actual purpose. WM 6.5 has been seen as an upgrade from WM 6.1, while WM 7 is expected to turn into something totally new, yet it still remains to be seen what the WM 6.5.x flavor of Microsoft's mobile operating system is all about.

According to a recent article on mopocket, the said flavor of Windows Mobile, set to arrive before WM 7 is here, is as real as it can be. It won't come as WM 6.5.1, as we thought at a certain moment, yet it will be an upgrade for the existing Windows Mobile 6.5, aimed at offering a better user experience when using the operating system on handsets that sport capacitive touchscreen displays. This is what a Microsoft representative reportedly said about the iteration: “The new UI was not designed necessarily to be the next version of Windows Mobile, however a proposed solution to the problem of using Windows Mobile on a capacitive touch screen.”

Many of you might know that, although we already have on the market a mobile phone that runs under Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.5 OS and also sports a capacitive touchscreen display, namely the HTC HD2, the platform does not sport optimizations for this type of screens. Since the mobile phone industry seems to be moving towards capacitive when it comes to touchscreens, having an OS that is compatible with the technology from all points of view is something that Microsoft seems to be aiming at and this is where the said Windows Mobile 6.5.x flavor comes in.

However, it should be noted that the Redmond-based software giant hasn't announced anything official in this direction. All that we know about this WM flavor comes from the series of leaked builds, that emerged on the web over the past several months, and which have recently moved from the WM 6.5.1 branch to the WM 6.5.3 one. One of the latest leaked builds, Windows Mobile 6.5.3 build 28002 shows a new on-screen keyboard, better suited for finger operations. Making Windows Mobile more touch-friendly involves a new soft keyboard, as well as changes with the menus, Start button and top and bottom bars. Since these changes have been already spotted, we should wait to see what the final version will actually look like.