14 DAY TRIAL // With February just around the corner and with the possibility that Microsoft will unveil officially the next-generation Windows Mobile 7 operating system during that month, it was only natural that more reports on the matter emerged. Given the fact that the Redmond-based software giant is mum when it comes to its future products, it becomes pretty hard to distinguish between what is rumor and what has chances of becoming reality, yet it seems that it shouldn't be long before things will be clarified.
In the meantime, there are some who tried to put things in order before the official announcement, such as WMExperts, who put all the info that emerged until now on the OS together, then drew the line. The first thing that strikes is the allegation that Windows Mobile 7 will come in two flavors to the market, differentiated according to the market segment they are targeted at: Windows Phone Seven Business Edition and Windows Phone Seven Media Edition.
One can easily imagine that the former version won't include too much of entertainment features. It seems that it comes with low minimum specs, that it will offer OEMs the possibility to throw in their own UI, but one should also expect it to come with all the necessary functionality a business user is looking for. As for the latter flavor, it will bring forth a Zune-like experience, with HD media playback, social networking, and more.
Silverlight, Mediaroom, a Zune-like music player, XBox Live (possibly gameplay), streaming media, Facebook and Twitter interfaces (similar to Xbox), Zune Music integration are just some of the features the media edition is expected to arrive on handsets with, and what handsets, we might add. The OS will support only resolutions over 720 p, and should arrive on mobile phones that pack processors clocked in higher than 1GHz, it seems, at least this is what the first two handsets that will sport it are said to include.
The entire mobile industry is already moving towards more and more powerful processors. 1GHz chips are already present in a series of handsets today, and some of you might already know that 1.3 and 1.5Ghz CPUs are expected to arrive this year or the next. At the same time, an impressive growth can be seen in all aspects of smartphones, including cameras, connectivity, multimedia capabilities and more. Basically, Windows Mobile 7 will set the bar higher mainly because the industry has made the step, we can say.