14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Mobile 6.5 is one operating system that many enthusiasts are eagerly waiting to come to the market, as it promises to bring a wide range of improvements when compared to the previous iterations of Microsoft's mobile platform, transforming the rather aging OS into a more competitive solution, able to fulfill the needs of today's mobile phone users.
And while the platform has been already reported to be completed, meaning that the development process has come to an end, we still do not know for sure when the first mobile phones that will feature it will come to the market. What seems to be more annoying from a certain point of view is the fact that some reports place the appearance of the first WinMo 6.5-based phones sometime in the fourth quarter of the ongoing year, or about half a year from the time the OS has been announced as “done.”
And since the aforementioned enthusiasts would certainly like to see the platform on the market earlier than the holiday season, we might have some good news for them. It seems that the first mobile phone that will officially include the platform (apart from the already reported device running a leaked WM 6.5 ROM) is expected to be the HTC Tachi (previously spotted on the company's roadmap as Twin), which should land in China exclusively on the Dopod network no later than July.
Some already available handsets (including HTC Touch Pro2 and Touch Diamond2) will probably see an update to Windows Mobile 6.5, yet Tachi seems to be one of the first to be launched with the OS right from the start, at least legally, though it was initially expected to come to the shelves with WinMo 6.1 on board.
What the handset will be able to offer includes a 2.8-inch VGA screen that boasts a 480 x 640 pixel resolution, a 3.1-megapixel photo snapper with auto focus, Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity, Wi-Fi capabilities, a secondary front facing camera (which suggests that 3G should also be on board), and a microSD memory card slot for additional storage space. Hopefully, the phone will come to more markets in the near future, yet no details on that are available at the moment.