Some Windows Mobile 7 Thoughts

On Monday at a developers conference being held in Barcelona Microsoft previewed to the world Windows Mobile 7. This is the release of Windows Mobile that Microsoft are hoping gets them back in the game against Apple and Google.

From the reaction I have seen online so far it does sound like Microsoft may have done just that.

But there are a few caveats with this coverage and the opinions being expressed at the moment (including this one here). No one has a phone with this on at the moment and nor have they used it. Phones with Windows Mobile 7 on are not due out until the end of 2010 I believe.  These phones will be from some of the usual Microsoft partners which includes the biggie HTC.

HTC are really the leaders outside of Apple in designing smart phones. They have been doing it for years now, mainly with Windows Mobile and more recently with Google Android.

So until folks have a Windows Mobile 7 based phone in their hands and they are using the final production version of Windows Mobile 7 we really won’t know whether Microsoft has really pulled it off and got themselves back in the game.

It’s also a long time between now and the end of 2010, in that time there is an expected version 4 of the iPhone OS to be released. Plus there is very strong reasons to think that we will see at least one if not two more major releases of Google Android.

One thing I am sure of though is that Nokia and the Symbian OS are an also ran and we are seeing the possible death throws of that OS. That is despite the recent open sourcing of the Symbian OS and making it free to other manufacturers. It comes across as too little too late, or to hammer the point home even more shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted. Don’t get me wrong Nokia will still make phones I just think they will move eventually to Android for their smart phones.

The Palm Pre is also going to be an also ran if not already dead. I have seen rumours that production has been stopped currently on the Palm Pre range. Whether this is due to the supply line being at full capacity or that they are just not selling and well you get the picture. The Palm Pre was always a last throw of the dice for Palm. A gamble that is not paying off.

RIM and the Blackberry they have yet to respond properly to all the above. I’m not writing them off yet. But based on their attempt to take on the iPhone in the past I’m not holding my breathe.

The main points are we need hands on, we need to see how it compares to the expected updates from the competition, and only then can we make a better more informed discussion about this all. But in the meantime it does look like Microsoft have stepped up to the mark.