Microsoft is set to lift the covers off Windows Mobile 6.5 this Wednesday, with local launch partners Telstra and HTC joining in for the occasion.
It’s a big month for OS launches, at least if you’re Microsoft. The worldwide kick-off for Windows 7 is barely two weeks away – but tomorrow belongs to its smartphone cousin, Windows Mobile 6.5.
Windows Mobile 6.5 may be over fresh but it’s been a long time in the baking, and Microsoft has plenty riding on it.
The most substantial previous release, Windows Mobile 6.0, shipped in February 2007, and a lot’s happened in the interim. Well, actually, only
one thing happened – the iPhone – but pretty much everything else in the mobilescape shifted and changed as a result.
Key features to Windows Mobile 6.5 include a streamlined UI built around more touch-friendly ‘touch to swipe’ sliding screens plus a new Today home screen and Start menu.
Windows Mobile 6.5 gets a new home screen UI (above) and Today screen (below)
The improved Internet Explorer mobile browser also does a better job of representing Web pages with more desktop-grade fidelity plus enhanced touch control and navigation, as well as boasting native support for Flash Lite.
Microsoft is also stripping the ‘mobile’ from the operating system’s consumer brand – the devices themselves will be marketed simply as ‘Windows phones’.
This will allow Microsoft to leverage the desktop dominance of the Windows parent brand and also leads into related issues such as the familiar UI and easy phone-to-PC synchronisation.
Microsoft will launch Windows Mobile 6.5 at a media event in Sydney’s Hilton Hotel on Wednesday morning. Sharing the stage will be HTC and Telstra.
The former will showcase its HTC Touch Diamond 2 (seen below) as a poster child for Windows smartphones, and the device will of course run on Telstra’s Next G network.
The Touch Diamond 2 has a 3.2-inch WVGA touch screen and ticks all the boxes for a high-end smartphone such as GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a 5.0 megapixel camera.
However, it remains to be seen if the Touch Diamond 2 will sport Telstra’s customised Windows Mobile facelift, known as the ‘TelstraOne Experience’ UI.
The TelstraOne Experience UI overlay, as seen on the Windows-powered Motorola A3100
If so, then you’ve got to wonder if things are getting a little out of hand considering that the Touch Diamond 2 already has an exceptional UI in HTC’s TouchFlo 3D model, while the OS of course has its own Windows Mobile UI.
The new breed of Windows Phones will also include the Microsoft-hosted My Phone backup service (above)
and the Windows Marketplace mobile app store (below)
In addition to the OS itself, Microsoft is popping the champagne on the Windows Marketplace for Mobile app store plus the
My Phone cloud-based backup service which is built into Windows Mobile 6.5.