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Windows Mobile 7 Phone Release Delayed Again

jcoventry writes "Microsoft is delaying Windows Mobile 7, and it is thought new phones with the operating system are unlikely to reach the market before 2010. Microsoft partners who had expected to have a final release in their hands by early 2009 have been told that it won't be ready until the second half of 2009. Partners include companies like Verizon, Motorola and Samsung, all of which plan new phones that include the Mobile Windows 7 OS. Windows Mobile 7 is expected to have features like gesture recognition and speech input."

12 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Android by ohtani · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Welp, there's always android for now.

    --
    Pancakes. Oh I blew it.
  2. Too slow by viljun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Microsoft is just too slow and clumsy nowadays. Mobile Windows 7 may already be old at the time it hit's the market.

    --
    Ville / Varuste.net
    1. Re:Too slow by tobiasly · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Imo, version 5 and 6 were both old by their release. Windows mobile has a lot of nice features but the interface is boring and lacking and the OS is buggy.

      You ain't kidding. Its resemblance to desktop Windows is striking though... you have to reboot your phone every few days or else everything starts running slowly, rendering halfway-drawn dialog boxes on the screen, and eventually crashing. And talk about poor integration... every app that has you enter an email, phone number, or contact name does it differently. Some use auto-complete, and others don't. It's just a mess and I can't wait for Android to come out.

  3. gestures by nighty5 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm no iPhone fanboy but it seems ironic that after 6 iterations of Windows Mobile, Microsoft still hasn't released an update to handle gestures.

    iPhone is way ahead of the game in this area, and I'm sure Apple intend to exploit this position agressively.

    Microsoft must be kicking themselves for resting up during the last couple of revisions, whilst Apple takes away significant market share and "wow factor".

    p.s i don't own an iPhone :D

  4. Re:Not the full story by Tweenk · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The bad news: it's based on the desktop version of *IE6*.

    For God's sake, Microsoft! Stop defiling the world with this unholy abomination! Would somebody think of the children who grow up to become web designers and whose souls are going to be destroyed and their life energy drained away by sinister forces while they unfruitfully struggle to fix their layouts deformed beyond recognition by the filthy bowels of IE6? Now we have ultimate proof that Microsoft is Satan incarnate.

    --
    Those who would give up liberty to obtain working drivers, deserve neither liberty nor working drivers.
  5. Typical Slashdot by DavidD_CA · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Let's not mention this:

    Microsoft will push for a minor update its 6.1 version as early as this year still, calling it 6.2 -- which will have some bells and whistles like an improved browser that can display Flash and Ajax applications.

    Let's also not forget that for a significant number of business users, WM 6 is quite sufficient and still beats the iPhone, Android, and Blackberry hands-down in a corporate environment.

    For proof, take a look at the latest WM6 phones from HTC and Samsung, such as the Touch Pro about to come out in a few weeks.

    All of these competing phone OSes are making improvements (such as the iPhone 2's ability to activesync), but by the time they catch up with WM6 in the business world it will be 2010, when Microsoft has released WM7.

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    -David
  6. If you're going there, the iPhone is more flexibil by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Insightful

    While you may be right in terms of the market, if you just want the best phone with the most flexibility and software, it's definitely going to be on WM6.x for the forseeable future, as long as you're willing to mod your phone

    I'd have to say you're far better off getting an iPhone and Jailbreaking it if you are allowing mods into the picture. There's already a lot of useful software from the App Store and from the jailbroken apps today.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  7. Re:Falling behind... by ceoyoyo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If you know C and it takes you longer than twenty-four hours to become familiar enough with Objective-C to program an iPhone then you don't know C.

    Objective-C is an extension to C, not some completely new language.

  8. Pocket Windows? Never again. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I have used several versions of Windows for PDAs and phones. Every single implementation was bloated, slow and unreliable. Reboots were needed daily and battery life was always crap.

    I am now a blackberry user. There are few things I miss like on-board development but at least it's damned reliable. I can actually use my BB as an alarm clock and don't have to worry about a missed wakeup because of a crased OS. I will never purchase a windows based device every again.

    BTW, palm wasn't good as an alarm clock either.

  9. Re:Yawn... MS isn't in the running on this one by DECS · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It fits into the 2006 list. Symbian market share is now down to 55%, just as Microsoft's WiMo fell from 23% back in 2004 to today's 12%.

    Nokia is taking over Symbian and making it into an open source foundation because royalties are dropping rapidly. Nobody wants to pay for OS software. Without revenues (down 14%), Symbian can't afford to invest in modernizing.

    The era of Windows-like software platform licensing is over. From here on out, it will be integrated proprietary platforms (RIM and Apple) or free platforms (Google and Ubuntu). There's no need for paying for a commercial software OS. Symbian is adapting, Microsoft is pretending the climate isn't changing.

    Ballmer changes tune while dancing around Apple's success

  10. Re:Amusing to read that... by KevinKnSC · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Um, between Ballmer and Jobs, you've got the wrong reality-distorting Steve.

  11. That's some incredible Microsoft fanboyism... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Xbox? You know the console which is selling more {...} than practically all of its competitors combined? Sure it's not selling like the Wii {...}

    Yeah, that's a coherent and logical argument, Xbox sells more than all competition combined, except that one of the competition is selling even more. Somewhere, you failed at your "additions" skills.

    which is pretty much a WiiSports Box {...} Let's fire Balmer for releasing the most popular gaming machine amongst gamers and giving microsoft a reputation for releasing cutting edge home entertainment gear?

    Well, you can argue that the Wii is targeting a different market than the hardcore gamer oriented PS3 and Xbox360, thus they are not comparable.
    Except that, currently, Wii is selling more units nonetheless, and making more profit. For a "make profit at all cost" company like Microsoft, it's still defined as a failure.

    Zune? Have you used a Zune? {...} the only Microsoft product which has attractive, hip and desireable marketing.

    And let's not forget about the completely asinine market move about completely scraping the whole "Plays-for-Sure" WMA campaign and associated DRM, and push a different distribution scheme which none the less use the same WMA format (so users are even more confused) while at the same time using a completely incompatible DRM (Now, please stay in line with your credit card ready in order to rebuy once more all the music collection you already have bought).

    Oh, and add to the list the single best argument that the Zune has over the iPod : wireless. Except that the over protecive DRM managed to botch it and doesn't really let users squirt files at each other for more than 3play or 3days (when at the same time, owners of non-locked bluetooth enabled PDAs and feature phone have been happily swapping whatever over bluetooth).

    Yes, indeed. The Zune is such a brilliant gadget !

    why would Microsoft want to get into the business of offering a pmp to stereo vertical integration of the entire media market when Xbox Live Marketplace and Zune marketplace finish their inevitable merging?

    Why criticizing them ? I don't know perhaps because... ...they haven't it done yet, and the Plays-for-Sure debacle has shown that won't trully integrate, just introduce new incompatible systems ?

    Microsoft has had the stated goal for decades that they want to be on your computer, TV, Car and in your hand. { ...} Eventually they'll succeed and it'll all work together. You'll buy a movie on your xbox and watch it on your zune. You'll buy a song on your zune and play it on your xbox. You'll have all your music on your laptop and your phone. Zune is just a windows CE device with the desktop hidden.

    Well, except probably this will require you to have a new special Zune 3, a Xbox720 and a laptop running Windows 7. You'll be forced to upgrade everything otherwise it won't be compatible (a la Vista is required for DirectX 10). And you can count that you won't be able to drag around all your previous acquisition, but would need to buy them again once more on the ground on a new different DRM scheme.
    Which probably will let you only play once on the Xbox what you bought with some other device. And will let you only 1 single pairing of a WinCE device.

    Also count on a nice bunch of net worms able to seamlessly exploit the whole windows enabled family.

    Vista might be a black mark but personally

    Vista is such an awful product that even a Microsoft fanboy can't manage to find anything positive about it beside "mine hasn't crashed as often as other people's".

    And maybe... just maybe the reason they aren't releasing in 2009 is because they recognize that fact and want to actually take the time to do it right--for once. Microsoft's greatest failing is usually their rush t