Windows Mobile 7 pushed back to second half of 2009?

Good thing nobody's working on anything right now in the smartphone space, or this could be really bad news for Microsoft, whose current version of Windows Mobile lost the technology and usability edge a while ago, and is being bandaged up by the likes of HTC to keep the OS relevant to consumers. According to CNET, some of Microsoft's partners in the space are claiming that the upcoming Windows Mobile 7 has been pushed back to the second half of 2009, instead of the "early next year" they'd been expecting. Microsoft has yet to make a formal announcement about the release date of the OS or the specific feature set, so we can't exactly point our fingers and laugh, but we'd say crying big, mobile OS tears into our morning cereal is certainly appropriate.

[Thanks, pd]

[Mike C @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:27AM]

BOOOOOOO!

want now!

[Rob Bourne @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:57AM]

Nice shot in the foot there, MS.

[wako @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:20AM]

a shot in the foot would have been them releaseing version 7 out this year. From what the last known shots of WM7, the software was by far no match to the iPhone and probably Android (we'll know soon!). If they keep developing it, hopefully it will actually be able to compete in today's mobile market.

WM6.1 is fine for now with HTC's touch interface.

[Jash Sayani @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:26AM]

Nice interface. It has the Windows feel.

[typoink @ Sep 23rd 2008 3:21PM]

The last real details we heard, WM7 was basically a stopgap measure. It was going to be very similar to WM5/6 but tacking on a handful of new little usability tweaks and the like. WM8 was already under development, and was going to be the flashy, touch-oriented overhaul that would make WM competitive in the iPhone / Android landscape. WM8 wasn't expected until 2010.

If they're pushing back WM7, that sounds to me more like they're really trying to push forward WM8 -- which is a good thing. Better to hold off and deliver more of the good stuff than release an incremental update that just reinforces views that MS is completely out of touch with the market.

[Andir3.0 @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:52AM]

Oxymoron of the year: "Nice interface. It has the Windows feel."

[anon @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:03AM]

I agree with wako. Should they release it now just to release it? If it's not so good, people will say "way to shoot yourself in the foot there MS, should have left that in the oven a little longer."
Damned if you do, damned if you don't...

[Rob Bourne @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:08AM]

wako:

I guess you're right to an extent - it would have been an even bigger shot in the foot if they had rushed 7 out. I was just a little disappointed that it's now going to be another 9 Months at least before we see what was speculated to be out pretty soon.

Oh well, I do hope it will end up being absolutely kickass, especially now it has another platform to compete with.

[Sisyphus @ Sep 23rd 2008 12:16PM]

If all you want in your phone is to have nice 3d wooshing features, then yeah, I guess WinMo 6.1 is irrelevant to consumers.

Wait, are you saying Engadget loves Vista Aero?

[SimbaDogg @ Sep 23rd 2008 6:42PM]

@ typoink
i think you have the stopgap confused. That is NOT what WM7 would be. That is what windows mobile 6.1 is...considering that WM6.1 is basically 6.0, which is basically window 5.0, which is basically windows mobile ce. WM 7 is supposed to the be platform to address all the "eh..its a windows mobile device" issues that some parts of the public still insist on having. i for one can't wait for 7.

[loosely_coupled @ Sep 23rd 2008 7:52PM]

I think Google did the wrong thing , and should have waited like MS until Android was more polished and optimized before releasing it. It obviously isn't close to being a stable, high performance platform.

- Bluetooth/A2DP/tethering isn't ready
- Exchange support isn't ready
- Desktop synch isn't ready
- All the apps are rough around the edges
- The web browser is slow and laggy
- etc

[pthomas @ Nov 4th 2008 9:32AM]

Microsoft is working hard to catch up with the big players. Just check out this article on AzureJournal: http://www.azurejournal.com/2008/11/windows-sensor-and-location-platform/ . Looks like not only M$ is working on "touch" phones but also laptops, tablet pc's and other devices. Have you seen Mirosoft Surface? All that research is not done for nothing:)

[DssTrainer @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:57AM]

On one hand.. this tells you that M$ was either bringing another lemon to the table and realized they needed more... or that WinMo7 is going to be so packed with awesomeness that they couldn't get it all done in time.

Considering they are bringing IE6 with all of its glorious limitations for styling and jscript... I think we know its the former more so than the latter.

[Leindurstit @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:00AM]

WOW, did you think of replacing the letter 'S' with a dollar sign all by yourself? What a promising young achiever you are!

[DssTrainer @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:23AM]

I'm pretty sure the use of the abbrev M$ for microsoft has been around for a long time. Surprised they haven't trademarked it yet... Welcome to your first day on the Internet!

[Mark Anderson @ Sep 23rd 2008 12:25PM]

You're right. It's been around for as long as the utter cocks who use it.

[James @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:58AM]

Instead of engadget being a technology blog site, they of course have to make fun of MS again.

[Bellzebub @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:13AM]

I thought this was still a technology news site? I personally believe that if Microsoft are potentially falling behind with an important update to the haphazard OS my phone comes with, then this is relevant and newsworthy for a site such as Engadget (definitely not newsworthy in the more important bbc news sense). I would also argue that in this case the slagging was deserved - may the Flying Spaghetti Monster bless HTC for making the WinMo interface a little more user friendly for my fat fingers and prettier, to the relief of my aging eyes.

[James @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:18AM]

I was referring more to the point and laugh comment. It does not sound very professional. Im a WinMo user as well. I have a BlackJack 2. I also agree WinMo 7 will be a nice change from what we currently have, but Im just sick of the overall MS bashing in each article Engadget posts. Hopefully you will see now I was never saying the article wasnt blog worthy, I was just saying the way they blogged it was childish.

[Matt @ Sep 23rd 2008 3:55PM]

I don't think you understand what a blog is.

[Khattab @ Sep 23rd 2008 8:58AM]

Bad news. Would have loved to see a good fight between Android, WinMo 7 and iPhone's OSx in the first Quarter of 2009.

[Phillip J Fry @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:26AM]

Same here.

I was optimistic about the chances of MS releasing WinMo 7 early next year as this could have set the scene for a very competitive Smart phone market (not that it already isn't). Personally, I was looking forward to a market war involving the iPhone OS, WinMo 7, Android and Blackberry OS.

This news does disappoint me quite a bit as our hopes of running WinMo 7 on the HTC Touch HD sooner are dashed. Although, I would rather MS release a refined and market ready product later than release a buggy one sooner.

Let's just all hope that MS can deliver a new Smart Phone OS worthy of being in the competitive smart phone market which they have tried so hard to dominate.

[Ike Turner @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:06AM]

1) How can you say that there's "delay" if the product has never been announced?

2) Did you really think that HTC would be releasing the HTC HD if WM7 was coming out in a few months ?

3) How is this affecting MS anyway? WM phones a re most feature rich and advanced phones on the market now (and they are selling quite well)

WM7 will come out in JUNE 2009 at the same time HTC annouces their new generations of WM Touch smartphones (they did this in June 2007 1 2008

Look & listen, he clearly says not coming out in early 2009 : http://www.akihabaranews.com/en/news-16549-Interview+of+John+Starkweather+from+Microsoft+Part+1+on+3.html

Nothing new

[Bender Bending Rodriguez @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:28AM]

"WM phones [are the] most feature rich and advanced phones on the market now (and they are selling quite well)"

HAHAHA That's a good one!

[kjb434 @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:40AM]

I agree.

WM phones are pretty much the best smartphone available out there. And you get several flavors and levels depending on your needs.

Another good point, most of the improvements to WM that are coming in WM7 are incorporating the improvements made by third party interests.

Microsoft has let the public decide how they want the interface to operate. HTC's latest WM shell and countless others available to download on the internet give users complete flexibility and power over the OS.

You truly don't realize the power of WM and your smartphone until you start customizing it.

[DssTrainer @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:20AM]

I think the "SmartPhone" is decent from WinMo... but their full WinMo Pro just limits the hardware by trying to do too much windows, and not enough phone.

WinMo devices should be a phone first, and a WinMo second. Perhaps its just the hardware that can't keep up. I'm sure WinXP would be crappy on a 486DX PC too. But all the same, I find that with HTC's Manila front end on my touch, I use very little of the rest of WinMo.. and Office Mobile is the most unnecessary thing in the world. No matter how many people rave about it. I've still yet to see someone reading a 30 page doc file on their phone without getting a headache.

Just use a VNC program and remote into your PC.. thats the only application that needs to be on a phone.

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:33AM]

kjb, et al...

I'm sorry, have you ever used Windows Mobile? It's like they threw a cell phone on as an afterthought.

It's a vaguely acceptable toy with some great apps. It's fun to play with, if you don't mind having to manage all of your processes manually just to make the device usable. However, I'm more concerned with the thing ringing when a call comes in, and telling me when I have voicemail from the call it didn't tell me about, than I am about breaking out my mad phat task manager skillz.

Why anybody ever bought one over a BB is beyond me.

[Mark Anderson @ Sep 23rd 2008 12:27PM]

@Unix thingy.

Yes, I have used one. Have you?

[24 @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:10AM]

It's kind of funny how this site make fun of MS for windows, zune and xbox. If MS decided to stop making these things were will we be. Windows is used every were! For windows mobile 7 it was supposed to come out around 2ndQ of 2009.

[Andir3.0 @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:58AM]

"If MS decided to stop making these things were will we be. Windows is used every were!"

And you think this is a good thing? Educate yourself on the topics of Monopoly, Predatory Pricing, and complacency.

[Eric H @ Sep 23rd 2008 11:02AM]

Yay Andir is back to educate us with his business savvy.

[Curnsie @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:14AM]

If this is true, how come a company a big as Microsoft take so long to update WM?

[Craig @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:20AM]

It's not a priority.

With Vista being hated by half of the corporate world, and Office 2007 generally panned as an unnecessary update for most, Microsoft is pretty busy shoring up their two cash cows (OS and productivity).

Ideally, Microsoft would rather handsets just run a lean version of their desktop OS (sound familiar?), making WM a necessary evil for the time-being.

[Michael Chastain @ Sep 23rd 2008 2:16PM]

"and Office 2007 generally panned as an unnecessary update for most"

What planet do you live on? Not that any upgrade of Office is ever "necessary", but Office 2007 is the most significant upgrade to the suite in at least the last 10 years in my opinion. Some people don't seem to be able to adjust to the new interface, but by and large it's received incredible reviews.

[RyanTV @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:13AM]

The sad reality is that they are going to end up loosing more of their faithful over to iPhone and even Android.

Hell, if Palm could get their act together and get their new PalmOS out, maybe they could even get a few customers back as well.

[Mark Anderson @ Sep 23rd 2008 12:29PM]

You think?

*Looks at the HD Diamond, Pro, HD and the Samsung Omnia*

Nope. Shouldn't think so.

[surur @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:17AM]

"Windows Mobile lost the technology and usability edge"

I wont argue usability, but when did WM lose the technology edge? It has Exchange Activesync obviously before Apple did, it has built-in tethering before Apple, it has cut and paste, it has stereo bluetooth and bluetooth FTP. Its has speaker-independent voice recognition. It has a today screen which Apple is trying to patent. It multi-tasks, something which brings Mobile OSX down. Its open to skinning and deep modification.

If all you care about is graphics then MS may have lost that technology edge, but when I am doing turn by turn GPS navigation while listening to Internet radio streaming over A2DP from Kinoma Play, I find that MS has more than enough technology to keep me going, and that other fruitier platforms (and even android it seems) are still very far behind.

[jakem @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:42AM]

Well said. It just goes to show what half-wits are running this site. For a tech blog they have an extremely limited view of what technology actually is and are more interested in what's pretty than what actually works.

[Forrest @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:08AM]

Thank you! I really was wondering where exactly the fuck the whole 'loss of the technology edge' comment came from. Just more crap to generate page views, as comments like that are sure to start a shit storm in the comments. Besides, the fact that WinMo can be "bandaged up by the likes of HTC to keep the OS relevant to consumers" is exactly what allows it to stay technologically current.

Oh yeah, also Copy and Paste.

[humps @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:07AM]

what you said are pretty much right. But winMo wasn't designed for touch interface and that's where it seriously lacks when the device manufacturers are trying to follow the touch trend set by the fruit company. WinMo smartphone version doesn't even have touch screens and it shows MS designed the OS with hardware in mind and touch wasn't a feature they expected so they are (like everyone) catching up.

What they also lack, out of the box, PIE is PoS and they may as well buy Opera licences and ship with it. The picture viewer, media player need complete overhaul. Build-in MSN Live Map would be good (iPhone N9x comes with gmap? out of the box). It doesn't work on Mac but i know how you're going to argue on this. No complete phone back up, new firmware wipes everything and if the common winmo users relies on so many 3rd party software to get the phone usable, it is many hours wasted to reinstall and reconfigure.

turn by turn nav is not because winMo has the tech, other OSes can do the same (S60, BB e.g.) and whos to say TT isn't gonna be available on iPhone too?

The key is, you get people writing software to simulate iPhone's features and not the other way round (apple probably block it anyway). This just shows what the owners think of their devices' OS and I've had had 3 generations of winMo (not including the iPaqs).

[Surur @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:23AM]

You talk about the picture viewer for example. With the iPhone picture viewer you can zoom and pan, but can you crop? Can you permanently rotate the picture? Can you send it via bluetooth to some-one else?

Dont mistake a fancy GUI for technology.

[Darren @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:32AM]

"(apple probably block it anyway)."

Exactly, Apple only allow you to up stuff on that they want, with WinMo you are allowed to install and run anything you like on there.

[Craig @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:17AM]

Isn't that just about the same time Palm is supposedly releasing devices based on its new Palm OS replacement?

Given iPhone/Android/Symbian, I wonder if either will be relevant by that time.

[JayMonster @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:26AM]

I would rather them delay the release and actually fix some of WinMo's problems than rush another release out for the sake of another release, and then announcing as products are about to hit the market that they are yanking thinks from the SDK like Bluetooth.

The one thing that I appreciate about people buying the iPhone is that MS finally realized that they can't continue with their Spyglass era browser in the phone (why it took them so long to realize this is beyond me). Of course unfortunately the iPhone also helps promote some stupid ideas like omitting cut and paste, but at least MS only omits that on WinMo Standard.

Palm has once again delayed their next gen OS (faux shock), Android is fighting to get a single phone onto the market, and so far has actually delivered nothing but hype. So, why is this delay so horrible? I think they would be shooting themselves in the foot more by releasing WinMo7 early with a feature set that is incomplete or unable to compete than it is to delay it for a month or two (which is all we are really talking about here).

[Curnsie @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:26AM]

@Craig
Good point. The end of 09 sounds a long way off!

[Backlin @ Sep 23rd 2008 10:05AM]

Maybe it will come with a free copy of Duke Nukem Forever for Portables.

[Decoy @ Sep 23rd 2008 3:58PM]

@Backlin

Memes: Do not want!

[Cybergypsy @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:28AM]

Bugs , maybe???? LOL

[jakem @ Sep 23rd 2008 9:45AM]

Yes, Microsoft would clearly be better off following Apple's lead and releasing their next OS before the bugs are worked out. You can call me to discuss this once your iPhone sorts out its reception problems.

[Joel @ Sep 23rd 2008 1:55PM]

That would never work for the simple fact that Microsoft doesn't release the OS to users.

Microsoft releases an adaptation kit, which an OEM uses to build the OS for their specific device. If Microsoft released the OS with known bugs and they make their way to a user then updates made by Microsoft must go through the OEM (to build a new OS image) and those updates must be approved by the phone carrier and assuming that both the OEM is willing to make a new image and that the carrier is willing to approve it then the image is available to the user.

Unfortunately there is also the problem of update discovery. Since each OEM has made their own OS image (And not Microsoft) there is no central source for a user to discover that there is an OS update available for their device (after all, not every one reads Engadget on a regular to learn about everything going on in the phone world).

http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2005/10/06/477999.aspx