Moto CEO casually name drops Windows Mobile 6.5 in conference call

We've all been waiting patiently for Windows Mobile 7 to drop since the crust of the Earth was still cooling, and at this point, Windows 7 proper could theoretically beat it out of the gate. What's a perpetually delayed platform to do, then? Come up with another stop-gap measure, of course. Windows Mobile 6.1 was designed to plug some short-term holes in 6, and it's looking now like there could be a 6.5 waiting in the wings to plug a few more. Nothing has really been revealed about the mysterious, heretofore-unknown version, but Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha mentioned it in passing during the company's earnings call today while discussing the fact that 6.1 really hasn't been able to keep pace with Apple in the "user experience" department. Would it be totally naive of us to hope for a little Xbox Live Anywhere in there?

[Via CoolSmartPhone]

[Grant @ Oct 30th 2008 2:58PM]

Maybe at this point

[TurboFool @ Oct 30th 2008 3:00PM]

Something tells me he was talking out his ass about that one, but time will tell...

[Ray @ Oct 30th 2008 4:10PM]

Meh, microsoft has been a bit patch happy as of late. I guess any update is welcome as long as we dont get 6.1'd again lol

[who? @ Oct 30th 2008 3:01PM]

Yeah, they need to add Xbox live! I use my iPod Touch for all that stuff! Is that screwed up or what?

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=287944389&mt=8

[htd @ Oct 30th 2008 3:03PM]

I dont care about ie6 or silverlight on wm7, a more touch friendly wm6.5 could be nice

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Oct 30th 2008 3:08PM]

Dammit! Just yesterday I said I was putting my money on WM7 beating the Nuviphone to market.

[GON @ Oct 30th 2008 3:14PM]

I guess we have long way to go before we get to version 7. This update will probably have the new IE Mobile browser:
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=14526
But we still know for sure that Microsoft is working on version 7, as it appears (very brieftly) in their Live Mesh ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFpwzg-AP_Q
Now to play the waiting game.

[Chris @ Oct 30th 2008 3:19PM]

On May 10th 2000, Motorolas stock was 58$ per share. As of right now its 5.13$

[Ashwin @ Oct 30th 2008 3:22PM]

Don't go buy that, because almost every tech stock that was around back in 2000 is down a lot. However unlike most tech stocks, Motorola is down 80% since 2006.

[o rly @ Oct 31st 2008 12:25AM]

You're going by their pre-dot-com bubble price when all tech stocks were high?

[Justin @ Oct 30th 2008 3:26PM]

I'm not sure what to make of this statement.

I'd be completely content with 6.1 if it simply had a more finger-centric approach to input as opposed to a stylus. I don't know why the OS can't use both--use the stylus for precision aspects (if necessary), or transcribing for those who like to do us--but why isn't the phone book, quick-view calendar and other quickly-accessed but rarely-changed information easily accessible?

PointUI.com is a saving grace for WinMo users like myself. I bought an HTC Touch for it's capabilities as a smartphone, but I'm waiting on Androind or WinMo 7 to really unleash it's potential.

Here's hoping.

[Brian @ Oct 30th 2008 4:43PM]

try TF2D its practically the same as touch flo 3d on the diamond and touch pro but slimmed down to work on older devices
go find it on xda devs it works on my hermes and is better then pointui

[wildman_91 @ Oct 30th 2008 3:28PM]

forget 6.5. freaking put your resources into bringing us winmo7 that much sooner!!!

[SchmuckyTheCat @ Oct 30th 2008 3:37PM]

Isn't every handset OEM just licensing SPB Mobile Shell to cover up WinMo? Microsoft could just give it away and call it 6.5.

[JAmerican @ Oct 30th 2008 4:00PM]

Xbox Live Anywhere is never going to happen! Microsoft is pissing me off. I have a Windows Mobile phone, Xbox 360, Windows OS. What gives. Make it happen already. I don't have a Zune because it doesn't seem like it makes much sense to invest in such an isolated product from Live with all the content on Xbox Live.

[SimbaDogg @ Oct 30th 2008 8:20PM]

yeah, seriously 6.1 blows balls. i dont even know why MS rolled it out. Honestly what significant changes are there other than the threaded SMS? you can zoom in IE, but seriously all it does is essentially put your ugly date in a pretty dress. Doesn't change the fact that its still ugly (and by this i mean under-performing, i hope everyone picked up on the analogy). Auto sync for bluetooth headsets? i could care less. For god sakes MS, i'm sure you have the tech know how to compress and speed up the OS, that would be a huge step in the right direction. More finger friendly? of course...i could honestly wait for WM7, but either give me a speedier OS or more touch friendly...please

oh yeah, one thing that they could have def spruced up is windows media player. as far as listening to music on my bluetooth headset, it stinks in terms of functionality. uses waaaay too much of the phones resources. A Zune-ish style media player would be great on the phone for 6.5/7

[JerkfacedFed @ Oct 30th 2008 11:01PM]

APPLE BIAS AGAIN

CHRIS ZIEGLER IS AN AMATEUR

[silverblackvoid @ Oct 31st 2008 11:36AM]

wtf r u talkin about?