LG releasing Windows Mobile 7 phone in September and Android 2.1 in April?
By Ross Miller 
posted January 16th 2010 10:48AM
posted January 16th 2010 10:48AM
posted January 16th 2010 10:48AM
powered by gdgt
Google Android 4.0
Microsoft Windows Phone 7
Microsoft Windows 7
Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5
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to much time to wait for WM7
@outlaw85
Might be a little too late for Windows mobile now
@GoogleCEO i was hoping a release in spring with the HTC HD@, but in SEPTEMBER!!!! the iPhone 4G its going to be out by that date, poor windows mobile..
@GoogleCEO: its never too late. The droid managed to resurrect android back into popularity and that was released not too long ago. The phone market is still very capable of accepting a new player and if rumors are to be believed, wm7 is bringing the hardware power that the droid brought to android, so as long as the os delivers, I see it taking off.
remember, there are tonnes of wm 6.x users itching to upgrade and they will.
@GoogleCEO
I dunno. Fashions change and the likes of HTC will build hardware regardless of OS used.
But this is most definitely Microsoft's last chance saloon I think.
@GoogleCEO
Yeah because, you know, all of the people that will ever buy a smart phone would have bought one by then, so there will be no one left by September!!!!!
OMG IT'S TOOO LATE!!! How can any OS be available after some arbitrary date ever hope to be used by anyone!!!
Arrrrrrgh!
@outlaw85
Ok, so?
3GS was just a faster processor and a digital compass. Outside of that it was the same phone and same OS. Unless you are going to start making up all type of mythical stuff that some 4G phone is going to be able to do in order to pre-subscribe superiority over everyone else, it stands to reason that that device will be...the same phone, slightly faster, maybe a higher res screen, and some gimmick like a solar compass.
Yeah poor Windows Mobile...
@Ruben The interesting thing about the Droid is.. that given the Verizon marketing blitz? that could have been ANY phone and it would sell like mad.. it will be interesting to see if it leads to a longterm uptick in sales or if when the marketing cuts back down to normal, if the android sales on Big Red are supplanted by whatever new gizmo they push
@GoogleCEO its never too late to let competition goes first so MS can screw them with better ideas.
@LAY .. the 3GS also has bettery battery life, twice the RAM, upgraded graphics chip (OpenGL ES 2.0 support), twice the speed on HSPDA, voice control, upgraded camera component to 3mp, autofocus and video recording.
So a little more than just a faster processor and compass.
@(Unverified) .. except that MS has shown that they do better when they don't focus so much on the competition and just trust themselves. Office 2007, Windows 7, Zune HD, XBox Live.
@outlaw85 Windows biggest customer has always been corporate users. WinMo7 will be a hit with enterprises. The consumers, you and I, are really never that big of a deal for MS. IF you need to connect to your work email, you either go with a WinMo phone or Black Berry, remember how the 2g and 3g Apple phones had Exchange support? Then 3GS came out and some people realized that the previous versions didn't have proper encryption? It's fun to lose your phone and have someone get all your work data.
@LAY
Good thing phones have about a 2 year life on average. The market is always prone to take-over, will complete rollover every couple years. Especially from big players with money to burn on market research and ads.
If you make something that people tell you they want, and then tell them about it when it's done. They will probably buy it from you. At least I hope so. We need to be saved from the never-ending onslaught of worhtless application development, in favor of actual mobile computing advancements. Windows stable core and open integration to 3rd parties is what has allowed so many game-chinging improvements to happen in the PC world. Neither Apple's closed off approach or Linux/Android's open approach are conducive to buisness-minded software development. Apple won't let you inside it's shell and Android creates no assurance that the shell you code against will be there when you're done. Both result in a flood of simple, mindless applications like virtual beer-pong or a guitar simultor. Neither of which is likely to be on the path to improved quality of life, or the development of viable renewable energy uses. Not to downplay entertainment, because I am a fan, but I'd like to think that if I'm going to invest my money in technology, then tech should in turn drive us toward improvements in daily life.
If I forget everything I know about the last 10 years and just looked at the apps that have come out for mobile devices as some sort of insight into the state of the world, I would have to think that our largest global problems were that someone stole all maps and roadsigns, and we were strickened with an over-abundance of free time and couldn't figure out what to do with it. LOL.
It just seems like we should be doing better.
another useless lg phone
@(Unverified) I don't understand. What or who is First, and what exactly are they first for? You don't make any sense with your post.
Please LG, for once, release a good-looking Android with a qwerty (and a front cam)... Having Tegra 2 won't hurt too.
@TareG, I would love to see a WM7 or Android device with tegra 2. I really see WM7 taking off since it had the tech to back some very powerful games on the device with that kind of hardware.
But really what they need to do is make a small phone with a game controller case, but built at the same time so with or without it the phone looks nice.
just plzzz don't butcher android the way it has been with blur or that thing samsung did in the behold 2. Take the que from the droid and the nexus one. The best android phones are pure.
@Unverified User Does that make you feel important? For the first time ever in life? I'm glad.
and something more, this time from htc
http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=12232
the most interesting part - "HTC was involved in the development of Windows Mobile 7"
@(Unverified) I'm sure all the major hardware manufacturers were involved as MS is rumored to be more strict on minimum hardware specs and is planning to have a more handson role in decining on what's appropriate for its new mobile OS.
HTC have come up with some very neat looking UIs and I think they understand their market well so any collaboration with them and WM7 will be good. After all they're probably Microsoft's biggest mobile partner (citation needed).
Is this going to be the first version of Windows Mobile based off of Windows 7 or is this still WinCE?
@Bender Bending Rodriguez
it'll be winCE based.
But that in itself isn't bad...
@Jonathan K CE is also known as "Windows Embedded." Its a rock solid embedded OS used in everything from inventory scanners, touchscreen cash registers, handheld barcode scanners, and thousands of other things including the underlying platform of the Zune HD. Dont confuse UI appearance with an unstable OS.
@Ioncloud9
Nope. Windows Embedded is actually based on XP, until the release of WE 2011 which will be based on Windows 7. It only runs on x86 systems and the primary feature is the ability to deploy customized images to hardware with only the features needed for the job.
That doesn't change the fact that WinCE is a reasonably solid OS.
@Kira That would be Windows XP Embedded as opposed to Windows Embedded CE which is what I was referring to.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_CE
I hope it is worth the wait.
I'd love to upgrade my Touch Diamond.
@bob e You won't be able to upgrade that phone to WM7 as it doesn't come close to meeting the minimum specs.
@bob e I'm guessing you'll need at least a Snapdragon chip to use W7, and solid graphics acceleration (not sure if the Snapdragon handles GPU tasks).
Oh Yes!
If this works, then it will mean that WinMo7 is a casualty of more powerful processors.
Man do I EVER want this phone. Windows 7 is the best that I have ever used and even a cut down, slow copy on a phone would be just the greatest ever.
@rederikus Windows 7 and WinMo 7 have nothing in common aside from the version number.
They are updating 6.5 to support capacitive and killing it's ancient menu system shortly too ... Leo and Paul T were talking about it on Windows Weekly a couple days ago. Microsoft has been busy ... i would buy a capacitive 6.5 device without hesitation as long as its around $400 or less.
I'm sorry what? Windows Mobile 7 in September? Too long.
I don't think that Windows Mobile 7 has already lost the battle. There are a lot of people out there that want a mobile OS that offers a great integration with Microsoft Enterprise products, like OCS and Exchange, while offering nice multimedia capabilities. If Microsoft succeeds in making a good OS, then I don't see any reason why they will fail. The mobile space is very big and there is room for 3-4 big players. Apple, Google, Palm, Microsoft and Nokia (Symbian) will play a big role in the next 10 years in the mobile space.
@petvas 10 years? That's doubtful. They'll be a shakeout and we'll likely see only 2 major players by then, akin with what happened at the start of the PC OS revolution in the 80s and to a lesser extent the 90s. I feel this past decade was analagous to the 80s when all these new OSs were first developed.
The 90s and this upcoming decade are when we saw/will see all but the major players die out. For instance OS/2, Commodore 64, Amiga all died out. I'm sure we'll see similar casualties in the mobile space, such as the non-touch screen windows mobile standard, Brew, and some of the big guys. Likely Nokia's symbian won't be able to keep up with the R&D and cash of the larger software companies, such as Google, Apple, and MS. Nokia may just end up deveoping hardware for either Andriod or Windows Mobile like IBM did after OS/2 fell off. I'd say the same thing about RIM, but they have such a large foothold in the businessworld. But maybe as todays teens and 20-somethings enter the workforce, that'll change as the younger generation uderstands that just about all phones do e-mail (RIMS only true advange is the older POV that a BB is a must for email) these days.
@Luxury Guy
The market has many differences compared to the PC one. I still believe that 3-4 big players will stay. What we don't know is how successfull they are going to be. Apple cannot dominate in terms of market share, they need to offer a cheap iphone in order to do that.
Microsoft has a much broader spectrum and audience and still sells much more Windows Mobile devices than Apple (worldwide).
Google also needs phones for the masses in order to be successfull.
RIM needs to go beyond email if they want to expand. Palm needs more models and a faster development of the best mobile OS, WebOS.
Nokia has the advantage that they sell phones all over the world and to all kinds of people. They have normal phones and smartphones and they have been for many years successfull. I do not see how they are going to fail.
I am talking about the general mobile industry and not the smartphone space..
not much happening today, is it?
I have a hard time getting excited over LG phones with WM on them. I think LG are good bang for the buck phones but nothing I'd be interested in now that I don't think of cinderblocks and milk crates as new furniture.
The HD2 is slim, fast, has a huge screen and built in flash - I don't see anything remotely like it in LG's line up.
The Nexus one is slim, fast has a good sized screen - I don't see anything remotely like it in LG's line up.
The Toshiba TG01 is extremely thin, fast and has a huge screen- I don't see anything remotely like it in LG's line up.
The palm pre is clunky, has a small screen, is cheap but pretty durable - I see plenty of phones like that in the LG line up.
Hardly the sort of hardware I think WM should be debuting on - I think MS would be smart to debut on a cutting edge, sexy phone if they want WM to seem at all elegant.
@boe
Windows Mobile 7 needs to offer the following features in order to be a success:
* New GUI optimized for Multitouch
* New Internet Explorer that will offer at least the same experience as Safari on the iPhone
* A new Mail app that properly renders and display html email.
* Windows Media Player must also become as good as the Zune Player
* A great Foto app must also come
* Integration with Exchange, Sharepoint and OCS
* Microsoft must make its OS updateable independent of hardware. They must also make sure that future updates will also be offered on ALL Windows Mobile 7 devices.
* Microsoft needs its own phone in order to strengthen mark recognition.
@petvas
agree WM7 needs many things for WM to survive. However I will say running WM 6.5 build 2814, WM is about the only OS besides iPhone that meets all of my needs.
I expect Android will meet it shortly but the current Nexus One OS still doesn't natively support Exchange calendar sync, occassionally crashes (although I've had every previous version of WM 6.5 including build 2016 crash so I can't complain - haven't been running 2814 long enough to comment on stability).
My concern is the hardware WM7 will initially be released on. Do you think Android would have made much of a splash if the hardware it was released on was the Pixi?
Sprint is supposedly launching an HTC candybar WiMAX phone. A true 4G phone with WM7 would be very sexy indeed.
@Ioncloud9 I think it is going to be a small screened phone like the blackjack. Also Sprint "4G" is only available in 33 out of 30,000 cities in the US. Not much good for 99.5% of the US population.
@boe I don't think the rumored HTC device will be a small-screened phone. I expect Sprint to inaugurate 4G with a high-end device. A device with a small screen would fail to show off 4G bandwidth and to capture consumer attention. Also, the "candybar" form factor has been used to describe many large touch-screen devices.
So, hopefully Sprint will be doing the right thing... the logical thing... by releasing an amazing device to show off 4G. :-/
when will LG offer LG eXpo GW820 in europe ?
just need a fast WM phone with sliding qwerty and decent camera but can hardly find one.
Sweet, that's right around when I'm due for a new phone.
For Microsoft's sake I hope W7 is a success, otherwise, they can kiss the mobile market goodbye. Android, iPhone and ummm maybe WebOS will just overtake it into oblivion [as engadget so fondly puts it]
@Johnny Ive : Android just barely came into being in phones, until about a year ago. If you think Android can catch up so well, why not WM7?
@outlaw85: "the iPhone 4G its going to be out by that date, poor windows mobile.."
I disagree. I think it's great for Windows Mobile 7 if iPhone is released months earlier. It allows plenty of time for:
1. The version of Windows Mobile 6.x announced at CES to utterly fail, and
2. Microsoft's marketing department to re-spin their ad campaign to make it sound like WinMo 7 is in any way similar to iPhone OS 4.0.
So, as always with Microsoft, waiting to see what Apple does is always beneficial. That way they don't waste effort on their own hopeless development projects before they start directly copying Apple.
Big Ass Table, anyone?
btw lg won't have stand at mwc
http://gsmworld.com/newsroom/press-releases/2009/4489.htm