Windows Mobile 7 roadmap elucidated, starts with MWC 2010 demo
By Vlad Savov 
posted January 27th 2010 2:17AM
posted January 27th 2010 2:17AM
You know, January is all but expired now. Gone are the heady (or is that headless?) days of CES 2010, and we're nearly past the rumor euphoria of the decade, so what do we have to look forward to? According to CNET's sources, WinMo 7. This year. Sure, we heard as much from DigiTimes, but it's always good to put a more legitimate source to what is quite the juicy forecast. Confirmation that Microsoft is planning to finalize all code by this summer also meshes with an earlier leak of an LG Windows Mobile 7 handset set for a September release, while the latest Pink phone rumors are also reiterated. At any rate, it all kicks off in Barcelona come February 15, with Microsoft also circling its MIX 2010 web development conference a month later as the time it'll start dishing the dirt on how to code for the new OS. So there we have it, new consumer phones and a long overdue WinMo overhaul all coming to you within the next few months.
we are waiting apple tablet!!!!!!!
@rhezaganteng WTF GUYS, I thought engadget readers is apple fanboy,
@rhezaganteng you sir, are an idiot
@rhezaganteng as you can see by the downranking of your post, engadget does NOT consist of apple fanboys.
frankly, i'm surprised winmo is being revealed so early. i thought it was delayed a bit?
@kamikazeshrimpy i'm not sorry.
@rhezaganteng
No, you're a cock.
@MarkAndersoni'm not sorry.
@rhezaganteng i'm not cock and idiot.
@rhezaganteng
Sheesh, what the hell is wrong with you guys? So he wants to buy the Apple tablet, who cares? Are Windows fanboys such assholes that you need to insult the guy for it? Leave the guy alone, already.
Anyways... WinMo 6.1 is the last WinMo I will ever use, with any luck. I really don't understand Microsoft's strategy with WinMo7. Without backwards application compatibility, this is basically a brand-new operating system, starting over from scratch. What reason will developers and handset manufacturers have to adopt yet another OS? The market is already super saturated with iPhone OS and then Android, and WinMo is a year and a half behind Android, which is itself a year and a half behind iPhone. Even WebOS has a better chance at adoption.
@tonicboy What the hell is wrong with YOU? So he wants the apple tablet. There are plenty of threads where he could, in his broken english, tell everyone about it. This is an article about Windows Mobile 7.
As for your nonsense, How could you possibly understand Microsoft's buisness strategy regaring windows mobile 7, WE DONT KNOW WHAT IT IS YET?
Windows mobile may be looking a little long in the tooth, but underneath, it is still every bit as powerful as your iPhone OS. IT can do everything the iPhone can do, with the exception of buying overpriced content from the iTunes store.
Saturated market? Less than 15% of all mobile phones currently in use are smart phones. Thats a big potential market left. Plenty of room for multiple phone OSs to thrive.
@nickl
It's free country, who cares where he posts? What are you, the fucking topic nazi? Sheesh, people complain about how Apple fanboys are obnoxious but all I see here are a bunch of Windows assholes picking on a guy who just says he's waiting for the Apple tablet. If you even dare to say anything that isn't critical of Apple here, you're instantly downvoted (disclaimer: I don't even own any Apple products. Well, I used to have an iPod but not anymore). So go ahead and downvote me, that's what you guys do best.
@tonicboy WM7 will win for the same reason Windows has won (yes it has, so just shut up): Variety!
In fact, I am having a hard time thinking of a smartphone form factor that you can't get a WM phone in. Anyone?
@rhezaganteng
You sir, are a... http://www.planetdan.net/pics/misc/asshat.jpg
@rhezaganteng Tolol Lu.
@tonicboy
The internet is not a country.
I wonder what would happen if, say, I started talking about windows seven in one of the two dozen Mac'siPad posts that have existed the last few days?
Oh that's right, I'd be labeled a "M$ (*sigh*) Fanboy" and told that I'm stupid and worthless for not cuddling a macbook to sleep.
@CJ "Oh that's right, I'd be labeled a "M$ (*sigh*) Fanboy" and told that I'm stupid and worthless for not cuddling a macbook to sleep."
Oh please, you'd be Highest Ranked in a heartbeat. This is the Engadget comments section after all, where anti-Apple fever runs hot.
@rhezaganteng - Never mind that, ASK ME HOW MICROSOFT COULD LAUNCH A WIN MO7 APP, ER, MARKETPLACE STORE WITH 500,000 TO 700,000+ APPS (ECLIPSING APPLE) OVER NIGHT!
Go ahead ask me, ask me...
PS Actually, never mind. I'll call Redmond directly. I'm sure they would PAY ME WELL for such an AWESOME GAME CHANGING IDEA. Just sayin...
@rhezaganteng
It's the Engadget staff not the readers
@tonicboy: "Without backwards application compatibility, this is basically a brand-new operating system, starting over from scratch."
Uhm, the rumour source that said that WM7 wasn't backwards compatible was the one that said WM7 wouldn't be making any appearance at MWC.
WM7 is based on WinCE 7 (Chelan), which IS backwards compatible with CE 6. From the most reliable rumours (if they can be called that), the 'Zunephone', or Pink, will come out before a full-fledged WM7. The Zunephone probably won't be backwards compatible, but I'm willing to bet dollars to donuts that WM7 will be.
i repeat, WE ARE WAITING APPLE TABLET
@rhezaganteng : I repat, I'm giving you a low rating because no one seems to care!
@Techie its repeat man, i doubt you didn't use auto-correction on the iphone.
@rhezaganteng morons who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.
Oh, you mean the iLetdown. Only thing it can be at this point with the hype.
I wonder if we will get multiple topics a day about Win7 for the phone when it gets close to launching. Doubt it.
@Anatidae I urge you to search back to the days before the Zune HD came out. Every second post was a Zune-this, Zune-that rumor or confirmation. If there's some bit of really hot news you think we're missing, use the tips form on the top right and let us know.
@Vlad Savov
You are kidding right? How about this - compare the iPod Touch related articles to the Zune related articles. I'll bet it's at least 5 to 1. You must have a very selective memory if you are recalling massive Zune posts.
@Anatidae I'm shocked that the pink phone project isn't dead!
@Vlad Savov On Sept 14, there are 3 posts tagged 'Zune'. In the last 24 hours, you have 10 posts tagged 'Apple'. Do you need a napkin, you have some egg on your face.
WinMo is so far behind iphone and android it's ridiculous. Unless they plan on giving 7 for free to manufacturers instead of licensing it, I don't see how they can compete with Android.
@Luffy
They'll compete the same way Android does. Polished and capable operating system paired along with good hardware, that's how RIM does it, that's how Palm does it, and that's how Apple does it. You know, back in the day, WinMo was considered "polished and capable" and there are still phones with excellent hardware, it may not be so polished nowadays but that's why they're putting so much effort into Windows Mobile 7. Competition is good, my friend.
What exactly are they behind in? Honestly, Windows Mobile is an extremely capable OS, and in some areas, even more so than others. The only thing it really lacks that the others have, is a good public (ie not business) image. It's pretty much Vista all over again, and hopefully WM7 is the phone world's Windows 7
@EGOvoruhk Yeah say that to my motoQ running 6.5. (maybe its 6.1... whichever)
@EGOvoruhk I don't see whats so capable about it. It seems a lot less capable than iphone and android from my experience. And it feels way clunkier, even with manufacturer skins.
@Lando Calrissian I think the only reason Blackberry is still prominent is because of users who can't let go, iphone limited to one carrier, and android just starting to get good penetration. Hehe, penetration. Windows 7 is a success because it's the only licensable commercial OS with tons of software support. They've fallen very very far behind in the mobile market. Palm Pre and Palm OS is pretty awesome, but look how inferior it's sales are to Android and iPhone. It will be the same story for WinMo7 no matter how polished it is unless they truly bring something new to the table. They can't rely on a software library in the mobile market.
@Luffy
It feels clunky because of the hardware, not the OS. Up until the HD2, everything WM device was pretty much running the same crappy Qualcomm 528MHz CPU. Android feels just as clunky with the same CPU, just look at the Hero. Again, similar to Vista, and how many manufacturers were shipping less capable systems with it installed
@EGOvoruhk I compared my friends Samsung Omnia to a HTC G1. Pretty much equal hardware specs. WinMo still felt clunkier, especially in the web browser. WM7 can't be the phone worlds Windows 7 because Windows 7 has no competition in the non-apple desktop/laptop market [linux? lol] It will just be a background player much like webOS and Palm.
@EGOvoruhk
They're behind in third-party software. Without backwards compatibility, they're starting from scratch. This is the same spot that they found themselves in with PalmOS, except that at the time, WinMo offered a lot of new features over Palm, which was philosophically opposed to more features (they were convinced users wanted 'simple', not features; they were wrong). Now, WinMo7 offers very little over iPhone OS or Android, both of which are chock-full of features and have had much more time to iron out kinks and polish their OS. Microsoft needs to rely on their muscle to strong-arm OEM's to produce hardware, and that is an uphill battle when they're up against a free and open OS like Android.
@Luffy Well here's one thing that the clunky, outdated WinMo can do, download and install an alternate web browser without having to worry about it being "blessed" by some corporate stooge. If you want to compare the new browsers you just downloaded, you could run several of them at the same time, something else you iPhone can't do.
If you don't like windows mobile, thats fine, but, just because it looks clunky, don't assume that it isn't every bit as powerful as the iPhone's OS.
@Dshark try a real WinMo phone before you start complaining. Comparing the vanilla non-touchscreen version of WinMo to other touchscreen OS when you have/had plenty of WinMo Pro options available. If thats all you've used you don't know WinMo.
@Luffy
Please ... I'm dying to hear ... what is it that your iPhone can do that my WinMo can't? Multi-touch - and who cares. Same goes for capacitive screens. I can do without them. On the other hand I have been enjoying MMS, Copy and Paste, and Multi-tasking for YEARS.
The iPhone scores big points for ease of use. The App Store is great. But I'll take Sense UI over the iPhone OS any day of the week. And I don't need 100,000 apps to pick from. All Microsoft has to do is cull developers over to recreate the top couple hundred apps. That takes care of about 95% of all useful apps.
The big thing people are missing here is the potential hook into the Xbox and Zune Marketplace for music. If WinMo 7 can leverage that infrastructure Microsoft will have a value proposition that can't be matched by Apple or Google.
@bjsguess Yup, and it's also had the same CE 1.0 32-slot process memory model for years, the same half backed Win32 API with GDI bolted on it for years, same UI elements taken from a PC trying to be crammed into a PDA / phone instead of innovating and trying to rethink how a phone really should be used for years.... WinMo was winning, I remember, it wasn't that long ago, and they sat on their ass and watched it fade away.
@Luffy What are you on? Mac isn't a threat! Outside of college campuses, Starbucks and Engadget HQ, no one has a Mac.
@Swagger
What does Apple offer that's remotely comparable to what Xbox offers?
@Swagger
Really? Are you serious? How about unlimited music downloads for 14.99/mo. That's about the cost of 2 albums on iTunes. Nuff said. Aside from that iTunes for Windows is more invasive software then the old AOL clients.
Who fvcking cares? The Apple's Tablet is coming out.
Generic Apple comment.
if the ZunePhone comes true i am totally ditching my BlackBerry. i don't care about the nasty AT&T ETF.
The problem with Winmo is the lag between announcement and actual devices shipping. I won't expect Winmo7 devices to be out until the end of the year, or Q1 2011 (September is too optimistic). In the meantime, there's the next iPhone, and a gajillion Android phones coming out (and a lot of them from companies that are/were supporting winmo). So I expect MS to release the Zune phone/pink/whatever soon/sooner.
@pika2000
And Chrome is free. And way better than Winmo.
That should scare the living sh*t out of Ballmer.
@Wesscoast
What the hell does Chrome have to do with any of this?