Redmond, Washington — Microsoft is reportedly planning to make a big splash, with the launch of its revamped Windows Mobile 6.5 and its associated services at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona(MWC), which is taking place between February 16 and 19.
So far Microsoft has still not confirmed the reports, but leaked screenshots show a slightly revamped UI coming in the next version of Windows Mobile:
Last September, speculation was hot around various cloud services that Microsoft was working on linking with Windows Mobile 7. A month later, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer confirmed that WinMo6.5 was coming down the pipeline for an early 2009 delivery. And today, the news indicates that Microsoft will be unveiling their Windows Mobile 6.5 OS at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month. We could not help but wish that the Windows Mobile 6.5 UI would be as finger-friendly and menu-averse as the leaked screenshots indicated.
According to Microsoft watcher NeoWin, that includes a preview of the next edition of Windows Mobile and some new services for consumers and companies. These include:
SkyMarket: An AppStore for Windows Mobile device that caters beyond the current Windows Mobile Catalog. It is mainly aimed at “developers desiring to distribute and monetize their Windows Mobile applications.”
SkyBox: A Windows Mobile devices will make a debut as Microsoft’s new cloud-based phone-synchronization service, similar to Apple’s MobileMe service. In addition to syncing contacts, email, text messages, calendars, and photos to the cloud, SkyBox also allows for over-the-air backup and restore of the your mobile phone.
SkyLine: A SkyBox for small businesses will be released as the enterprise-strength version of SkyBox that allows companies to setup Microsoft Exchange hosting on their own domains.
One interesting concept NeoWin states: SkyBox and SkyLine might work on non-Windows Mobile devices. For instance, a small business using Google Android or Nokia Symbian-based devices might somehow be able to tap into them. But we’ll have to wait and see how that turns out.
Microsoft is also planning to unveil these three mobile services at MWC. If the services become popular enough, Microsoft could end up offering any or all of them to non-Windows Mobile devices.
So far specifics have not been released about the next version of Windows Mobile, but a plugged-in source in the mobile software industry tells us it is pretty good.