Courtesy of fonearena
With CES out of the way and an army of new mobile technology invading your wallet, Microsoft might be trying to pull some of the spotlight back in their direction. We posted last week about the overwhelming amount of companies claiming that WinMo will be delayed until next year. Apparently Microsoft didn’t appreciate that kind of press, so they’ve fired up the old rumor mill to give the WinMo fans a glimmer of hope. This week LG and HTC both leaked out the news of their upcoming devices running 7 mobile, and both have a release date before the first of next year.
According to WMExperts, the new OS is to be named “Seven.” No mobile, or Windows Mobile anywhere in the title. They are said to be working on two editions of the new OS, one will be a business edition and one a media edition which could be split releases on different dates. A lot of talk to the tune of a Zune Phone Experience is being tossed around, too. The integration into the Xbox, Zune like Audio, apps, Silverlight and music experience would bring MS mobile up to speed with a full media experience on your phone. Balmer’s keynote at CES focused some pretty good attention on media, streaming TV, Tablets, and some E-book integration into the Windows world. It seems that media on the go is the next big leap for MS to take, and I would imagine the new mobile OS is how they are going to start the ball rolling.
This week Nokia gave us a peek at the next gen Symbian , Google claimed Froyo as the next Android outing, and Apple of course is keeping 4.0 sealed up tight for a new hardware release. Microsoft has been losing some heavy ground now that almost every smartphone has exchange support and calendar sync. The market is looking for something offering more, not something that just brings you up to speed. I hope MS can fight back and throw some of those billions down to get back into the fight. They have the backing of all the major handset makers and some excellent phones already promised to stay in the WinMo corner.
Some of the rumors actually make sense with all the snazzy new hardware news. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon is finding a home in almost every new phone set for future release. The HTC HD2 has been out for some time and is scheduled for the 7 update when the time comes. The LG Apollo was announced as an August/September release and is to include 7. Some of the specs include a 1.3GHz Snapdragon, 1GB Ram and Rom, GSM + CDMA, 3.7″ (1280 x 720) AMOLED screen, and a 10MP camera with 720P video. The HTC offering tunes the specs down a bit, very similar to the current HD2 including a 1GHz Snapdragon, 512MB Ram and Rom, GSM, and similar 3.7″ AMOLED screen. I’m sure by the time these phones are out there will be a dozen others like them. I’m also pretty excited about the latest Motorola offerings, but they are pushing software loyalty towards the Android movement.
I’m hoping to see a blend of Media experience and some big business features in the next showing of Microsoft’s Mobile OS. I’m an avid Android fan but still like to see what the competition holds. When someone makes something great, someone else has to make it better. I had my share of WinMo, Symbian, and RIM in the past with some great features from all of them. The competition is stiff, and the mobile market is exploding. With reports of less computers browsing the web and more phones, its only a matter of time until we get some superphones to consolidate a handful of gadgets into one pocket device. MWC is only a few weeks away. Hopefully Microsoft comes through for us all in Barcelona.
Via WMExperts