After the release of Windows Mobile 6.5 every one would be curious to know when would be the next version to be out.Back in September, Steve Ballmer told the Venture Capital Summit that he wished Windows Mobile 7 had already launched but that the team had been “completely revamped”; “we’ve pumped in some new talent” and “this will not happen again” two VCs tweeted him as saying.

Actually Windows 7 main feature would be better web browsing with zoom functionality but that was pulled forward into Windows 6.5 then what does Windows 7 bring then and when would that be ? Motorola CEO Sanjay Jhawas the first to let slip that Windows Mobile 7 wouldn’t be around until 2010 and Microsoft confirmed that. A Windows Mobile presentation on the Microsoft site (in Danish) talks about Microsoft finishing the Windows Mobile 7 OS in November 2009 and devices appearing in April 2010; the same slide gets the 6.5 software date right as April 2009 but predicts 6.5 devices arriving in September, not October, so even if April is the planned date it could slip.Expect Microsoft to announce a public date at Mobile World Congress next February.

Where did Microsoft mess up was when a version of Windows Mobile was finished, i.e  when Windows Mobile 6.5 was finished on 22 April this year but instead of handing it over to phone manufacturers to tweak and customize for their devices the team stayed involved and delayed the launch until phones and upgrade versions were ready.To make that stage shorter and easier, Microsoft has said it wants fewer high-value partners for Windows Mobile in the future.Why doesn’t it want to grow.Rumors keep spreading that Microsoft plans to only have it run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform (currently there are multiple phone platforms based on the Arm chip, from TI, Nvidia and others).The matching rumor is for a Tegra-based Zune Phone platform for the consumer market, built on Windows Mobile 7 but marketed separately.

Steve Ballmer has said repeatedly that the next version of Windows Mobile will have Zune services.The same spec has a minimum screen size of 3.5″ and WVGA (800 by 480) or FWVGA (854 by 480), and multi-touch, so there must be a different specification for non-touch Windows Mobile Smartphone. The ‘chassis’ terminology could also be behind rumors that Microsoft would make its own phone.

The Windows Auto Gesture Interface introduced in 6.5 makes programming touch gestures for apps, like swiping your finger to scroll, easier but the app still has to redraw and update the scrollbar when you use the pan gesture.The WAGI API was originally designed to go the extra step and take control of content drawing and scrollbars as well,” says Marcus Perryman of the Microsoft UK Developer and Platform team; “but there wasn’t time in the schedule to implement this for 6.5.” That sounds like Windows Mobile 7 will do more of the work for apps.

There have been rumors of 3D gestures (where you move the phone) and camera gestures (where you move your hand, or use the camera to do 3D gestures without an accelerometer) but these are not robust yet.HTC HD2 would be the first phone to get multi touch throughout the OS and you won’t need to wait for Windows Mobile 7 to release.Brian Goldfarb of the Silverlight team has been telling us that Silverlight would come to Windows Mobile at some point, and last month he confirmed to the Seattle PI that Windows Mobile 7 will have Silverlight 3, in the browser, for apps and for the UI as well.

To summarize the problem with Windows Mobile is many different teams are already working on different mobile devices and experiences at Microsoft (Zune, Danger and Pink as well as Windows Mobile). Another would be that the Windows Mobile team goes through a regular cycle of believing it can convince mobile networks and manufacturers what to do the way it can with PC manufacturers.Once the balance is setup we can see some Windows mobile 7 action.What do you think would be the future of Windows Mobile 7 ?

Thanks to Techradar

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