Eldar Murtazin is a Russian mobile phone guru who’s been able to get his hands on unreleased phones time and time again, and now he’s dishing on Windows Mobile 7 – the long awaited, and delayed, modern smartphone OS from Microsoft.
According to Murtazin, the UI in Windows Mobile 7 borrows heavily from the iPhone and Android OS and features “a lot more horizontal movements, a lot of additional info by clicks… for WM users it will be a great step ahead. For market it’s a copycat of Android 3.1/3.2 [sic] or iPhone.” Notably, the build of Win Mo 7 Murtazin got his hands on didn’t support older Windows Mobile apps, and it’s just as well since it’s about time Microsoft start moving its technology forward into more modern territory. Still, the lack of backwards compatibility may be addressed in future builds.
With the advent of the iPhone and the now surging Android OS, Windows Mobile is largely seen as an also-ran that simply can’t compete in a crowded marketplace. Microsoft’s most recent effort, Windows Mobile 6.5, was universally panned by critics and they desperately need Windows Mobile 7 to be a hit if they want to remain a player in the smartphone market, especially as their tried and true handset partners are increasingly focusing their attention on Android. As it stands now, Microsoft is expected to show off Windows Mobile 7 in mid-February at the Mobile World Congress in Spain. Microsoft’s President of Entertainment & Devices, Robbie Bach, has said that the upcoming version of Windows Mobile will be much more than a simple evolutionary upgrade, and that it plans to work more closely with its OEMs to deliver a better user experience.
Windows Mobile 7 is tentatively scheduled for a mid to late 2010 release.
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Via WMPoweruser
Sun, Jan 17, 2010
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