Windows Mobile 7.0 due on LG phones this year
Retailers, get ready
CES 2010 LG Electronics has confirmed the first devices featuring Microsoft's highly anticipated Windows 7 Mobile will hit retailers in 2010.
LG is reported to have told the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, it will ship phones running Windows Mobile 7 and 6.5 this year.
Gizmodo reported LG saying Microsoft supposed-iPhone challenging touch-and-gesture based Windows 7 will ship on its eXpo smartphone and projector and the Snapdragon. You can see the report below, or read Gizmodo's full coverage from the event here.
LG promises Windows-Mobile-7.0 phones this year
The 2010 date appears to confirm the previously anticipated delivery of Microsoft's mobile operating system.
UX blogger Stephen Chapman last May wrote, based on a leaked slide from Microsoft partner Commentor, Windows Mobile 7.0 would be released in November 2009 with devices due April 2010.
Microsoft's chief executive Stave Ballmer almost completely dodged the subject of Windows Mobile during his CES keynote Wednesday, but promised more details next month at the annual GSM Mobile World Congress, in Barcelona, Spain.
This suggests Windows Mobile 7.0 next month.
"We will have a lot more to say about phones next month at Mobile World Congress," Ballmer said.
A Microsoft spokesperson refused comment on the dates, saying simply the company works "closely" with LG. ®
COMMENTS
@Jim coleman
I think good sir, you are deluded.
"WM is the only OS that properly synchs with Outlook and doesn't suffer from total lockdown or rely on the often unavailable internet connection to be able to operate. WM7 will be a fresh start"
You think M$ will unlock the ability of outlook to do anything with another Mobile phone OS? So WM7 will still be the ONLY phone OS that can sync. It therefore won't be a fresh start, it will be more of the same.
I fear WM7 will just be a rehash of WM6.5, like Win7 is to Vista. But as someone else said it will be dead on arrival. People have left for blackberry, Iphone and android, they won't come back unless it really is free and open to sync with the kind ofthings people actually use, not what M$ want them to use and that requires updates in office 2003, 2007, 2010 etc.
Why are they finding this so hard??!
For goodness' sake they've got:
a) The brand which is known to 90% of the population for being synonymous with a PC
b) Money. Lots of it.
c) People to copy.
d) All the advantages for syncing and integrating with things, as they probably wrote the app/OS it's syncing to.
e) As far as I understand it, a fairly ok nuts and bolts underneath?
While I appreciate that this isnt a sure fire recipe for a innovative and revolutionary system, they've had a decade to skin an OS to something that DOESN'T NEED A FUCKING STYLUS! Quite which M$tard decided that the way to go was to take the Win95 desktop and shrink it......
HTC have managed to skin 90% of WM6 into something approaching usability with several iterations appearing over the course of a few months, so why can't MS?
They need to deliver
Windows Mobile 7 needs to be very good in order to stop market share loss. If it's not, then I think that Microsoft needs to seriously consider pulling plug on windows mobile platform. It doesn't do Microsoft any good if they keep putting resources and effort into platform that will hover around single digit market share. As others already pointed out, there are ways for Microsoft to make money on software for mobile phones without having its own OS. Of course, there's significant chance that for Balmer it's going to be pride issue and he'll try to keep WinMo as long as he is around.
Just to be clear
it's Windows Mobile 7, not Windows 7 Mobile (i.e. it's a new installment of the Windows Mobile abomination, not in any way related to Windows 7 the desktop OS)
