Windows Mobile 7 to debut next month


12 Jan 2010

Microsoft’s focus at CES last week was on tablet devices and Windows 7, but the much-anticipated Windows Mobile 7 operating system looks to be arriving sooner than previously thought following a remark made by its Entertainment and Devices Division president Robbie Bach.

Bach, who was talking mostly about Project Natal and the future of the natural user interface, took time mention that Windows Mobile 7 will debut at next month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

MobileGuerilla.com reports that Bach said he himself had played with Windows Mobile 7 and felt it would raise the bar, and not just as the next iteration of Windows Mobile.

“I have had the pleasure to look at it and play with it, and I’m confident that people will look at it as differentiated, as something that sets the bar forward – not in an evolutionary way, but something that feels, looks, acts, and performs as something completely different,” he said.

The current mobile OS from Microsoft, Windows Mobile 6.5, was just released in October 2009 and its revamp included the free My Phone service that allows owners to automatically back up and sync photos, music, contacts and text messages from their phone to the web, making it easy to access and manage them from their phone or PC or restore the information in the event of a lost phone.

By Marie Boran

Photo: Leaked screenshot of not yet released Windows Mobile 7