Steve Ballmer was recently questioned about Windows Mobile. His answer sounds like a typical business response. It’s full of fluff and lacking any real answers.
Microsoft is launching WinMobile 6.5 later this year, and WinMobile 7 sometime in 2010. 6.5 has so far failed to impress many — it certainly has not become an answer to the iPhone OS or the Android platform. Not much is known about WinMobile 7, save for the most important fact: It’s due out in 2010. I would like to reiterate; WM7, which is supposedly Microsoft’s answer to the iPhone OS and Android platforms, isn’t coming out until 2010. That’s over two years after the iPhone came out (actually, the iPhone was released in June 2007, but the SDK came out in March 2008, so I’m giving them some bend here).
Microsoft is shooting for 2010 to be where Apple was in 2007. And let’s not forget, Apple likes to shoot for where the puck is going to be, not where it is. If Microsoft wants to impress, they’ve got to pull it together and stop resting on their desktop-marketshare-laurels.
Jason
