Microsoft today pulled the covers off Windows Mobile 6, previously codenamed Crossbow, and with it revealed details on a host of features as well as its current thinking for the roadmap for its ever-improving mobile platform.
Although Microsoft still plans to have a single mobile operating system at some point, for now there are still two versions: Windows Mobile Standard replaces the smartphone edition and Windows Mobile Professional runs on Pocket PC Phone devices.
The main difference between the two is still the touch screen, which is only available on Professional devices.
According to John Rourke, general manager of Microsoft's Mobile and Embedded Devices Division, keyboard-based smartphones will be an increasingly important device format: "You're going to have some people for whom having a touch screen is not the right experience on the device but for some the capability of the touch screen and the stylus is a big selling point. Over our history we've had more of our volume come from what was the smartphone category than the Pocket PC category. Now the lines are beginning to blur between what in the past were two separate platforms and that's intentional".
Both versions have big improvements to the Mobile Office applications: you can now create and edit Word and Excel documents but the Professional version offers richer editing tools, such as being able to create a new chart rather than just change the values in an existing chart. Initially Mobile Office will not support the new XML file formats of Office 2007; there will be a beta with XML support this spring and a update for Mobile 6 in the summer.
For the first time on any mobile phone, Pocket Outlook supports HTML email; text is downloaded and displayed first for speed but you'll see bold and italics, text colours and embedded emails. You can flag emails to follow up later - and see the flags in the desktop version of Outlook. Email and Contacts both show presence information from Windows Live Messenger. You can also now create meeting requests, using the global address lookup on your Exchange server, and a new "ribbon" view in the calendar shows your agenda graphically. Email search has improved, although it still lags behind that of competitive devices like the BlackBerry.
Microsoft has tested the browser against the company calls "the top 100 sites", for performance and page rendering. Pages are reformatted on the fly into columns, although you can get the standard view if preferred. Pages are pre rendered, caching is improved with a claimed 30 per cent improvement in loading times.
The new connection manager includes an improved tool for detecting Wi-Fi networks and simplifies using a Windows Mobile phone as a modem - over Bluetooth or USB cable connection - without installing a driver on your PC.
Windows Mobile 6 devices can be managed through the console in Exchange; there are also plugins for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) and Systems Management Server (SMS), including monitoring of ActiveSync in MOM so IT managers can be alerted to problems with push email. New policies allow IT administrators to enforce encryption of memory cards, strong passwords and password aging, and these can be managed by groups so you can choose which policies apply to users by department or job role.
For application developers, Windows Mobile 6 includes the .NET Compact Framework and the mobile version of SQL Server.
Rourke claims these all add up to a major change in the experience you get with Windows Mobile. "It's not just a bunch of features; they are all very deliberately aligned around the most important things: good battery life, a great voice experience, a great messaging experience and the experience that fits people's needs at an individual level."
The first Windows Mobile 6 devices are due in the second half of 2007. Upgrades will be available and Microsoft predicts that we'll see upgrades for more devices than with previous versions. Once a phone is running Windows Mobile 6 some updates will be available through Windows Update.
Author: Mary Branscombe
Windows Mobile 6 delivers features but not a unified platform