Tin-foil hats on! This article, though based on factual information, is 100% pure speculation!
We all know the story. Windows Mobile 7 has been delayed time and again. For the Windows Mobile team, that’s usually par for the course: WinMo releases have typically been few and far apart, and that was OK. But as of late, Microsoft has not only received tough competition, but has been absolutely trounced in the Smartphone market by RIM, Apple, Google and soon a resurgent Palm. Par isn’t going to cut it anymore. To keep up with the big boys, Microsoft is gonna have to step up its game.
Oh sure, they’ve got some interesting things coming down the pipe: My Phone, Skymarket, Zune Mobile; but does anyone really imagine that these services will stop the exodus? Microsoft needs to do something big, and I think (hope?) they’re already on it.
The picture above is from (one of) Microsoft’s Windows 7 site(s). If you take a quick look at the red arrow, you’ll see Windows 7’s beta wallpaper on a Smartphone. What could that mean?
Now, it could be entirely innocent and mundane (it probably is, but where’s the fun in that?). Maybe Microsoft is implying that Windows 7 and Windows Mobile just Work Better Together™.
I happen to think it’s pointing to an as-of-yet unannounced version of Windows 7 – Windows 7 Mobile/Phone/Cute-Marketing-Word-Here.
When I first heard about MinWin, I imagined that Microsoft was pushing to slice and dice Windows into smaller and smaller pieces so it could build a phone-optimized version of their desktop OS, a la Apple and OSX. Then at D6, we got word that Windows 7 would support multi-touch, which, while only moderately useful on laptops (and gimmicky on desktops), makes a ton of sense for a phone. PDC gave us even more info on features that make oh-so-much sense on phones, including Location awareness, a sensor platform (accelerometer and proximity sensors anyone?), and OS-level support for connecting to 3G networks.
Then, just last week, we get this quote from Motorola’s CEO:
“…more of our effort and focus in 2009 is going to Android, but in 2010 when Windows 7 will become available, we will then participate in a more focused way in Windows Mobile 7 in 2010″ – Sanjay Jha, CEO, Motorola
I’m not one for conspiracy theories, but the amount of evidence for this hypothesis is surprising, and Microsoft desperately needs to overhaul Windows Mobile in order to compete against Apple’s iPhone and Palm’s webOS. And they very well could be. Perhaps the WinMo7 delays are Microsoft retooling, shifting from the struggling Windows CE ancestry to the more robust Windows kernel for Windows Mobile 7.
Will Windows 7 be the underpinnings for the next version of Windows Mobile? Even though Windows Mobile 6.5 is being foreseen as the hot topic next week, maybe we’ll still get some sort of answer on Windows Mobile 7.
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Hmm, interesting point. That would also fall in line with what should be seen in WM 6.5 versus WM 7.
I don’t know if WM 6.5 could be retooled and slimmed down enough to give a Windows 7 quality in time. I’m not saying its impossible. However, they’d need to trounce Apple in terms of popularity to gain the hat trick. I do hope that the next version of WM gets really tuned up fast. The endless complaints I hear about the previous and current versions have given me plenty of headaches.
You’re reading too much in to that picture. The effort to modulise the Windows kernel was born from the Longhorn failure. It may be useful if Microsoft wants to use it for phones, but it would mean:
1. Everything they’re doing now is in vain. Any architecture improvements in the current WinMo will be wiped out when the new architecture takes effect.
2. Software will probably be incompatible, removing a major advantage of the WinMo platform.
3. The W7 kernel probably won’t bring much to the table. It does lots of things that mobiles don’t need, and lacks lots that they do need. It would be quicker to add new things to the WM kernel.
4. It won’t help interoperability between the two platforms at all.
[...] sabemos si lo hacen para llamar la atención o si realmente los chicos de AeroXperience han descubierto un secreto de los laboratorios de Microsoft. Eso nos cuentan en MuyComputer. El caso es que de [...]
@Karl
I don’t entirely agree – yes, I am sure that changed from WinCE to a true Windows kernel probably breaks a lot of stuff built for Windows Mobile (CE), it will actually introduce a lot of commonality with Windows development.
They will share more API sets in a more compatible way, and Windows Mobile will get a lot of dev that justhappens in the mainstream Windows world – proper .NET for one.
And also – the Windows CE kernel has some strict limitations in terms of processes, threads, addressable memory etc – sure many of these have been lifted, but a true MinWin kernel will remove these altogether.
They would need to layer a new UI portion – but a lot of work has been done for Windows 7.
A big issue would be the underlying processor families to support it – would it be Intel’s mobile processor only? Or would they update to suit other processor families?
The picture gets even more interesting:
http://www.microsoft.com/msft/download/transcripts/fy09/StrategicUpdate_Ballmer_Liddell_022409.doc
“Windows, Windows Mobile, and those two will become I’d say closer in many ways. There’s still a real distinction between what’s a phone and what’s a PC. And yet the amount of technology that can be shared across that border continues to go up.”
“We’ve got Windows Mobile 7 coming next year. We’re getting more and more synergy with Windows, so the browser improvements, et cetera, should be quite rapid.”
“On the first Windows slide I actually showed you the union of Windows and Windows Mobile, compared to Apple, compared to RIM, because I think that’s the right way to think about it, that’s the way we think about it. There will be really shared technology across Windows and Windows mobile. The browser is an example, the presentation surface is an example. Some day even the kernel will be an example.”
@Peter
Execubabble. Don’t confuse it for real words.
@Karl
Watch this space.