After the Chevy Volt and OnStar mobile app demonstration by the guys of GM, I got some quick time with Walt Dorfstatter, president of GM’s remote assistance subsidiary OnStar. There were only three questions I had for Walt since the Chevy Volt, no matter how spectacular a vehicle it has shown itself to be thus far, isn’t actually a part of what winJade’s focus. The questions focused on possible future platforms for the app (Windows Mobile was not mentioned while the iPhone was), the inspiration for creating a mobile app for the sake of controlling OnStar in the first place. and whether applications such as these could boost subscriptions.

Check it out after the break!

HTC’s been a fan of Windows Mobile for their phones for a while now. Even though they’re going with Android on their newer phones (such as the Hero, which we ignored for the sake of this video), their current Windows Mobile offerings still make for awesome fun. In this run-through, I take a rather quick look at HTC’s current US-bound Windows Mobile phones:

• Snap, coming out on two different carriers (and two different bands) with different looks for each carrier
• S743, for those who don’t like touch screens but love their candy bars
• Touch Cruise, basically a standard Windows Mobile touchscreen phone
• Touch Pro 2, a touchscreen phone with a full horizontal keyboard and other ridiculous features
• Touch Diamond 2, essentially the same as the Pro 2 but with the keyboard swapped for a higher resolution camera.

All of them are solidly built. The only downside to these phones (except for the Snap, which is subsidized by both T-Mobile and Sprint) is the price, but when you consider that HTC makes some of the best Windows Mobile smartphones around, that price might not be a bad business expense. Sadly, if you’re aiming for the Touch Diamond 2 or Pro 2 with hopes of using that front-mounted camera, consider moving to Europe; two-way video calling isn’t offered in the USA.

You can catch the vanilla YouTube and YouTube HD videos after the break.

View in High Definition

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.

Wired has an interesting article on how the iPhone boosted smartphone sales for other manufacturers (most notably RIM and Palm). With the next version of the iPhone now released, you might be asking yourself

• What will Microsoft do to keep Apple from breaking into the enterprise smartphone market?
• Why haven’t I bought this new iPhone yet?
• What’s that pretty thing in the Crystal Ball?

Now might be a good time to analyze the potential impact Apple’s iPhone might have on Windows Mobile.

The current version of Windows Mobile is version 6.1… which is still based on Windows CE 5.2 despite the release of Windows CE 6.0 back in November of 2006, which is well over a year ago. Windows Mobile 7 will be based on either Windows CE 6 or a later version of Windows CE judging by its anticipated mid-to-late 2009 release. Since the last major Windows CE release, two iPhones have come along and, according to the people watching today’s WWDC keynote, eclipsed every smartphone in existence (we’ll disregard the argument that the iPhone is not a suitable enterprise tool for now).

Since the moment news of the first iPhone broke two Januarys ago, companies such as Meizu and HTC have tried to revamp the Windows Mobile interface with their own code, though only HTC has actually managed to push anything to the market. A number of threads discussing the new HTC Touch Pro have come and gone, with many people as-yet-unaffected by Mr. Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field seriously weighing the unreleased Touch (less so with its Diamond sibling) against the new iPhone and another HTC project, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1.

The impact of the iPhone is already visible in the preparation of new user interfaces for both Windows Mobile and RIM’s Blackberry (the Bold UI). However, with the announcement that iPhone v2 will carry full Exchange support, the latest iPhone is also making an attempt to invade the enterprise smartphone realm, and third party innovations for smartphones in this department typically have a high FAIL rate in catching on, so it’s up to Microsoft to keep itself awake and running. HTC pulled a lucky rabbit from its proverbial top-hat, but HTC’s experience lies in what most people in the Orient prefer with their phones: glitz, glamour, and lots of overly pretty animated functions, menus, spinning icons, and other similar user interface clutterings enhancements which missed the Longhorn boat back in 2004.

This gets me to what I think Microsoft might be forced to do with Apple’s growling 2ft-tall-and-growing-fast presence in front of it.

Background Applications won’t go away. Even though Apple had a fun jab at how background applications eat battery power and performance, I personally don’t believe Microsoft will let background applications go the way of the dodo. Instead, Microsoft will likely make enhancements to how Windows Mobile manages background applications. This will save battery power (good!) while making it less likely that your phone will be infected with spyware (good!), while also preserving backwards compatibility (good, but not as enthusiastically good).

A revamped user interface will likely be issued with Windows Mobile 7. While this has already been discussed many times in the past, I personally think the new UI will be developed in tandem with Windows 7’s User Interface. We’ve seen Windows 7’s poorly executed touch demo at D6 (I’ll keep my 50 cents Steve, thank you), but I think that Microsoft will keep a similar but highly condensed touch-centric user experience for Windows Mobile 7 for two reasons:

1. The iPhone has already made touch look cool, and with companies such as HTC pulling off some of the most ingenious touch interfaces , touch and gestures won’t be going away.
2. Microsoft has a history of keeping things looking alike (and yet disjointedly different at the same time) for the sake of branding. Windows Mobile 6 had this mildly Vista-esque feel through the use of gradients and glossed elements. On the other hand, this is a phone. One of the problems some people have with the iPhone is that while the user interface is great, the time it takes to go from one place to another (despite the presence of the home button) can get a bit annoying with the animations and other UI tidbits in place. In consumer environments, a glitzy UI is great, but in snappy business environments when CEOs are jumping from cabs and limousines to business meetings in skyscrapers while trying to arrange that multi-million (or billion) dollar merger during the only 30 second time slot available in the elevator trip to the top floor, the last thing that is needed are animations which eat time.

With that in mind, Windows 7 might be less of a festival of motion than Windows Mobile 6.1 with HTC’s TouchFLO, with a new interface likely catering to both businessmen and consumers alike.

Accelerated Development might split priority between Windows 7 and Windows Mobile 7. Should the two systems share a similar user interface, seeing Microsoft split its resources down the middle for both Windows and Windows Mobile might not be the largest surprise. One of Microsoft’s most successful areas is within the corporate sector, and with the iPhone trying to barge in, Microsoft might be much more inclined than before to put more emphasis on Windows Mobile development. With connectivity becoming the ultimate focus for Windows 7, seeing a heavy emphasis on connectivity between Windows Mobile, 7 and Windows 7 might be less of a shock now than it might’ve been, say, three to six months ago. This doesn’t mean we’ll see Windows 7 launch in 2009, nor does it mean that Windows 7 will come before the second half of next year (but it might). All it means is that more teams might be devoted to Windows Mobile 7, with collaboration between both Windows and Windows Mobile development climbing much higher than ever before. This could also mean that a number of Microsoft’s Windows 7 “pillars” will carry over into Windows Mobile.

Mind you, all of this is my own mindless speculation. The iPhone is not a crystal ball, I can’t see into the future, and the phone in the ball is an HTC Touch Pro. If you have any other ideas as to which directions Microsoft might take with Windows Mobile, post! Comments are below, but before you post, here’s a dose of irony, courtesy of Paul Thurrott.