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As expected, Microsoft and its partners today unveiled the first Windows Mobile 6.5 phones as well as the Windows Marketplace for Mobile applications store (formerly codenamed Skymarket):
Today at Mobile World Congress 2009, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer along with key mobile partners, HTC, LG and Orange, unveiled new Windows phones featuring new user-friendly software and services. The next generation of Windows phones will be based on Windows Mobile 6.5 and feature a new user interface and a richer browsing experience. In addition, Windows phones will feature two new services: My Phone, to sync text messages, photos, video, contacts and more to the Web; and Windows Marketplace for Mobile, a new marketplace that will provide direct-to-phone mobile applications and can be accessed from both the phone and the Web.
The phones include the LG-GM7300 which currently runs 6.1, but will add a Windows Mobile 6.5 version and the new HTC’s Touch Diamond 2 and Touch Pro 2 which will be upgradeable to 6.5. So when will Windows Mobile 6.5 actually appear on a phone? All Microsoft will say is that "the new Windows phones are expected to be available in the second half of 2009."
Tom Warren at Neowin has the skinny on 3 new cloud computing applications that Microsoft is planning to announce at the Mobile World Congress in February:
SkyBox is a service for users to sync a phones information with the web. Microsoft will be offering automatic backup and restore services, access and management of phone data and provide easy communication and sharing with others. The service will also allow syncing of contacts, email/SMS, calendar items and pictures into the cloud, similar to Apple’s MobileMe. The difference from Apple’s offering is Microsoft could be set to offer this out to non Windows Mobile devices.
SkyLine will be aimed at small businesses. Offering similar functionality to SkyBox, businesses will be able to setup their phones with Microsoft’s Exchange hosting with their own domain names.
SkyMarket is the codename for Microsoft’s mobile marketplace, a competitor to Apple’s AppStore and RIM’s Blackberry application center. This service will only be available on Windows Mobile devices and will showcase the 1000s of Windows Mobile applications available today.
SkyMarket was revealed back in August 2008 and yes, it is a bit of stretch to call an online store a cloud app.. The same sources also suggest that Microsoft will unveil Windows Mobile 6.5 at the same conference.
Microsoft has apparently noticed that Apple has been making serious cash from their iPhone App Store and is planning their own marketplace for Windows Mobile applications if Long Zheng’s reading of some incautious Microsoft job postings is correct. When you see things like:
Job Title: Senior Product Manager – Skymarket
This is a unique opportunity and time of rapid change in the mobile industry for a Senior Product Manager in the Mobile Communications Services team to drive the launch of a v1 marketplace service for Windows Mobile.Key Responsibilities include the following:
- Definition of the product offering, pricing, business model and policies that will make the Windows Mobile marketplace “the place to be” for developers wishing to distribute and monetize their Windows Mobile applications
- …
there isn’t much doubt. Hit the link for more and Zheng’s observations that Windows Mobile apps are currently quite numerous, but Microsoft has never previously seized the opportunity to organize a marketplace for their sale. There’s no firm indication of date, but Skymarket might well accompany Windows Mobile 7 (codenamed “Photon”) in 4Q08 or 1H09 although the former would seem to be a stretch considering they haven’t hired the staff yet.
