Windows Mobile 7 coming 2010

Steve Ballmer talked about the future of Windows Mobile during a conference call yesterday. Among the highlights was a promise to release the next version of Microsoft’s operating system for phones in 2010.

Microsoft’s CEO is is enthusiastic about the possibilities for this OS, and he expects it to continue to grow, despite the current economic crisis. To help bring this about, the company is hard at work on new version. Windows Mobile 6.5 was unveiled a week ago, and will be released this fall, while Windows Mobile 7 is scheduled for next year.

As part of Ballmer’s conference call, he did an analysis of the smartphone market, and sees some advantages for his company.

He said "I would say all of the consumer market mojo is with Apple, to a lesser extent Blackberry, and yet the real market momentum with operators and the real market momentum with device manufacturers seems to primarily be with Windows Mobile, and with Android."

Ballmer also mentioned that device manufactures can make Windows phones that are less expensive than their rivals. "We have manufacturers who have low price-point phones compared to the iPhone, particularly, which is a very high priced phone. You may get subsidized down to lower prices, but the operators care a lot about what they get charged for the phone, and I think you’ll see very low cost, low price form factors with Windows Mobile, possibly also with Android as well."

There’ll Be No mPhone
Ballmer also affirmed once again that there isn’t going to be a Microsoft-branded phone. Instead, the company is committed to working through licensees, like HTC, LG, and HP. "Not our strategy to build our own phone. It’s our strategy to sell software that we can use and support across a wide range of device manufacturers to encourage choice, choice in devices, choice in the operators."

via Brighthand