Windows Mobile soon to be Windows Phone?

According to an article in Digitimes, Microsoft, which is planning to unveil its Windows Mobile 6.5 platform at the Mobile World Congress week after next, has decided that, going forward, Windows Mobile-based handsets will be promoted simply as Windows phones without specifying an OS version number, according to market sources in Taiwan. Sales of Windows Mobile-based handsets totalled about 20 million units in 2008, accounting for 13% of the global handset sales, said the sources. The reasoning behind this decision, if true, can only be to avoid dating a handsets OS and cloud the waters for consumers so they don’t really know for sure if the device has the latest software, will get the latest software or whatever else to cause confusion. If as we believe Windows Mobile 6.5 will be announced next week but won’t be available until September, this will again cause consumers to hold back on future purchases as experience of the 6.1 upgrade fiasco of last year where some devices have just got the update and others are still waiting is all too fresh in the mind.