Microsoft has releasedWindows Mobile 6.5, the company's latest attempt to
establish a mobile phone business and offer an alternative to the
iPhone and Google Android-based devices.
The phones represent a rethink of Microsoft's strategy. Along
with providing a mobile platform, the company now plans to offer
mobile applications, services and a
shop front.
Speaking in Paris, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, said, "These
phones are only the beginning of a stream of mobile innovations
that will be coming from Microsoft and our partners. Over the
coming months you will see a regular drumbeat of exciting new
devices from our partners and updates to our software to keep pace
with evolving customer demands around browsing, touch and
multi-touch capabilities, to name a few."
However, Windows Mobile 6.5, is still far behind other rival
mobile operating systems. Gartner principal analyst Roberta Cozza,
said the user interface has improved with Windows Mobile 6.5, but
it is still a weak compared to rival operating systems.
"I do not think Windows Mobile 6.5 will help Microsoft hugely in
establishing Windows Mobile smartphones. It does improve the user
interface, but these improvements are not enough to make the
platform at least as competitive as others like the Apple iPhone
and Google Android, which are very consumer friendly."
She said, "In 6.5 we still have very small icons. While it is
easy to launch an applications, users still need to use the stylus,
unlike Google Android or iPhone, where users can use their finger
to type a message on an on screen keyboard. The user interface is
not optimised for touch."
Microsoft said the mobile operating system offers users access
Windows Live photo sharing across social networking sites such as
Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and Flickr. Users can also manage
multiple e-mail accounts from their phone with Outlook Mobile and
Exchange Server synchronisation
Microsoft has also added support for editing PowerPoint, Word
and Excel documents and the ability to synchronise files on the
phone through Windows Live Media Manager.
The redesigned Windows Internet Explorer mobile browser supports
Adobe Flash Lite2, which allows Windows Mobile phones run Flash
applications.