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Microsoft wheels out Mobile 6.5

by on07 October 2009

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Last chance saloon


Microsoft
has released its new Mobile 6.5 operating system and while it appears good, it is really Redmond's last chance to make an impact in the market.

Windows Mobile 6.5 fixes a lot of the problems that have caused Microsoft to lose ground in this increasingly important operating system battleground. However it is a halfway product which has hit the shops while Redmond thinks about what to do about the operating system.

Microsoft has Windows Mobile 7 set to arrive and then it will be a player in the market again. However version seven is a long way from hitting the shops and really should have been here instead of the 6.5 offering. Microsoft's strength in the market has been that its Mobile offerings worked well with its corporate server products. This made them more secure and an easier sell to big business.

However that is starting to change with the likes of Google, Palm and other outfits getting better at the job. Ironically the key features of the new OS are a re-organised user interface, larger touch-friendly icons and a more advanced web browsing application. Generally all things that consumers rather than corporates want.

There are some good back-up services for photos and data called My Phone to protect users whose smartphones have been lost or stolen. My Phone synchronises the content from contacts, appointments, texts and photos to a password-protected website, and also let users publish photos from My Phone or their handset to Windows Live, Facebook, MySpace and Flickr.

However there are huge problems for Microsoft to solve. There are few applications for 6.5, the beast has an interface which is as user friendly as an electric eel and there is no streamlined functionality with many applications. Settings are hard to change. In fact it is so bad that OEMs building the gear, such as HTC and Samsung have been overlaying their own interfaces onto Windows Mobile “to create more competitive products and make up for the usability constraints of Microsoft's platform”.

Microsoft's new Marketplace, which launched today for version 6.5, has about 250 applications available including popular games and Facebook and Myspace apps priced from $3.99 to $20 for productivity applications.
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