Windows Mobile 7 'Maldives' test program reportedly on track for Q1 2010 release to OEMs
By Donald Melanson 
posted Nov 10th 2009 8:19PM
posted Nov 10th 2009 8:19PM
Ballmer may have wanted it to be out yesterday, but it looks like the initial release of Windows Mobile 7 may now finally, actually be in sight. According to ZDNet Taiwan, the mobile OS is now on track for a release to OEMs for testing (the so-called "Maldives" program) sometime in the first quarter of 2010, and will be launched publicly sometime in the third quarter of the year (or about a year after the release of Windows Mobile 6.5) -- all of which more or less lines up with earlier rumors of a release to manufacturing in Spring 2010. If past history is any indication, however, it seems likely that the earliest builds of the OS could be circulating around the usual channels well before that -- probably right on the heels of the release to OEMs. [Via WMPoweruser.com]
There's a perfect picture of Steve Ballmer for every Microsoft story.
Usual channels = XDA :D
Well, they've got a lot of ground to cover if they want to play catch up. And with Android prancing around with $0 price to OEM's, I really don't see how there are any manufacturers that will still want to pay Microsoft to license winmob.
Maybe a year ago an OEM would have had a reason to work on a winmob handset, but now, Android is cheaper and works better. Winmob will thus will have to be significantly better than Android to justify the cost to OEM's.
Maybe Microsoft should buy TomTom and give TeleAtlas away on winmob.
Will be interesting to see what they come up with. I say more competition the better!
I think a lot of the incentive is simply the fact that they know that businesses already like and know winmob, something that doesn't seem to be nearly as true for android. Their IT department is setup for winmob, they know it and are comfortable with it, so are far more likely to buy that.
gotta agree with AltairAntares on this one. there is still a pretty big market for WinMo out there. WinMo and Blackberry ARE the business smartphone OSes. sure WinMo isn't really a crowd pleaser in terms of looks (and 7 should fix that problem) but i've used it for years now and no other mobile OS gives me as much flexibility as it does. if there is something i want it to do, i can usually find a way to do it....and usually for free.
but anyway, people will continue to use WinMo for the exact same reasons they still use Internet Explorer as the workplace standard (when Firefox, Chrome, and Safari are much faster and user friendly), it's what the IT department is used to in the majority of cases.
Now the question is, will it be as efficient on older software as normal Windows 7? For my TP2 that is :)