Recent handset announcements seem to now be following a pattern. They’re launching with Windows Mobile 6.1 and will be getting “Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrades” soon. In truth the situation is still far from ideal. Customers buying a new HTC Touch Diamond2 or Samsung Jack will spend the next few weeks or months adding content to their hot new phones without perhaps realising that the 6.5 upgrades will remove all that data unless they back it up. Also, they may not even realise that a 6.5 upgrade is available because the phone won’t tell them, and their network probably won’t either.
Now, just to add insult to injury, the Windows Mobile 6.5 developer team have been quoted in this TechEd briefing as saying that “We couldn’t complete the interface” of 6.5 and “had to cut certain features”. Eek.. This comes at a time where almost every device manufacturer is going to great lengths to hide the ageing 6.1 interface and, in our opinion at least, the manufacturer is doing a better job. Take the HTC TouchFLO system. Even before the whizzy HTC TouchFLO 3D was available we were swooshing our fingers up and down and having a much nicer style of interface on the HTC Touch – this is a device that appeared in June 2007.
What are your opinions of 6.5 ? Is it a big enough leap ?
Link – arstechnica.com
Windows Mobile 6.5 – Will it have the wow factor?
May 15, 2009