Will a new version of Windows Mobile challenge iPhone?
There are reports that Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, is today expected to announce a new version of its Windows Mobile operating system for mobile phones, at the CITA technology show.
Analysts have said that it's likely a "dot" release of the system, to 6.1, will offer more consumer friendly features, such as one-click access to various functions.
Some are touting this as Microsoft's comeback against Apple's iPhone, but to my mind they're serving different audiences.
One thing that Apple often does well is pairing hardware and software together to form a complete offering. It's what makes some people fall in love with Macintosh computers, and it's what allows the iPhone and iPod to offer such an integrated, and standard, user experience.
Not standard in the ordinary, boring, sense, but standard in a way that Microsoft, or in fact any other generic operating system provider, cannot hope to be.
No matter how good their operating system is in development, Microsoft must place its reliance on a multitude of hardware manufacturers, who choose to implement the Windows Mobile OS, to provide the best hardware environment for it.
The user experience will change from handset to handset, unlike the iPhone which (at least in its unhacked state) offers a unified experience.
Microsoft has always dismissed the iPhone — you'd expect nothing less. A potentially minor upgrade to their OS probably isn't going to do much in the fight against Apple. They should be more concerned about Symbian, and possibly Google.
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