MWC 2009: Preview of Windows Mobile 6.5
Video: The other day, Microsoft invited me over for an early look at Window Mobile 6.5, the next iteration of the company’s operating system for phones. I didn’t get to actually use the OS, although we have subsequently had more information at the MWC presentation.
WM 6.5 also brings an updated mobile browser with it, at long last bringing a full browser experience natively to Windows Mobile. Users have the choice of either the full Web experience (which includes built-in Flash support) or a more mobile-friendly iteration.
I definitely found the zoom controls more user-friendly than some of the competition. Users could bring up a slider on the right side of the screen to adjust the zoom, then use a finger to move the on-screen focus to the appropriate spot, keeping an eye on on-screen markers that indicate the relative position on the page. The feature is not as intuitive as the iPhone’s pinch and spread gestures, but much easier to use than the zoom on RIM’s latest BlackBerrys.
Interestingly, the Microsoft representative told me that the browser in WM 6.5 is based on Internet Explorer 6, because that browser was still the most commonly used (and developed for) in the world. To my ears, that claim sounded out-of-date. I took a quick look at the browser utilization rates over the last year for eweek.com, and indeed found IE 6 was runner up to IE 7 (and third, also behind Firefox 3.0 for 2009). I’m no expert on Web development, but it sounds like the WM 6.5 browser may already be a little creaky from old age.
The Microsoft folks also showed me a demo of Recite, the early-stage voice recording and search feature. Although the feature sounds like total winner – record a voice message and then search for it later with just a keyword – I got the sense during the meeting that there was a pretty decent chance that Recite would not be in the official 6.5 release. The demo itself was pretty much a disaster, as only one out of four attempts identified the intended message.
We talked a bit about the My Phone synchronisation service. First of all, calling My Phone a synchronisation service is somewhat disingenuous, since the phone only connects once a day in the middle of the night. Let’s just call it a daily backup – a one-time full backup with ongoing incremental updates. Fortunately, from the screens I saw during the demo, it looks like My Phone will be usable for more than documents, contacts and calendars, as users should be able to back up some media (photos) as well. Ring tones will not be backed up.
The mobile administrator in me got hung up on the utility of My Phone in a business setting. For regulatory purposes, administrators need to be able to account for sensitive information wherever it may be. But My Phone really runs the risk of letting corporate documents out into the wild. Let’s say a user downloads an e-mail attachment to the mobile phone, and then the attachment gets backed up to My Phone. Suddenly, this document has replicated to another service altogether, where it is accessible from other devices and PCs and out of corporate control.
