Microsofts Windows Phone 7 Seeks a Rebirth of Its Mobile Line

by Nicholas Kolakowski

Microsoft used a variant of its Windows CE as the foundation forPocket PC 2000 and Pocket PC 2002 (seen here). While Pocket PC 2000 wasmeant for Pocket PCs, Pocket PC 2002 found its way onto smartphones.Pocket PC 2002 included features such as Pocket Outlook and MSNMessenger.

Windows Mobile 2003 featured Bluetooth support, a tweaked PocketInternet Explorer (later Internet Explorer Mobile), and more multimediafunctions such as games and a picture viewer. Microsoft later issued aWindows Mobile 2003 Second Edition with added features such as theability to flip between portrait- and landscape-oriented screens.

With Windows Mobile 5.0, Microsoft attempted to create a moreuser-friendly browser, streamlined Contacts interface and ActiveSync,and updated Excel, Word and PowerPoint Mobile. Microsoft also touted theplatform’s supposedly enhanced security and “persistent storage,” whichpreserved data even in the event of battery-power loss.

Released in 2007, Windows Mobile 6.0 offered enhanced Bluetoothsupport and Remote Desktop access, Windows Live for Windows Mobile and ashinier interface. A subsequent update, Mobile 6.1, tweaked performance.

With Microsoft’s mobile market share falling, executives trumpetedWindows Mobile 6.5 as a “restart of our efforts in the mobile space.”Mobile 6.5 supposedly included better touch capabilities, a new versionof Internet Explorer Mobile, and My Phone for backing up and syncingdata.

Windows Office Outlook Mobile let users organize information infolders, and manage multiple e-mail accounts from their devices.

Coinciding with the October 2009 launch of Mobile 6.5, Microsoftintroduced an upgraded Windows Marketplace for Mobile and triedencouraging developers to create apps for it.

Mobile 6.5’s Office Mobile offers access to four stripped-downapplications: Excel Mobile, OneNote Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile and WordMobile.

Microsoft’s forays in mobile during this late 2009 period includedthe Zune HD, which proved an anemic seller. However, some elements ofthe Zune interface would find their way into Windows Phone 7.

In early 2010, Microsoft launched the Kin One (shown) and Kin Two,two social-networking-centric phones aimed at a younger demographic. Thephones were a failure and discontinued within a few weeks of release.

Microsoft will likely launch Windows Phone 7, its next-generationsmartphone platform, in October. Meant as a competitor to the AppleiPhone and Google Android devices, Windows Phone 7 offers Web contentand apps grouped into a series of subject specific “Hubs.”

Although Microsoft is aiming Windows Phone 7 at the consumermarket, its Office Hub (and SharePoint integration) is also designed toappeal to business audiences.