Microsoft confirms Windows Mobile 7 announcement for March 2010
Neowin reports that Microsoft Office Vice President Kurt Delbene confirmed that the company will be unveiling its plans for Windows Mobile 7 at the MIX 2010 conference in March next year.
This date is consistent with recent leaks which set the announcement in Q1 and the release in Q3 2010.
The Office Mobile 2010 beta released today shows a screen shot we have seen before suggesting Windows Mobile 7 still sports the same UI we saw in leaks earlier this year, which, if this is the case, after the very interesting ZuneHD UI, would be somewhat disappointing.
Read more at Neowin here.
Thanks MobilePaddy for the tip.
Sphere: Related Content
Posted in 
Tags: 
The renders could well be fairly old: I'm sure I've seen that one a few months ago.
Also, the Zune-ness could be a Zune App, possibly replacing WMP.
[Reply]
i really hope the ui is different.
[Reply]
See no problem with this Ui because I know nothing of it ^_^
[Reply]
Its the same from renders back in 2007 or 2008… very old stuff.
[Reply]
Yeah, I want something that looks nice, even if it doesn't bring any drastic changes.
[Reply]
I forgot to add the Windows Mobile (even some parts of 6.5) reminds me too much of Windows 98.
That's not a good thing.
I want a major UI overhaul. The Zune-esque thing that they did with 6.5 was a good start.
[Reply]
I don't see why admin would say the UI is dissapointing. I dont' see anything wrong with it. there's no scrollbar (good riddens), I think that is the zune like interface that's in 6.5's home screen, on the top looks like universal search.
[Reply]
rad Reply:
November 18th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
The soft keys, for one. They might've made sense for non-touch devices but have no place in a full-touchscreen device, because instead of offering 4-5 different pressable functions (e.g. the iPhone's lower selector UI) or even more (as in classical WM apps), you get two big choices that usually bring up a mess of sub-menus upon sub-menus, and given this marginal functionality, they're a big waste of screen real estate.
[Reply]
John Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 12:28 am
They need to take the Zune HD interface, expand it to work with apps better, add multitasking and easy app switching, faster loading, and we are golden. Zune HD is the only reason i have hope that microsoft will blow us away with WM7
[Reply]
God, I hate that battery/signal bar at the bottom so much. It's so distracting, and the only 'feature' of WM7 that we seem to have seen across all of the (few) screenshots we've seen.
I agree with rad, Microsoft need to start from scratch. The mobile game has changed… I'm the kind of person who doesn't really like drastic change and when I compare the mobile arena even in 2006 to 2009 it kind of depresses me to see how fast and far we've moved. And that's only a three year gap since everyone went touch crazy… compare 2000 when WM first came out (as PocketPC) with 2010 when WM7 is hopefully going to come out.
A refresh, even a major one is not going to make me satisfied at least. A refresh was fine for 6.5 because we know WM7 will eventually come out at some point and hopefully reward us for being loyal and patient – but I think most of us are expecting WM7 to be a full-fledged modern touch-able mobile OS.
Of course, it is likely that Microsoft are well on their way with this and those screenshots are just very dated – but why do it this way? If WM7 is going to be announced in 3 months and released in 9 months they must have better screenshots if they exist – Microsoft aren't exactly known for secrecy, WM6.5 and Windows7 were available in beta for so long and we all could (and some did!) follow the development.
[Reply]
Max Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 1:26 am
I like battery/signal bar with icons. It provides a quick information on the status of the device.
I actually don't like this obsession with touchscreens. Not only that, hardware keys are essential to usability in my opinion, just like keyboard is essential to desktop computers. Keys are just faster than mice or greasy fingers on the touchscreen. I already hate the lack of D-Pads on many HTC phones. Kaiser was the most usable phone for me, as I was able to accomplish most task with one hand. With my Touch Pro 2 I can't do that.
Relying solely on the touchscreen is a step backwards. Look at all the iPhone users that have to use two hands to make a simple phone call or reply to an SMS. I don't want WM to become a copy of the iPhone. I want MS to provide trully good usability in the WM7, without resorting to fads like "touchscreen is all you'll need".
[Reply]
Jos Dewey Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 1:48 am
I never said touchscreen is all you need, but that's the trend.
Those left and right soft keys made sense when there was corresponding hardware keys under them, they're just useless now. I love hardware buttons, one reason I haven't even looked at the HD2 is the lack of real hardware buttons.
But everyone is moving far, far away from hardware buttons, even on WM devices where the OS still not totally up to scratch for being a touch-only OS. But what can I do? I can't get them to go back to the days of hardware buttons and styluses – the only thing I can hope for now is that at least MS make the touch experience on WM better since all manufacturers are going the way of the multi-touch.
[Reply]
Craig S Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Don't see your logic..
"But what can I do? I can't get them to go back to the days of hardware buttons and styluses – the only thing I can hope for now is that at least MS make the touch experience on WM better"
If Microsoft can fix the software, then the manufacturers should fix the hardware too. I want D-Pads back. Windows is written to be usable with keyboard, mouse, or touch.. but you don't see PC manufacturers shipping devices without a keyboard or touch-only
[Reply]
Jos Dewey Reply:
November 20th, 2009 at 12:22 am
Hmm, my logic seems pretty simple.
The iPhone came along, most people went gaga over it for better or worse. Other manufactuers started getting a little worried and they started copying everything iPhone related. This includes the lack of any meaningful buttons or d-pads.
It doesn't look like either Microsoft or their partners are looking to go back to the days of having multiuple programmable buttons, a d-pad and a stylus on their phones. First they went from real d-pads to virtual ones, then they started eliminating them altogether. First, some manufacturers started giving you an external stylus that many didn't even bother taking out of the box (e.g. Samsung) and now it looks like devices are coming out with no stylus at all (like the HD2… I know it's capacitive, but they should've given you a special stylus given it's still the classic WM).
Do you see what I mean? You and I can't get Microsoft or their partners to change their ways and go back to the good old days before Apple ruined everything… they just won't. Most consumers are total sheep and now they've been brainwashed into thinking touch-based is the only way to go, and a company like Microsoft is not going to cater to the few geeks out there and leave the big chunk of consumers who are the sheep to go to the competition.
Therefore, what can I do? I cam complain about how I miss hardware buttons (I used to love playing NES emulators on my old iPAQ, and it worked flawlessy with it's array of buttons), or I can just hope and push Microsoft to at least make the WM touch experience better if they're convinced that touch is the future for now.
I guess Microsoft is not solely to blame though, HTC are kind of being annoying with this. What's wrong with having a dual-stage camera button on the HD2 that you could also program to two additional functions when the camera isn't open?
Jos Dewey Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 1:50 am
Also, I don't mind the concept of the battery and signal bars – they're just too big and distracting like this.
I use Batti 2.4 which gives you a similar battery meter at the top, but it's very thin and you can customize the look and you won't ever notice it unless you're looking to see how much juice you have left.
[Reply]
manual_ Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
I said it before and I'll say it again;)
Lower edge of the screen, closest to your fingers is too important to be occupied by any status indicators. Be it power, signal strength or whatever. This kind of placement means you effectively have TWO status bars. One at the top and one at the bottom of the screen. This is screen real estate wasted unreasonably. They'll also get in a thumbs way and will detract attention. This and hexagonal menu (which looks like a mess and forces eyes to jump from one item to another making quick scanning difficult) are examples of MS doing something different for the sake of it. Please start taking usability seriously MS. I hope WM7 will be a solid OS finally.
[Reply]
Am I the only one that doesn't really want anything like Zune HD's UI for a phone? It's fine for a media device, but WM is a full operating system for a computer platform. I have a feeling that it will undergo some minor changes before its release, for example the Win and OK buttons appearing in the bottom bar. But I would be disappointed if it ended up looking like the Zune.
Zune should be a software package for WM, not the heart of WM.
To those that keep repeating "blah blah start over blah blah"… They obviously have no idea how incredibly difficult and time consuming developing an OS from scratch is. There is no reason to do this! Under the hood, Windows CE is lightyears beyond all the competitors! The only thing that needs to be improved is the UI layer, which is EXACTLY what Microsoft is doing! If you don't like the new UI, well that's fine. That's your opinion. But rewriting the OS is just stupid.
[Reply]
Jos Dewey Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 2:08 am
If rewriting the OS is just stupid then why do they need until the end of 2010 just to fix what they have now and rework the UI a little bit?
I'm no developer but I assumed developing a whole new OS might be feasible in a timely manner given Apple, Palm and Nokia have all done it with iPhone OS, webOS and Maemo. I know Maemo for instance is based on Debian Linux… I'm not saying Microsoft needs to rewrite Windows CE just to improve Windows Mobile, but I'm personally not convinced that just continuing in the same vein as 6-6.5 is going to get them anywhere, as in just tarting it up a bit further.
When I said they should redo everything I didn't necessarily mean the code, but how everything is laid out and designed. They don't have to have those soft keys in the same spot, or have them at all! That's what I mean, a complete rethinking of the layout and user experience, not necessarily what's under the hood (as I have no experience with that stuff – I'm just an end user).
I do agree that just bringing the Zune version of CE over to Windows Mobile with some added features wouldn't work… then you'd end up with an iPhone, an media player that happens to make phone calls and send emails.
[Reply]
JKingDev Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 5:11 am
Parrotlover, when people say WM needs to be completely rewritten, they really do just mean the UI layer. Anyone who knows how windows is designed and what CE is know that rewriting the whole OS is not only absurd, its absurdly unnecessary. You are right, CE is a great and very powerful platform. It is indeed the shell that everyone wants to see rewritten. The shell is all you as the user see. Rewrite the shell and for all the user knows it is a completely new OS.
Just look at this picture:
http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=6725
Still a ZuneHD. Same OS. Just a different shell.
[Reply]
I really really wish this is not the final winmo 7 interface!
dear God !! that's too much like 6.5!
[Reply]
WM7 is never going to have an interface like that! i don't see how any of you can even think it will for one moment. All the evidence you need is 6.5.1. There is no possible way Microsoft are going to give WM7 a worse UI than 6.5.1. It would make sense to have them quite similar too. We may not get a UI exactly the same as 6.5.1 but it will be along the same touch friendly lines.
[Reply]
Jos Dewey Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 7:17 am
Unlike what seems the majority, I'm not too sold on the 6.5.1 look.
That's exactly what I'm talking about by the way, they moved some of the stuff from the top to the bottom and they gave the top bar a magnifier feature – this is the kind of useless tarting up we don't need. Don't just move stuff around the screen, change the whole philosophy of how you get work done on the OS.
I really think the 6.5.1 bottom bar is so damn ugly. I just can't get past how the buttons aren't centered unless the whole bar is filled with buttons. I guess Microsoft could still fix the look this but build after build nothing changes about the bottom bar.
Also, regarding the new bottom bar, it throws off plenty of old program that can't resize properly.
It probably won't look like that though, you're right. We saw these screenshots way before 6.5 or 6.5.1 – it makes no sense.
[Reply]
Foamy Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 7:24 am
I agree on most of your points with the 6.5 bottom bar but i know i like it a lot more than the old design. My point is that WM7 can only be better than 6.5.1 and it's almost certainly going to be touch oriented.
[Reply]
JKingDev Reply:
November 19th, 2009 at 5:15 pm
Just to comment Jos, as I was explaining earlier, you *can* change the whole philosophy of how you get work done on the OS simply by rewriting the shell. Both WM and ZuneHD run WinCE (Zune has a newer version of CE, but that makes no difference; that is internal workings). I think you would agree that they have completely different UI paradigms. I agree that the whole philosophy of how the user interacts with WM needs a change. And to make that change all you need is a new shell. No need to waste time rewriting kernels, memory management, process/thread management, ect. That is all done and done well in CE 7. A new shell is what is needed and should be exactly what comes in WM7.
[Reply]