Confirmed: Windows Mobile 7 is based on Windows CE7

January 19, 2010 | By l3v5y

There have been a few rumours around about Windows Mobile 7 not being based on Windows CE. Sources that prefer to remain unnamed have confirmed the opposite to us, and that Windows Mobile 7 will in fact be based on Microsoft’s latest CE kernel, CE7.

Windows CE 7 has been in development for some time now, and we have written about the purported features of the OS some time ago:

Chelan is to support the following key features.
   – Dual Core Support (SMP, ARMv6)
   – Visual Studio 2008 Plug in
   – WIFI Positioning System
   – Bluetooth 2.1
   – Cellcore
   – DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance)
    -DRM
   – Media Transfer Protocol
   – IE7 Rendering Rich Media Plug-Ins
   – NDIS 6.1 support
   – UX C ++ XAML API using technologies like Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight for attractive and functional user interfaces
   – Touch Input

This certainly mesh well with other rumours regarding the advances specs support of Windows Mobile 7 including support for the latest processor technologies such as on the new QSD8672 – a dual core snapdragon device supporting 1080p video and WSXGA screens (more specs here).

Seems a bit of an overkill for a Zune phone, but we are still expecting to find out pretty soon about the many brnaches of Windows Mobile 7

About Olly Levett

Tagged CE 7, windows, windows mobile 7, wm7, zune for windows mobile 7

GP007

I agree with you. If MS do break compatibility with older stuff in CE7 then at the least we'll get some form of emulation. Regardless, I can see WM7 apps taking off if the push is to use silverlight and such, way easy to do, powerfull, and has very good tools and support from MS.
goograwks

not to mention it lines up well with the hype building for Mix 2010.
John

If there is any hype left to be had after apple launches their silly tablet.

GP007

The only ones who really care that much are the apple fans really. It's yet another tablet, everyone is making one and some have for years. Nothing new in the formfactor or multitouch aspect. All Apple could do is dress it up nice with some iPhone'ish UI to woo people.

But that's not to say any OEM, HP, Dell, Lenovo, couldn't do the same with their own slates if they wanted to.

RS

It’s not the hardware or even the software itself. It’s the fact that content publishers and software developers will likely fall all over themselves providing customized content and apps for the platform.

I’m FAR from an Apple fanboy. But their ability to instantly grab mindshare (with marketshare soon to follow in most cases) cannot be overlooked. We’re seeing a similar trend (to a lesser extent) with Android as it hasincreasingly becoming the #2 platform app developers go to – even though Blackberry, Symbian and WM often have larger marketshare depending on the region.

http://www.avianwaves.com Parrotlover77

The people buying into the "brand new kernel" rumor for WM7 do not understand anything about software development in general, and Windows CE in particular. CE is incredibly modular, including and especially the UI layer. Look at a standard CE desktop and you see basically a Windows XP-like experience. Look at WM and it's entirely different. Both CE. Despite what some people think, even Zune uses the CE kernel!

The rumor mill is aboslutely silly sometimes.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Lennard Lennard

you are talking about other people not having a clue but it's you who doesn't have a clue. it doesn't matter what the UI interface is, it's the unerlying advancements and features that are most appealing. the UI can be made to look like whatever, however, the support for "orian", 64bit file support, bigger virtual memory space for eatch proccess, new and better file system, lesser steps to return a system call and a whole slew of other features and advancements that you don't find in any other mobile OS. you see like one of those who things the interface is the whole OS.

some people are absolutely silly simetimes.

Max

Chelan seems way more capable than Yamazaki – if just for WPF alone. If you are a developer, ditch GDI and try WPF, just amazing.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Lennard Lennard

yamazaki is CE6, chelan is CE7, it is way more capable
http://intensedebate.com/people/l3v5y l3v5y

Problem is, I don't think WPF and C++ play nicely… So high performance software may lose the interface…

http://www.techbabu.com Hassan Ali

Like other so many users, I am also waiting anxiously for Windows 7 mobile. One can hope that Microsoft will deliver a good mobile OS.
anon

What no C#

http://www.zahipoint.com latest gadet

I will go with C# too

anon

Right now I can't make windows apps using WPF and C++ this chart seems wack
Ed M.

The current cruddy old CE5.2 kernel inside Windows Mobile is so ancient it's extraordinary. It's unable to take advantage of any modern processor. Even the Snapdragon's NEON FPU is not recognized, which will make Windows Mobile much slower than it would have been if it had a modern kernel.

I don't know why Microsoft wants to come out with so many different versions of the OS. It's typical of Microsoft. However, it should just concentrate on getting one unified version out the door, and do it quickly.

While the kernel update and new interface are welcome and vital, I can't help thinking it is all too little to late to save Microsoft in the mobile game.