Is Windows Mobile 7 right around the corner? It would seem so after Stephen Chapman, owner of Microsoft Kitchen, came across some documents that indicate an updated RTM of
April 2010. If this is true, the general population will most likely have to wait until September-October of 2010 to have WM 7 on their phones.
I see September-October as the window of release because of the various carrier customizations that take place, along with the manufacturer’s making sure the software runs correctly on the given hardware. Also, seeing that Microsoft itself realizes that WM 6.5, a minor/moderate update to WM 6.1, won’t be released for several months later, what can we expect for WM 7, an update to the Windows Mobile architecture that is expected to be huge?
Also of note is that Mr. Chapman came across a slide that includes a couple UI shots of Office Mobile 7.
The most intriguing aspect of these images, apart from the fact that they show a software release never known about before, is that it is almost identical to the WM 7 UI shots released long ago.
In the comments on the Msftkitchen article, is a post by Mary Jo Foley, a well known journalist and analyst of Microsoft-related news.
| The original roadmap showed phones preloaded with WM7 being available in April 2010. So if RTM of WM 7 is spring 2010, that’s about 6 months later than it was supposed to be. The big question is: If they RTM in April 2010 or so, how much of a lag will there be till the OS gets on phones? If MS can take this lag out, as they claim they plan to do, that will help them get to market a little faster. |
This supports the date of Q3 2010 as the general release to users.
Source: Microsoft Kitchen