Microsoft is still planning to finalize the code for Windows Mobile 7 by summer in order to have the new software on devices that ship before the end of the year, according to reports.
Reports suggested that Microsoft was holding it back in order to make a splash at Mobile World Congress in February – though contrary reports suggested Microsoft’s announcement would centre around the considerably less exciting Windows Mobile 6.6.
Although it is not a widely rumored “Zune Phone,” the new consumer device is based on Windows Mobile and likely to be able to connect to Zune and other consumer services that Microsoft has been developing for some time now, sources said. That product, also due to arrive this year, should come earlier in the year ahead of Windows Mobile 7 devices.
Microsoft has something up its sleeve, but given the many areas where its mobile strategy needs fixing, it’s anyone’s guess if the forthcoming revelations will help make up for the ground it has lost in the hard charging mobile market.
Microsoft will be hoping that Windows Mobile 7 can arrest the decline of its smartphone business, which is increasingly the domain of Apple and Google.