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8:51 PM
Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division President Robbie Bach basically said as much in his January 7 Financial Analyst Briefing at CES (which I listened to via Webcast). In response to an analyst question, Bach said to expect in WM7 “things will be talked about at MWC.” (Istartedsomething blogger Long Zheng is expecting and hearing the same.)
On Thursday, Bach reiterated some of what the Redmondians have been saying for months, specifically that WM7 won’t be just a business-focused mobile OS platform any more.
“I’ve seen it and played with it,” Bach said. He said he believed Windows Mobile 7 will “set the bar forward not in (just) an evolutionary way.”
Bach said to expect Microsoft to step up its “go to market approach” so that it will be “more engaged” with its mobile OEMs. He didn’t get more specific than that, but my take was he was talking about Microsoft tightening its development and marketing connection with its mobile-phone-maker partners.
Bach also took a couple of shots at Apple (which controls the entire end-to-end mobile platform) and Google (for providing conflicting signals to its Android ecosystem by offering its own “Google phone”). I keep wavering as to whether or not Microsoft might actually release its own Microsoft phone, but if it does at this point, Bach would be the pot calling the kettle black. So maybe any kind of Microsoft-branded Pink phones are off the drawing board, after all.
I’m betting Microsoft is going to show off more than just the Windows Mobile platform in Barcelona, based on what the company did last year at the MWC show. I’m thinking the Softies might also be ready to talk about the next version of its My Phone service, which stores Windows Mobile phone data to the cloud.
Bach said to expect in WM7 “things will be talked about at MWC.” and regarding the consumer-focussed OS he said: “I’ve seen it and played with it,” (Windows Mobile 7 will) “set the bar forward not in (just) an evolutionary way.”
Bach further said Microsoft intends to step up its “go to market approach” so that it will be “more engaged” with its mobile OEMs. We know Microsoft has spoken a lot about speeding up the release cycle of both its OS’s and actual devices, reducing it from a common 2 years to as short as 6 months.
Mary Jo Foley, who reported on the discussion, believes Mobile World Congress will also see Microsoft announcing improvements to its My Phone service, which should integrate even more deeply with Windows Mobile phones, for example allowing ring tones to be changed directly from the web interface, applications and themes to be installed, and better integration with Windows Live and Live Mesh.Mobile World Congress (MWC) is between the 15th and 18th of February 2010 and will be held as usual in Barcelona.
Microsoft, windows mobile, winmob7, windows mobile 7, Microsoft at ces, Microsoft congress February, windows mobile 7 launch, mobile world congress
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