WM7 Details: 6.x Compatibility, a 2010 Launch

Microsoft and its yet unannounced / unreleased Windows Mobile 7 operating system are making the rounds once again. The company is expected to unveil the OS flavor officially at the Mobile World Congress next month, and the entire industry has its eyes turned towards the event, mainly to see if the platform brings Microsoft back in the mobile game. We've already seen that there might be two versions of the OS released to the market, and that the handsets to sport them will pack a great deal of raw power, and now there are more details available on the matter.

First of all, we should mention that the latest report from gizmodo says that Windows Mobile 7 is set to make an appearance on the market during the ongoing year, and that the earlier rumors on it being pushed back to 2011 are false. One way or the other, the company will bring the OS to MWC next month, it seems, though there are small chances that it will also unveil an exact release date for the first mobile phones to sport WM7. Late 2010 is the best estimation that can be made for the time being.

At the same time, the news site also says that Windows Mobile 7 will sport compatibility with applications developed for previous flavors of the OS. However, things are not yet clear in this area for the time being. The support will be there, and even if it might not be native support in the end, it should come in the form of an emulator at least (the same as Microsoft did with Windows 7 and that XP mode). It would make better sense for existing apps to see support in the upcoming mobile client, so things might turn well for users after all.

Moreover, it seems that Microsoft might deliver a Windows Mobile SDK sometime in mid-2010, which will also prove useful for developers who want to make their software solutions fully compatible with the upcoming platform. On the other hand, this also shows that WM7 will indeed be different from the 6.x flavors that are already available around the world. And with WMPoweruser stating that WM7 will be based on Windows CE 7, things seem to have been confirmed already.

The upcoming OS flavor is expected to rise the bar when it comes to the capabilities smartphones are to include, as it features support for higher-performance processor, better graphics and more. According to WMPoweruser, Chelan, that new 7 kernel WM7 is based on, has the following 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.”

adopted from http://www.softpedia.com