According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft is in talks with Verizon Wireless to launch a phone that has "a touchscreen-based multimedia phone that will aim to extend the Windows Mobile OS while adding new software capabilities." It will also utilize the Windows Marketplace. This may be Microsoft's attempt to compete with the iPhone.
Also, I am waiting on Windows Mobile 6.5. Windows Mobile 6.5 looks great but it was really slow when it was shown off a few months ago. We can expect WinMo 6.5 around fourth quarter 2009, so you can probably get this phone then.
Why this phone will suck...and what Microsoft should do about it..
This phone is being made by a 3rd party company. What usually happens when this is done is that the phone will turn out to be a complete failure or really bad. The problem is, they can actually get the software to work right. In other words, we've seen Windows Mobile phones today made by 3rd companies...they sucked. Many phones like the HTC Fuze or the Omnia just were not that great in terms of features, power, and functionality. It's either the problem on the OS side, or the phone's side. It can be the phone's problem, but it's also the high standards your phone has to meet to make the OS actually run properly. We can just pray that Windows Mobile 6.5 runs better than its predecessor 6 (or 6.1).
Microsoft should take the first party route and make their own phones. You can argue that when they distribute their OS to third parties, they make more profit. But Apple and Blackberry, both current first party phone OS developers and phone makers dominate over 70% of the smartphone web traffic. So what does web traffic have to do with anything? Well, can mean that people can go on the internet easier, more people buy and/or have those first party phones because those phones actually work well, or many other reasons.
Plus, Microsoft is probably the only one who knows their way around their software, and know what their software requires, and how to meet those requirements. If Microsoft actually made their own Windows phone and took their time developing it, they may actually dominate the market, and more importantly have a better mobile OS.
