Windows Mobile 6.5 struggles to gain ground against iPhone and Android

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced support for Windows Mobile 6.5 from North American mobile carriers including AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, Telus, and Bell Mobility; along with major phone makers Samsung, HTC, LG, HP, and Toshiba. But not Palm...and it's that fact which got the most attention.

But while Palm shoveled out plans last week to dump Microsoft's mobile OS, support for Windows Mobile is now popping up from places ranging from AT&T to innovative new VoIP provider Zer01 and media content specialist (and iPhone/Android/RIM developer) FlyCast.

Recently, a memo leaked from AT&T showing that two of its Samsung phones, the Epix and Jack, will move from WinMo 6.1 to 6.5 when the Microsoft upgrade becomes available later this fall. Though AT&T is recognized as "the iPhone carrier" and as Apple's US partner, it officially remains on board with Windows Mobile-based phones.

According to statistics from Canalysis, WinMo's share of the global smartphone market fell to 9% in the second quarter of this year, down dismally from 14.9% the previous year. So this new and renewed backing from consumer service providers, both large and small, comes at a crucial time for Microsoft, as it seeks greater penetration for Windows Mobile beyond just SMB and enterprises.

Ross Rubin, director of industry analysis for NPD, told Betanews he thinks Microsoft is likely to get a better shot at the consumer space beginning with Windows Mobile 6.5.

For its part, Las Vegas-based Zer01 plans to lead off with WinMo -- ahead of phones based on any other mobile OS - with a new contract-less, "unlimited" 3G service set to launch in November, said Benjamin Piilani, Zer01's CEO, in an interview with Betanews at the Showstoppers press event in New York City last week.

Zer01 will offer US customers unlimited 3G voice, data, and mobile calling for about $70 per month prepaid, Piilani said. After trialing the service with an as yet unnamed CE retailer in November, Zer01 anticipates expanding it to other stores as well as to phone companies.

The new 3G service from Zer01 will be different from any others, insisted Lance Dascotte, chief operations officer. "There'll be absolutely no usage caps," Betanews was told. Zer01 will handle voice calls through a VoIP application of its own design.

Zer01's Windows Mobile phones will operate on GSM networks such as AT&T's and T-Mobile's. However, ZerO1 has also purchased its own IP backbone, and intends to use roaming agreements with the GSM carriers. Every phone on the Zer01 network will get its own fixed IP address, connecting via a virtual private network (VPN) tunnel through the wireless nets to ZerO1's servers.

Along somewhat similar lines, Virgin Mobile is now testing a contract-less, pay-as-you-go 3G consumer service with Best Buy. Virgin expects to grow the service to more CE retail chains in November, said a company rep, speaking with Betanews at the Pepcom press event.

But where Virgin Mobile is initially offering its pay-as-you-go service on LG's Java-based Rumor 2, Zer01 will start first with WinMo phones, moving from there to Symbian, Android, RIM BlackBerry, and Java devices, Zer01's Piilani said.

Meanwhile, Livermore, California-based FlyCast has now added WinMo to the list of environments for its second-gen streaming media service, which allows radio music to be cached on mobile phones, said Joe Monastiero, FlyCast's VP of business development.

Monastiero told Betanews that, with WM 6.5, Windows Mobile will join BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, "and possibly Symbian," among the mobile operating systems supported by its version 2.0. He credited WM 6.5's greater browser support for "aggregating media streams" as the reason why. FlyCast 2.0 caches songs on devices "in the context of the radio station," for either three playbacks or 30 days.

Effectively, you can tote songs aired over the radio earlier in the morning along with you on the subway ride to work. An earlier generation of FlyCast technology -- delivering live streaming from more than 1,000 talk radio and music stations, but without caching -- supported BlackBerry, iPhone, and iPod Touch, along with T-Mobile's Android-based G1 phones, but not Windows Mobile.

"We couldn't have done this with Windows Mobile until 6.5," Monastiero said.

Although the capabilities of WM 6.5's successor aren't really known yet, bloggers over the past week have been spreading rumors that Windows Mobile 7 will show up in 2010 on a pair of smartphones from Sharp, supposedly codenamed "Pink" and "Turtle." If true, that would give WM 7 an actual hard shipping date, even though it's an entire year.

Speculation has also galloped that WM7 will be "socially oriented." This conjecture -- which actually seems quite solid -- is based on a help wanted ad placed by Microsoft for a senior program manager on the Windows Mobile 7 team. In the ad, Microsoft proclaims that its "vision is to bring social networks to life by integrating them into the core experience of the phone."

Yet a Microsoft spokesperson declined comment on the Windows Mobile 7 scuttlebutt, telling Betanews that Microsoft "hasn't announced anything by that name," and can only talk about "initiatives that are public and in market."

Microsoft has already announced that Windows Mobile 6.5 will include a redesigned mobile browser, a new engine, and built-in Adobe Flash Lite support for better rendering. The next WinMo will also integrate consumer-friendly items such as a music player and picture viewer, and its user interface will be less dependent on a stylus.