Windows Phone (formerly Windows Mobile) is all about accessing all the data you care about on your mobile device, PC or television. We are aiming at bringing the full Windows experience to mobile phones.
The mobile phone is more than just a phone, address book or digital camera. It connects your life. A Windows phone will connect your personal life to your business life in an user-friendly, end-to-end experience.
Steve Ballmer made three major announcements at a press conference at the 2009 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona:
- Windows Mobile 6.5 Operating System, available on handsets later this year. The new OS offers touch, an improved UI and an updated version of Internet Explorer.
- The Microsoft MyPhone service; a means to manage your phone information, content and backups via the web.
- Windows Marketplace for Windows Phone: a place to get applications for your Windows Phone. There are already 20,000 applications that run with the Windows operating system.
These aren’t mobile phones anymore .. they’re life devices. I certainly live on mine; why getting a software upgrade last week and using a Razr (a fine phone, but nowhere near as useful to me as my Fuze), I thought I’d lost my right arm.
A mobile phone may well be the first ‘PC’ users in the third world will see. By empowering these devices, we are empowering the world.
Some other bits from the conference:
Get your Mobile on!