Microsoft: two WinMo 7s and an Apple search deal?
Published: 21 January, 2010
READ MORE: Microsoft | Applications (Search) | Windows Mobile
The reports about Windows Mobile 7 change almost as often as those about Microsoft's rumored Pink device, and the latest word is that the OS will come in two versions, for consumer and business use. And if even a two-headed WinMo 7 fails to make Windows a major mobile platform at last, Microsoft may be able to fall back on getting its services onto third party handsets. It is said to be poised for a deal with Apple, to make its Bing search engine the default on the iPhone, replacing the leading product from Apple's now-enemy Google.
The rumors of a dual release of WinMo 7 comes courtesy of anonymous sources leaking to the WM Experts site. It could at least explain the deep divisions over the operating system's release date - some sources indicate it will make its debut at next month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, others that it will come later in the year with its shipment even postponed into 2011. In fact, WM Experts suggests the two versions will come at different time, with Barcelona seeing the first sight of a business iteration, geared to Microsoft's traditional stronghold. Then a consumer or media variation would follow towards the end of the year.
Key new features of the business edition would include a completely reworked Office for Mobile plus online collaboration features, allowing users to perform real time functions like embedding photos in documents and sharing the result.
Video would be less advanced than in the media release, which would include HD video, support for Xbox Live gaming and a Zune-like music player, Facebook and Twitter integration from the home page, plus Silverlight for rich media and the newly announced Mediaroom 2.0, which will deliver live TV streaming.
Even if Microsoft discusses its WinMo 7 plans in Barcelona, many believe it will still be a long wait for the product to reach phones, and in the meantime the firm could issue another interim update, called 6.6.
Other rumors say that Microsoft plans to drop the Windows Mobile brand and replace it with Seven, possibly to integrate the naming with its Windows 7 OS, especially for the hybrid territory of netbooks and tablets (and perhaps to get away from a product name that has never brought great success to its owner).
The mobile version of the Bing search engine may find better fortunes than WinMo. According to Business Week, Apple is in talks with Microsoft about integrating Bing as the iPhone's default search engine. Currently, Google shares with Apple revenue generated from ads placed alongside its search results and presumably Microsoft would get a similar arrangement, though the real advantage would be the presence of its engine on a device so heavily used for search. Microsoft has competed with Google for other homepage search deals, often with carriers like Verizon.
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