Microsoft peels wraps off Windows Mobile 5.0

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has unveiled the latest version of the company's Windows Mobile operating system for portable devices during a keynote presentation at the Microsoft Mobile & Embedded DevCon 2005 in Las Vegas.

The newly released software extends support for hardware features, and brings improvements designed for entertainment and enhanced productivity.

Windows Mobile 5.0 is designed for mobile phones and PDAs, and replaces Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC and Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone.

Microsoft hopes that its latest mobile operating system will allow PDA and smartphone manufacturers to further differentiate their products from competing mobile devices.

"We want to enable HP to compete with Motorola, and Motorola with Samsung," Jason Gordon, product manager for Windows Mobile, told vnunet.com.

The software adds support for Wi-Fi and third-generation networks on mobile phones, and enables 'push-to-talk' (walkie-talkie) capabilities. It also offers support for Qwerty keyboards that let users control a device with one hand.

On the storage side the software allows the addition of hard drives as well as persistent memory storage that holds data even when the device's battery is depleted.

As part of the unveiling, Gates also showed off Windows Media Player 10 Mobile. The software supports Microsoft's latest digital rights management technology, allowing for the transfer of recorded television shows between a PDA and a Media Centre PC.

The software also lets users synchronise their media content between a desktop and a PDA.

Although Windows-powered PDAs have traditionally been targeted at enterprise users, the new mobile media player does not indicate a shift in the focus of the device to consumers, according to Gordon.

"[Users] are looking at the overall experience," he explained. "These devices need to shift paradigms with people, meaning email during the day and games, music or videos in the evening."

John Jackson, senior analyst at Yankee Group, said: "Windows Mobile 5.0 is an important evolutionary step for the Windows Mobile platform, which continues to gain traction worldwide.

"Enhancements in the platform give wireless network operators and mobile device vendors the ability to deliver customised, differentiated services and devices, while meeting market demand for robust, scalable and segmented offerings."

For the professional market, Microsoft has updated the mobile versions of Excel and Word. The previous version of Word lacked support for features such as tables.

The company has also added a mobile version of PowerPoint, and increased the integration between applications. Users can, for instance, tab on an email address in an email to look up the accompanying telephone number and place a call without leaving the email application.

Windows Mobile 5.0 is expected to show up on devices by late summer. Users of selected PDAs from HP and Dell will be able to buy an upgrade for the software at around the same time.