As you said - the X1 still faulters with the plumbing being WinMo 6.1. Look at the Palm Pre and iPhone that are changing the game. Will the Palm Pre be the Nintendo Wii of the phone market? If they can deliver it as a cost effective price it just might be.

The Sony - Microsoft relationship is a strange one. On the one hand MS tried to destroy Sony's game business with the XBox and with the help of a resurgent Nintendo has pretty much succeeded. Sony pretty well wiped out MS's HDDVD ambitions by winning the format wars with Blueray. Meanwhile Sony uses MS operating systems on its notebook computers and cell phones. As a content owner (movies and music and such) I doubt Sony would be happy to use Google Android (they really don't like openness) and then they can't use Apple or Blackberry and Symbian is now owned by Nokia. Quite the web being woven.

Not true, smist08. SE has already promised an Android phone this year. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw it at GSMA.

The lower portion of the phone is ugly. Let's hope M$ is successful in reducing the foot print of the number of companies licensing WM, if this is all that players like Sony/Ericsson can come up with.

WM6.5 will probably be on par with Android and only slightly behind the iPhone in terms of UI. The big question is how soon can M$ get WM7 out the door and what is Apple working on to update the iPhone.

My expectations are that the WinMo Zune Sevices and SkyMarket will be well received, given the number of .Net developers out there. Hopefully, these services will make their way into release either with WM6.5 or very shortly there after. WinMo isn't dead, but at some point M$ really needs to get deep into designing their own phone. Maybe this is something they'll do when WM7 releases and hit their stride with corrections once WM8 is released with what's supposed to be the Midori rewrite of the OS.

If M$ chooses not to release their own phone, they've got to work extremely closely with HTC, Dell, HP et al to redefine the physical device to extend the UI and related services. Here's hoping that Nvidia's Tegra processor breaths new life into WinMo, which certainly assumes that M$ delivers a heavily reworked UI with WM7.

I think Sony see themselves as a hardware manufacturer so they need an OS for their smartphones and computers. Until Android, a hacked WM is probably the best solution to get the most sales for them. I have no doubt that they will run to Android as soon as they can get it and Exchange support running on their phones.

The Sony PS3 has an option in the system menu to install another OS (Linux), that's fairly open to me. The PS2 even had a Linux kit.

How does it compare to the Palm Pré? That seems to be where all the buzz is right now.

when is it comming in at&t store and how much it will be?!!!

when is it comming in at&t store and how much it will be?!!!

when is it comming in at&t store and how much it will be?!!!

Nokia has always had the best and most reliable phones on the market with the best user friendliness.
I have just got a Nokia N96 and i absolutely love it. It has everything you could ever want on a phone including a music store, video store, games store etc. With the ease of paying straight onto your mobile bill.
I doubt the Sony/Ericson phone comes anywhere near the features of the N96. And the N96 can sync to Exchange if thats a lockin you want or need.

@Joe:
The three services you mention are for Windows Mobile 6.5 which will be announced in Barcelona. So, unless Sony puts out an updated rom, I don't think any of these services will even work.

I have played with the X1 and it isn’t a bad phone. But I don’t thing Sony should be hailed as Windows Mobile last hope as there are many good windows mobile phones out there. And the X1 itself was designed by HTC whom are known for their smart phones which are often rebranded by networks.

@Joe:
Someone company we were talking to regarding developing a handheld application for Windows Mobile feels that MS will dump it for a version of Windows 7.

I find it a bit of a stretch considering how slow mobile devices are but there are some good indications it may actually happen:

1) Windows 7 netbook edition being developed
2) Windows 7 beta speed
3) One platform would make it easier for developing plus add interest with the huge softare library available.
4) Touch screen capability added to the OS bridge the gap between the two

Speaking about phones:
Android G2 Photos: Thinner and No Keyboard
http://i.gizmodo.com/5135926/android-g2-photos-thinner-and-no-keyboard
Quote:
"As you can see, it has a 3.2 megapixel camera. According to our source, it will come in mid-May. Currently it has an interface "very similar" to the G1. We will see what happens this spring, but if true, this thing looks like a winner."

@TA
Hi! I hope Ive understood your post properly, so let me address the points you made:
Quote "
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1) Windows 7 netbook edition being developed
2) Windows 7 beta speed
3) One platform would make it easier for developing plus add interest with the huge softare library available.
4) Touch screen capability added to the OS bridge the gap between the two"
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1) and id be very interested to see the cost. The whole "selling point" of netbooks (IMO) is cheap functionality. Will Microsoft be able to bundle Win 7 on a Netbook with good enough specs for a price that will entice people? Im doubtful, but I will wait for more information from MS. Also lets not forget battery life, and whilst we can argue all day about a Linux Netbook, due to the fact it has a solid state storage, it has an undoubtedly longer battery life.
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2) Windows 7 (from early reports) is without doubt everything Vista should have been (IMO), although keep in mind, this is a beta with undoubtedly many more MS "features" to be added. Keep in mind, according to sites that have compared its performance with XP, they both are allegedly performing the same. Which whilst an improvement (greatly) over Vista, its hardly the groundbreaking O/S that we are being led to believe (IMO)
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3) Youre going to have limitations (IMO) on Windows mobile platform over its desktop counterpart, since considerations such as screen size, ram, CPU are all going to play a part and so IMO you will never get a situation where the mobile can be as functional as the desktop version (IMO) (and if Ive understood you point correctly)
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4) The touch screen features that are being touted with Win 7 are, IMO badly thought out. How many people have their desktop in a position to make this viable? and even forgetting that, touchscreen is not something new or a great innovation of Microsoft. I personally dont see how touch screen on both mobile and desktop bridges any gap (again if Ive understood your post)
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I am sticking by my prediction of the Zunephone though, as I believe MS are going to use it as a repository for all the "innovative" products that never really "made it" IMO.
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By that I mean, Zune,Silverlight et al.
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Will it sell? Who knows, but lets hope its not the "unfortunate" hardware incident the 360 was, or has any "unfortunate" issues on New Years Eve this year.

Am I the only one that doesn't see the touch screen feature as being all that great?

I can think of certain specific places where a touch screen is useful. Cell phone, public kiosk terminal, tablet PC (though with the tablet I'm thinking stylus instead of fingers), etc.

But how useful can it really be in terms of general desktop/laptop/netbook computing? For starters, who wants fingerprints to accumulate on their monitors?

What exactly is Microsoft trying to do with the touch screen feature in Windows 7?

"Am I the only one that doesn't see the touch screen feature as being all that great?"
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Completely agree, IMO its old technology that has been badly considered in relation to its suitability in an average desktop environment. Does MS know of office Health and Safety and the recommended spacing between desk, chair, keyboard that most companies roughly follow in their design. How many people could right now, comfortably use a touch screen, but more importantly get a faster operation from their system than they already do. Heres a hint MS, hot-keys. I can operate my PC far faster than any "revolutionary" idea you are introducing, regardless of what operating system I am using.

I agree with regard to the hotkeys and the ergonomics of using a PC, however my suspicion is that the touchscreen is targetted at the tablet, rather than the desktop, experience. If so, I think that would be a much-welcome improvement. I used a tablet for a few years, but found the pen to be inconsistent and sometimes more trouble than it was worth - not to mention I had a habit of losing the darn pen. When I finally upgraded, I went with a Lenovo x300 which I love, but touchscreen could bring me back to the tablet line.

@Will, Goblin and Meem

Touchscreen could be brilliant, but not on a PC as you know it.
It would be great on a UMPC, MID or a tablet. It would be great on a table (Surface). Think of media center, what if that was touch screen enabled?
And what about kiosks?

As for the phone, I think the next winmo will have part of the Win7 core in it. And certainly (parts of) the Zune interface.

"Think of media center, what if that was touch screen enabled?"

You wouldn't be able to touch it because you are 10 feet away? Either that or you would have to get up and stroke the TV every time you wanted to change channel. There is a reason people invented remote controls.

Microsoft are only interested in touch because of the iPhone. Their big idea was voice control which doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

@Charlie:

You Said-"As for the phone, I think the next winmo will have part of the Win7 core in it."
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Ans: Win 7 isnt some new core nor are any windows microsoft have put out since win95. Win 7 is actually a few new API's and the rest is win95 and all the newer API's since then.
To be fair Windows XP SP2 did a whole heap of twiddling under the hood and a whold lot of junking of really old code, think dos stuff, but new core, no , new API. Its a lot different.

Got some more info here...