Farewell Windows Mobile?

Yet more unsubstantiated rumour, but this one holds a little more water than yesterday’s (now refuted) reports about Intel’s supposed postponement of its Pine Trail-M mobile platform.

According to The Inquirer, Microsoft is planning to dump the name ‘Windows Mobile’ for the imminent launch of version 6.5 of its handheld operating system. The new name? “Windows Phone”...

The re-christening was apparently revealed to The Inquirer at a recent press event and, supposedly, will be an attempt to simplify the 6.0, 6.1. 6.5, 7.0 nomenclature that currently confuses consumers about which infuriatingly inconsistent mobile operating system they’re getting on their gadgets.

This wouldn’t be the first time that Microsoft has renamed its handheld OS, of course. It started life as ‘Windows CE’ and this is still the name of the operating system kernel (Windows Mobile 6.5 is actually built on Windows CE 6.0), but Microsoft soon moved to friendlier names for success operating system versions. So far, we’ve had PocketPC, Smartphone and Windows Mobile, so Windows Phone wouldn’t be a stretch. The problem is that it doesn’t make a lick of sense.

Windows Mobile is a well-established operating system with, like it or not, strong brand recognition — and it’s used for more than just smartphones. Renaming Windows Mobile 6.5 to Windows Phone 6.5 isn’t going to ease any confusion and, well, “Windows Phone” is just a silly name. The Inquirer claims to have a video that confirms the whole crazy idea, so, we’ll have to wait and see with this one.

[Via The Inquirer]