Windows Mobile 6.5 reviewed - no one impressed

Microsoft officially took the wraps off Windows Mobile 6.5 today and the word on the web is a resounding “meh”.

To be fair, Microsoft has made it clear that this revision of its smartphone operating system isn’t going to be anything to get excited about and we won’t see a major revamp until next year’s Windows Mobile 7. Even so, the early reviews are all surmise that Windows Mobile 6.5 — or Windows ‘Phone’, is it is now to be known — is little more than a slapdash stopgap

Gizmodo give Windows Mobile 6.5 the biggest kicking. They like the new Zune-like ‘Titanium’ front-end with its smooth-scrolling menus, but describe the new Start menu and app launcher as “some kind of horrible puzzle game”. The new version of Internet Explorer is also singled out for criticism — it’s improved, but still lags far behind the WebKit-based browsers of the iPhone and Android.

Gizmodo reviewer John Herrman ends with:

I'd like to think that 6.5's stunning failure to innovate is a symptom of a neglected project—maybe Microsoft just needed something, anything to hold people over until the mythical Windows Mobile 7 comes out, whatever it is. But as Steve Ballmer himself has plainly admitted, it's worse: Microsoft has simply lumbered in the wrong direction for two years, letting everyone, save maybe Nokia, fly right past them.

Engadget is a little more circumspect. They sprinkle a little love for the UI improvements and even reserve praise for the changes to Internet Explorer (although still highlights its serious shortcomings), but do mitigate the improvements by describing them as “very much a nip-tuck job -- just as every Windows Mobile version in recent memory has been”.

Engadget’s final summation is:

Put simply, 6.5 won't win a single user to the platform, even though the snazzy hardware that's running it just might. What it does do is make the full touchscreen use case just bearable enough to keep users already in the WinMo ecosystem hanging around -- and a stop-loss plan is exactly what Microsoft needs while it gets version 7 locked and loaded over the next few months. Let's make it happen, guys.

The trend should be clear by now, but we’ll end with the weary words of ZDNet’s Matthew Miller. He echoes the complaints of both Gizmodo and Engadget, and also criticises the lack of finger-friendliness — Windows Mobile 6.5 will still force you to grab a stylus (or use the edge of a fingernail) to interact with some parts of its interface. The whole thing is clearly the last straw for Miller, who ends with:

I am a fan of Windows Mobile, but find very little added value in this Windows Mobile 6.5 release and would never recommend anyone actually purchase a new device just to get this update on their smartphone. We are going to have to wait and see if Microsoft can pull anything out of the hat in Windows Mobile 7, but with the current schedule of late 2010, most likely slipping into 2011 like this release, I think the T-Mobile Touch Pro2 may be my last Windows Mobile device for quite some time.

With Palm, Apple and a variety of Android smartphone manufacturers all nipping at its heels, Microsoft can’t really afford this kind of tepid response to the first major revision of its smartphone operating system in over two years (6.0 was released in February 2007, followed by the small changes of 6.1 a year later).

Microsoft’s position in the smartphone market is deeply entrenched, of course, but there’s still a year to go until Windows Mobile 7 sorts out its mobile operating system once and for all (well, hopefully). There could well be another iPhone by then, along with several new Android handsets and by forcing its users to limp along with an outdated operating system for another 12 months, Microsoft’s market share could well take a hit.

[ Microsoft Windows Phone]