You would expect Microsoft to push their own technology specially on their very own mobile platform that is Windows Mobile 6.5, but you are in for a nasty surprise if you had such hopes. As said by Loke Uei Tan, Senior Product Manager from the Windows Mobile Team, in the above panel Q&A video from TechEd 2009 uploaded by ArsTechnica:
Silverlight will not be on Windows Mobile 6.5, unfortunately. Due to a lot of reasons, we want to make sure the experience is better for the next version. So we will hold off until then.
It had already been confirmed that Windows Mobile 6.5 will have support for Flash. While many would argue about the few number of websites that support Silverlight, incorporating it in Windows Mobile 6.5 would have definitely given it a boost.
Also worth noting is the fact that Windows Mobile 6.5 was put together in just under 9 months. That doesn’t seem to be anything to be proud of, when you look at the competition, but Loke Uei Tan thinks otherwise and calls it an impressive engineering feat.
Another important point is that Widgets and Applications will be treated the same in Marketplace for Windows Mobile. Why give them different names then?
Finally the thing actually pisses me off is that the launch of Marketplace for Windows Mobile will be in 55 countries and 29 of those countries will have pay-for marketplaces. What the heck is Microsoft thinking? We already have Windows Mobile 6.5 compatible phones being used throughout the world. Let me put it this way. In Pakistan, there are a lot of developers making apps for iPhone that are available in the App Store. Although, iPhone isn’t officially available in Pakistan. Whereas, Windows Mobile phones are officially available in Pakistan, and they can’t even sign up for Marketplace for Windows Mobile to develop applications for it! It is actually ridiculous. And from an end user’s perspective, a Windows Mobile 6.5 user wouldn’t be able to buy/download Apps from the Marketplace, whereas an iPhone user in Pakistan is free to buy applications from the App Store despite it being unlocked or jailbroken.
A lot of people aren’t happy with this, and it really seems like Windows Mobile 6.5 is being rushed as a ‘me too’ OS along with the Marketplace. Microsoft, are you listening to these complaints??
[Thanks to the anonymous tipster for the heads up]
Wow, nice scoop! Ars seems to be getting better at the Microsoft coverage. Thanks for this article, I’ll have to keep their Microsoft section in mind now. Good work Imran!
Thank you :)