Windows 7 Mobile Delayed Until Late 2009

First the Windows 7 beta slipped from October to December, and now the mobile version of the OS has been pushed back from early 2009 to the second half of that year - heralding an inauspicious beginning for the OS that Microsoft wants dearly to distance itself from their last inauspicious OS, Windows Vista.

To compete against Symbian and Android - not to mention all things RIM and iPhone - Windows 7 Mobile must first be available to hardware partners. If that doesn't happen until late 2009, Microsoft may find itself playing catch-up.

Microsoft had no comment, but group product manager Scott Rockfeld did make an attempt to cast in a good light Steve Ballmer's recent meeting with the 17 top carriers and manufacturers, saying "They all expressed their excitement of what we are doing in the short term and the long term."

Meanwhile Microsoft is pushing its IE6 rendering engine to its current mobile OS in an attempt to keep things fresh. Indeed, the IE6 engine will allow Windows Mobile to support richer web pages - Flash and Ajax - on phones. Touch interfaces added by manufacturers may also help with that effort, but may not keep Windows 7 from becoming the next elephant in the room.

Windows 7 Mobile Delayed Until 2H 2009 [DailyTech]