Meanwhile,
Mobile-Review.com has posted an
extensive review of what is said to be a preliminary version of Magneto that the author obtained on the Internet. The author says he tested the OS on a Qtek 2020 Pocket PC, a version of the HTC Himalaya. The author reports that Magneto is based on "Windows CE 5.1," and as
previously reported, that it merges the Pocket PC and Smartphone versions of Windows Mobile into a single platform that combines smartphone and PDA capabilities.
Consistent with that strategy, Pocket Office will be renamed Office Mobile, the article says, with other key apps similarly redesignated Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, and Outlook Mobile. (What -- no IE Mobile?) The
Mobile-Review.com article includes an extensive set of screenshots that purport to show the control and application functions of the new OS, accompanied by interesting observations by the author.
A recent
CRN article offers further insight on "Windows Mobile 2005," and quotes an unnamed source as saying that Microsoft plans to position it within a "comprehensive mobile strategy" that "aims to kill BlackBerry." The article further reports that Magneto, in conjunction with Exchange 2003 Server Pack 2, will implement "push technology" similar to that provided by RIM for the BlackBerry, and that it will unify what are now separate implementations of Windows CE for Pocket PC and smartphone devices.
Microsoft is "on track to freeze the Windows Mobile 2005 ROM code in April," the
CRN article added, lending support to the rumor that Magneto will be unveiled next week at MEDC.
Read the
Mobile-Review.com article
here, and the
CRN story
here.
Related stories:
