Let’s just talk about Pocket PC this time, ignoring Smart Phones, because the story is complicated enough as it is. On a sideline, whenever I am talking about “we”, I really mean Microsoft. We have come a long way with Windows Mobile devices. Let’s review the history and take a look at the future at the same time. In the past we had products like Pocket PC 2000, which was running on top of Windows CE 3.0 and Pocket PC 2002, which was also running on top of Windows CE 3.0. The next version of Pocket PC, and one where I started to make jokes in presentations, because I couldn’t remember the name, was Windows Mobile 2003. This brand new platform for Pocket PC and SmartPhone ran on top of the Windows CE.NET 4.2 operating system. Things got really hard for me when Microsoft announce Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. After all, my native language is Dutch and I had the hardest time remembering and pronouncing this product name correctly. Can you imagine me explaining during a presentation that I was targeting a Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition Pocket PC to run my "Hello, World!" sample on? Using that name frequently just took away at least 5 minutes of presentation time without saying anything. WM 2003 SE was still running on top of Windows CE.NET 4.2. After this release, which, in my opinion, was a breakthrough for Windows Mobile devices, we got familiar with Windows Mobile 5.0. I even remember some marketing folks explaining that this was the perfect name for the product. Finally, the underlying Windows CE version and the according Windows Mobile version were in sync. In other words, Windows Mobile 5.0 was running on top of Windows CE 5.0. Nothing confusing, a direct match between the Windows Mobile version and the underlying Windows CE version. Unfortunately, after one single release we have left that naming convention again. As you might have heard, Windows Mobile 6.0 has recently been released. A short while ago, in November 2006, a new version of the Windows CE operating system, Windows CE 6.0, was released aw well. It would make perfect sense for you to think that Windows Mobile 6.0 is running on top of Windows CE 6.0. Well, this is not true. Windows Mobile 6.0 is still running on top of Windows CE 5.0. This is exactly where I am completely lost. How hard would it have been to use Windows Mobile 5.5 for the current generation of Windows Mobile devices? It would have been so much easier to explain different versions of Windows Mobile devices in relation to different versions of the Windows CE operating system. I am very curious what name Microsoft will come up with for the next version of Windows Mobile devices, based on the Windows CE 6.0 operating system. I know marketing is not really my cup of tea. However, I gave away my biggest suggestion for naming the current Windows Mobile release already. It is not that hard. It should simply have been called Windows Mobile 5.5, with the next release, based upon Windows CE 6.0 being called Windows Mobile 6.0. It seems that this is not rocket science. Why do I have the feeling that the next version after Windows Mobile 6.0 will be called something like Windows Mobile 2008 or Windows Mobile 2009, depending on its release time frame. Or are we moving away from version numbers and time referals at all. In that case I wouldn't be surprised if the next version of Windows Mobile would be called Windows Mobile Vista or some other fancy name.

Maarten Struys