According to the Mirror.co.uk Microsoft’s general manager for TV, video and music marketing, Christine Heckhart, said that Redmond wanted to put Zune on “three screens”, tying in with the company’s wider goal of integrating PC, television and mobile phone under one platform. “The strategy and vision of Zune is to continue to build out that full entertainment experience,” she continued.

Well we all knew this was going to happen, the only thing left to see if it will happen before WM7 ? What do you think ?

HTCPedia.com is reporting that

As smartphone sales surged by 13% in the third quarter one would think that this increased sales would necessarily be seen by such a powerhouse as the Windows Mobile operating system supported smartphones. Well, that just wasn’t the case as the sale of smartphones that are running the Windows Mobile operating system actually decreased by 20% in the third quarter according to Gartner.

But with new WM6.5 devices like the HTC HD2 in the market the future is looking good for Windows Mobile and with WM7 next year, we should see the number of WM devices going up soon.

To explore options for reducing IT costs while enabling a mobile workforce, the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) has conducted field testing of a mobile command and control solution comprised of off- the-shelf components, including Microsoft® tools and technologies and phones powered by Windows Mobile. The exercise included Inca X’s Live Media GPS and enabled ONR to demonstrate innovative ways to leverage IT for collecting and analyzing operational data.

ONR Director of Disruptive Business Technologies Dano DeBroux initiated the AMC proof-of-concept exercise to demonstrate how mobile platforms present a significant opportunity to reduce the Navy’s IT footprint and support infrastructure while enabling business and operational capabilities for its distributed, highly mobile workforce. The findings from an analysis of alternatives strongly favored technologies from Microsoft® and UK-based Inca X due to ease of integration with existing IT infrastructure and applications, Microsoft’s mobile and cloud technology roadmaps, and an architecture that supports custom and third-party application development.

Full Press release here via Twitter

According to WMPowerUser, Global Crossing, a telecommunications firm which provides networking services such as VPN, video conferencing and VoIP in 60 countries and has over 5000 employees is in the process of moving from Blackberrys to Windows Mobile smartphones.

According to Steven Schafer, Director of Network Services at Global Crossing “RIM requires that you pay for a license for the BlackBerry servers…. You pay a license for every BlackBerry user that you have connected, and then you also pay for support and maintenance for the servers and users.”

Schafer is counting on such a smooth integration with Exchange 2010 and Office Communications Server. It’s what sets WinMo 6.5 apart, despite its lackluster reviews, he says, adding that he expects more enhancements with the arrival of Windows Mobile 7 in the second half of next year.

Most of the gripes about Windows Mobile 6.5 are that it is a stopgap before the arrival of Windows Mobile 7, with underwhelming interface and touchscreen features. But even though WinMo 6.5 is not being hailed as a great mobile OS for consumers, critics admit that it’s a solid enterprise mobile OS given how well it integrates with Exchange.

More info : sfgate.com

Electronista is making a claim which states that Samsung will be pushing more Android devices in the near future. According to the claim. In 2010 Samsung devices with Windows Mobile will be reduced to 50 percent, its currently around the 80 percent mark and by 2012 it will be further reduced to just 20 percent of Samsung’s phones.

Its also said that by by 2011 there will be no more Symbian device from Samsung. So it 2010 there will be very few Symbian device on Samsung. So you have to wonder where is Samsung going to take its business ? Samsung will increase its use of Android to about 30 percent next year and also have bold plans to introduce a new proprietary Samsung OS ( bases on TouchWiz ? ) should arrive next year and gradually form about half of all the company’s smartphone sales.

Debunked : http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=10029

Microsoft has signed on a third-party, Bsquared, to be the first and currently exclusive distributor for Windows Mobile licenses worldwide. Till now Microsoft has had full control of Windows Mobile licensing to OEMs like HTC, Acer, Samsung, etc who would purchase them to ship with their mobile phones. Now the power is in the hands of Bsquared who will on top of just selling licenses, also provide reference designs, communication stacks, technical support, training, testing, value-added products to the OEM partners. Bsquare currently distributes Windows Embedded licenses in North America and offers system integration services at 10 development centers located in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Taiwan, China and India.

The Good :

• Now microsoft can concentrate on developing the platform and pushing it out to Bsquared. Who will deal with OEMs.
• Microsoft can divert more resources towards product development and thus roll out updates faster.

The Bad :

• Once Microsoft rolls out a new update , it has to go through Bsquare … can anyone else see WM7 getting delayed ?
• How will Bsquare handle the xda-developers ROM scenario .. any thoughts ?

via bsquare.com

The guys from wmpoweruser has put together a great feature comparison chat of the iPhone MobileMe service and the Windows Mobile version called MyPhone.

Watch a short Video of Both Service

Microsoft is hosting a Venture Capital Summit today at Mountain View and wmpoweruser has reported that

According to Pjozefak, a venture capitalist, Steve, like all of us, regret Windows Mobile 7 has not launched yet. In his words “Ballmer says they screwed up with Windows Mobile. Wishes they had already launched WM7. They completely revamped the team.”

The new WM team with 1000 employees might be a solution to fix that problem. Its also reported that Microsoft is giving high importance to Windows Mobile and are calling it their second priority after Windows 7.

Lights out is a fun game, the object of the game is to light up or knock out all the lights in a 5×5 grid. When a square is selected that square and its four immediate neighbors, above, below, and to each side invert. There is no wraparound. The object of the game is to get all the squares black. It will run on Portrait, Landscape on all major resolutions, and is aware if you switch the screen orientation. It has 5×5, 7×7 9×9 and 11×11 grids. The new build supports smartphones too.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the introduction of many new smartphones in to the market , smartphone sales grew 27 percent, but the sad news is that Windows Mobile’s share of the smartphone market had dropped 2.7 percent in the second quarter of 2009.

	2Q ‘08	2Q ‘09	Comment
Smartphones sold in	32.3 million	41.0 million	27 % increase over 2Q ‘08
Windows Mobile units	3.87 million	3.81 million	9.3 percent of the smartphone market in 2Q ‘09

In short, smartphones are selling well, but Windows Mobile smartphones are having a hard time catching up with the new boys in town. With Windows Mobile 6.5 devices which should be hitting the shelves soon, and rumors that Windows Mobile 7.0 will come out sometime in the 1st 2010 there is still some hope for Windows Mobile. via arstechnica.com