Windows Mobile 6 is here!

Five years ago, Microsoft Corp. entered the smartphone industry with one device through one mobile operator. Today, Windows Mobile® has more than 140 devices in the marketplace worldwide available from 125 mobile operators. Windows Mobile 6, the next iteration of the Windows Mobile platform, brings new features and tools to smartphones while still maintaining unrivaled flexibility, productivity and customisation.

The result: a more powerful smartphone that resembles the personal computer interface, but whose interface is designed to fit neatly on a mobile phone. New features in Windows Mobile 6 include support for rich HTML email, increased functionality within Microsoft® Office Outlook® Mobile and Office Mobile programs, and improved security and device management for IT managers.

Windows Mobile 6 also delivers advanced mobile communications, increased mobile productivity and optimised mobile business performance, with a consistent and familiar Microsoft software experience.

Advanced mobile communications

Mobile, delivering a more powerful mobile communications experience to the user:

  • Genuine Outlook Mobile experience through HTML support*

Windows Mobile 6 allows users to view e-mail messages the way the sender intended: with pictures, tables, links and formatting. It is the only mobile solution available to offer this experience.

  • Faster access to contacts and communities of people

Windows Mobile 6 helps users stay connected with their contacts and the communities they care about through improved collaboration with their corporate address book and Windows Live? services.

  • Searching Exchange Server 2007 for more efficient email management

Windows Mobile 6 allows users to communicate more effectively by automatically ?fetching? additional text when users scroll down messages and by implementing new features that can help improve the efficiency with which users can manage their inbox through searching of folders and sent mail.

  • Support of Information Rights Management to help increase protection

To help ensure access to protected content and preservation of the security intended by the sender, Windows Mobile 6 provides built-in support for Information Rights Management, to send and receive rights-managed messages and documents.

  • Optimised and rich Windows Live experience

Windows Live for Windows Mobile delivers a unique and rich experience, combining online services such as Messenger, Contacts, Windows Live Mail and Search.

  • Flexible connections and new e-mail account setup

Windows Mobile 6 improves the new email account setup experience by providing simple and efficient access to new setup wizards.

Increased mobile productivity

Windows Mobile 6 provides an increased level of productivity by helping users reach deeper into information available on their devices to places they can?t reach while at their desks:

  • Office Mobile suite

A new addition to the operating system is the Office Mobile suite (Word Mobile, Excel® Mobile and PowerPoint® Mobile) for Windows Mobile 6 Standard, helping users manage and review documents on any Windows Mobile 6 powered device.

  • Enhanced control and visibility of Outlook Calendar information

Windows Mobile 6 increases users? ability to manage their day through features such as the calendar bar, out-of-office assistant,* and meeting attendees* and status.*

  • LOB application support

Windows Mobile 6 delivers productivity through one of the largest catalogs of line-of-business (LOB) applications, providing access to existing information and connections to tools.

  • Smart filtering to give users more productivity

Windows Mobile 6 gives users a way to find the messages that they want without having to scan through a lengthy list of messages.

  • PC connectivity technologies

Synchronization is improved with the new Windows Mobile Device Center (WMDC) for connectivity of Windows Mobile powered devices and Windows Vista? powered PCs.

  • Enhancements to Internet Explorer Mobile

Internet Explorer® Mobile enables faster viewing times and better support for many of most popular Web pages browsed with mobile phones.

  • Greater collaboration and interoperability

Windows Mobile 6 increases the ability to collaborate and gain access to information stored on Exchange Server, SharePoint® and Universal Naming Convention (UNC) file shares.

Optimised mobile business performance

Windows Mobile 6 delivers increased device control and security, and greater operability with Exchange Server and other Microsoft assets so businesses can efficiently deploy, manage and help secure their mobile solutions:

  • Collaboration with Exchange Server 2007

Windows Mobile 6 working together with Exchange Server 2007 helps make deploying, administering and monitoring a mobile messaging environment simple and cost-effective.

  • Increased device control and security

With new security capabilities and device management policies such as storage card encryption and enhanced PIN strength, Windows Mobile 6 offers users the ability to manage and deploy Windows Mobile powered devices with enhanced security.

  • Line-of-business applications

Powerful mobile versions of the Microsoft .NET Framework and SQL Server? built into Windows Mobile 6 make it even easier to access sales tools, inventory tracking or any other application from a Windows Mobile powered smartphone, previously only possible on PCs.

  • Internationalisation of Windows Mobile

The addition of language provisioning and spell checker for East Asian versions enables users in those regions to better collaborate within their local markets.

*Requires Exchange Server 2007

Source: Microsoft