Windows 7 Shines Light On Windows Mobile's Wrinkles

That's a marked contrast to the state of affairs in Windows Mobile, where things seem to be moving in the opposite direction. Quite simply, the sluggish pace of Windows Mobile development is having a negative impact on Microsoft's ability to compete in the mobile space.

Windows Mobile 7, originally slated for release in early 2009, has already been pushed back to 2010. Microsoft was expected to release Windows Mobile 6.5 in February at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, although signs are that it will do so at next month's TechEd conference.

Meanwhile, some of Microsoft's mobile industry partners appear to be focusing their attentions elsewhere. Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha didn't mention Windows Mobile at all in a rundown of the company's smartphone plans, despite having said earlier that Motorola would bring Windows Mobile phones to market this year. But Jha did provide a detailed look at Motorola's plans to get Google's Android operating system onto its devices in the coming months.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer often trumpets the success of Windows Mobile in terms of licenses sold, but during Microsoft's fiscal 2008 year the company missed its Windows Mobile sales targets by 2 million units. And the reality is that Windows Mobile is regarded in much of the industry as a serviceable but unspectacular OS that's falling behind its hard-charging competitors.

More recently, Ballmer acknowledged that Microsoft needs to step up the pace of Windows Mobile development. If Microsoft has any chance of catching up with Apple's iPhone and the herd of promising competitors in the smartphone space, it'll have to get Windows Mobile back on track, and soon.