Windows Mobile 7 or just Windows 7?

[TreizFaction]

I've been following the stories coming out about new cellphones running full versions of Xp and 7 as opposed to WinMo. I thought it would be good to have some discussion as to the fate of WinMo next year as hardware becomes powerful enough and common enough and the lines between netbook/MID/Smart-Phone all but disappear.

Do you think we will be using Windows Mobile 7 next Christmas, or just Windows 7 with a phone app?

 

[ehTuBrutus]

Good question

After playing with Microsoft Origami on my windows 7 desktop I started to think I was looking at an early build of a phone UI. The fact it runs on Vista or Windows 7 makes me think WinMo 7 might well be a stripped down version of the desktop OS with a finger friendly front end like Origami. Heck, the hardware is getting close to being able to run this now, maybe thats what they have been waiting for.

 

[Rico]

Windows Mobile 7, as with other versions is built off of Windows CE, not Windows 7. Also, there's a difference between hardware running something, and running it well enough to make it practical. What real advantage do you get from running desktop apps, made to run on a large display with a mouse and keyboard, on a device with a screen not that much larger than a business card? And if that mobile device lacks a hardware keyboard, you lose even more screen real estate.

Looking at the iPhone or Android which run POSIX-based OSes (UNIX and Linux respectively), they're still running pared-down versions of the OSes that we're run on a desktop. Even the Nokia N900's Maemo is a lighter version of Debian, although i believe it's closer to the original OS than the other two.

i think we'll see the divide in OSes between desktop and smartphones for some time to come. What i forsee are smartphones that have more robust mobile OSes, more technology (sensors, projectors, etc.) and slightly better battery life in some cases. Desktop OSes will stay on the desktop, with some exception.

 

[TreizFaction]

Tomshardware has video of the XpPhone by ITG in action. It's big. I do recall that ITG sent an email with details that the device can also be shipped with windows 7 instead of Xp. I'm wondering if that's still the case.