Windows Mobile 6.5 To Be Redubbed “Classic” [Microsoft Still Planning To Support WM6, Focus Changing To Enterprise Solutions, Emerging Markets]

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Windows Phone 7 was unveiled this past week in Spain at the Mobile World Congress. It has been well-received by the tech press, and considering that previous iterations of Windows Mobile have been (to put it bluntly) horrible, one might expect Microsoft to quickly end Windows Mobile 6. However, that won’t be the case.

The website “I Started Something” got an interview with some Microsoft employees at MWC and learned that Windows Mobile 6.5 will stick around, even after Windows Phone 7 has come out. Windows Mobile 6.5, the current iteration of Windows Mobile, will be renamed “Windows Phone Classic” and Microsoft will continue to support the aged mobile OS.

The big change in marketing and naming won’t happen until Windows Phone 7 has been released. While Windows Phone 7 will be the consumer-orientated model, Windows Phone Classic will be for “enterprise solutions” and emerging marketplaces.

Windows Mobile 6 has long been the de facto standard in rugged gadgets (PDAs, notebooks, tablets). Earlier this month, we reported on a leak that allegedly spoiled information on Windows Phone 7. That leak reported that Windows Phone 7 would not be backwards compatible with Windows Mobile 6 programs written in NETCF. Although Microsoft hasn’t confirmed this, other things from that leak, including the name of the UI (Metro) has turned out to be true.

Therefore, if Windows Phone 7 doesn’t have backwards compatibility with NETCF, then enterprise users would be unable to use a lot of their custom applications on the new mobile OS. Hence the need for continued support of Windows Mobile 6.

Microsoft didn’t say what kind of support that Windows Mobile 6 fans can expect on the new Windows Phone Classic, but they did point out that it’ll likely be like the recent Windows Mobile 6.5.3 update that the mobile OS currently received.