Windows Mobile
Windows Mobile is an operating system for portable devices developed by Microsoft and first released on 2003-06-23. This OS is based on the Windows CE platform and replaced the Pocket PC OS. Microsoft designed it for a range of portable devices including portable digital assistants and mobile phones. The OS saw peak popularity in 2007, but it never reached 50% of the mobile market share. As it was on a severe decline, Microsoft discontinued it in favor of Windows Phone in 2010.
Personal
Because I dislike pretty much everything Microsoft does, I never bought a product with Windows Mobile. However, I did have to use several devices which ran Windows Mobile for my work, and I found the OS to be an absolute mess.
Major Versions
Released | Version | CE Kernel | Sync Software | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2003-06-23 | Windows Mobile 2003 | 4.x | ActiveSync | Renamed from Pocket PC 2003 shortly after its release. |
2005-05-09 | Windows Mobile 5 | 5.0 | ActiveSync | |
2007-02-12 | Windows Mobile 6 | 5.2 | Mobile Device Center | |
2009-05-11 | Windows Mobile 6.5 | 5.x | Mobile Device Center | A stopgap while Microsoft was working in Windows Mobile 7 which eventually became Windows Phone 7. |
Software
Pretty much any software I have seen for Windows Mobile is a port from a real computer or video game console, and vastly inferior on Windows Mobile.
Games
- For all games released on the platform see the category.
Although a lot of good games were ported to Windows Mobile, I prefer them on their original platforms. There were a small amount of games designed primarily for Windows Mobile, but none are important to me.
Review
Since I never really used the OS that much, I can't give a very detailed review. In general, I found using Windows Mobile to be a frustrating experience. Like most OSs designed for mobile devices, everything was locked down to an obnoxious level which made writing software for it especially difficult, and probably contributed to the limited of development on the platform.