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Ballmer: Microsoft "screwed up" on Windows Mobile
Vows "it won't happen again"
By John Cox on Mon, 09/28/09 - 11:44am.


CloseIn a striking admission, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told an audience of venture capitalists that Microsoft had "screwed up" with the Windows Mobile operating system. And that the group responsible for the OS had been restructured recently to address those shortcomings.

Computerworld's Matt Hamblen reported the comments after he picked up a Twitter stream on Ballmer's comments, from VCs attending the conference. According to the tweats, Ballmer also acknowledged that the about-to-be-released Windows Mobile 6.5 was not the release he had hoped for in 2009. According to one tweat, Ballmer said he wished version 7 of the OS was ready now, instead of next year.

The 6.5 release, due out in a few weeks on a new crop of Windows phones, has a subtly retooled user interface, with more emphasis on making the UI easier to use. There is also much greater support for multi-touch screens.

But the major innovation may prove to be the inclusion Internet Explorer Mobile 6, the first Microsoft mobile browser to incorporate a full HTML rendering engine, based on desktop IE 6. That alone may make the new crop of 6.5-based phones more usable and more popular. Though as critics have pointed out, the udnerlying IE 6 engine is now several years old, while mobile browsers from Apple and Mozilla and others are based on the more recent, highly regarded Webkit code.

Ballmer didn't go into details about the organizational changes. But that will be important to signal how ambitious and how determined Microsoft is to be a mobile platform player.

Anlaysts have pointed out Windows Mobile is only a tiny fraction of the company's revenues and profits. And some pointed to the recent Microsoft-Nokia deal as evidence that Redmond was playing to its strengths -- enabling easier, smoother access to its wide range of server-based products and services for mobile workers and consumers.