Microsoft officially announces Windows Mobile 6.1 with IE Mobile 6 and more

It isn't like this is a big surprise to anyone since so many leaks have been shown online the last few months, but Microsoft officially announced Windows Mobile 6.1 at the opening keynote of CTIA this morning (and no this is not an April Fools joke). While there are lots of behind-the-scenes improvements, one of the major ones that has me excited is the new version of Internet Explorer Mobile that uses IE 6 technologies to bring H.264, Adobe Flash, and Microsoft Silverlight support to mobile devices. Windows Mobile 6.1 will be released to mobile phone partners in the third quarter of 2008 so you will most likely see 6.1 devices in time for the holidays.

Other improvements mentioned in the press release include readily available information on the Home/Today screen, quicker phone setup (including Bluetooth and WiFi improvements), and more.

Some other cool features include cut, copy, and paste for non-touch screen devices, improved task manager applications, Live Search for Windows Mobile in the ROM, and threaded SMS. I actually use non-touch devices more these days since I find them to be much more responsive and reliable so this cut, copy and paste functionality is a great addition.

These are all great improvement in Windows Mobile and the only disappointing thing to me is how long we are going to have to wait to actually see it in devices. I would love to have heard this would be on devices this summer since that is only 3-4 months away, rather than 6-7 months. I was under the impression it was calendar year quarters and was wrong. Apparently, we will see these devices in the next couple of months and I am posting my next blog post announcing such a device that is coming soon.