Microsoft's WinMobile team: Big on futures, slow on deliverables

With Google's Chrome browser announcement and revelation of plans by Microsoft to roll out an iPhone app store competitor, all eyes should be on Windows Mobile.

A quick recap of the long weekend's news: After saying two years ago Google had no plans to develop its own browser, Eric Schmidt and Co. are doing just that -- and, ironically, using the same codename ("Chrome") Microsoft used years back for a multimedia browsing technology. Many pundits, itching for another Google-Microsoft fight, already are declaring Internet Explorer (IE) a dead browser walking, Chrome actually is more of an assault on IE for mobile than IE on the PC.

Microsoft's mobile browser is a couple of generations behind its IE for PC one. While Microsoft just rolled out Beta 2 of IE 8, the final version of which is due this fall, on the Windows Mobile platform, Microsoft still has a few months to go before it delivers IE 6.

From a July 2008 speech at the Microsoft partner conference by Andy Lees, Senior Vice President for Microsoft's Mobile Communications Business:

"So, what are people using these devices for? Well, of course, consumers want to use the devices to be able to do things like to access the Internet. That's why we're putting Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows Mobile where we'll complete that in the next six months, and that's so that you get the full PC experience on a mobile device. That's not a cut-down browser; it's the full IE 6. We'll continue to innovate and put new versions on that as we increase our pace of innovation on Windows Mobile."

Meanwhile, over the past weekend, istartedsomething's Long Zheng found a mention of a Microsoft mobile-app store for Windows Mobile, courtesy of a job listing. The forthcoming "SkyMarket" is just one of a number of new "Sky"-based codenames coming on the Windows Mobile front. There is also a "SkyLine" and a "SkyBox" in the works, as other Microsoft sleuths have discovered. Both SkyLine and SkyBox seemingly have to do with new mobile services in the works for the WinMo platform.

Based on other related names -- Windows Live SkyDrive is a cloud-based personal storage service (a drive in the sky) -- I wonder whether SkyLine could be VOIP-related, perhaps a Microsoft-hosted VOIP service? And SkyBox: It wouldn't surprise me if this was a cloud-based, Microsoft-hosted email inbox that would be differentiated from Windows Live Mail or Windows Live Hotmail in its enterprise focus. But those are just guesses on my part....

The job posting for SkyBox makes it sound as if it might be the business services side of Microsoft Online. In other words, the mobile service component of Microsoft-hosted SharePoint, Microsoft-hosted Exchange, Microsoft-hosted CRM, etc. The SkyLine one sounds similar. From the SkyLine help-wanted:

"Join the Mobile Services revolution! Windows Mobile and Online Services are two of the fastest growing businesses at Microsoft. We're an agile startup team building software plus services that will power Windows Mobile and other devices, opening up a huge revenue stream for Microsoft and competing head on with the likes of RIM, iPhone, Android and others. We're starting with business grade email solutions, followed by a pipeline of other compelling service offerings."

For now, there are lots more questions than deliverables around any of these forthcoming Mobile offerings. How do SkyLine and SkyBox fit in with "Rouge," the business services coming for Windows Mobile? How is SkyMarket going to dovetail with or replace Zune VideoX, the online video store I heard about a while back?

The biggest question: Why is this taking Microsoft so long? SkyMarket, SkyLine and SkyBox are all in their early/startup phases. Windows Mobile 7 is expected to be released to carriers in late 2008/early 2009, which means the first WinMo 7 phones -- with an IE 6 browser and maybe a new app marketplace -- should hit later on in 2009. SkyLine, SkyBox and other personal/business services that will help differentiate WinMobile phones: Probably not until WinMobile 8....

Is Microsoft falling too far behind to stay competitive in the mobile space, clearing the way for Google's Chrome to come in and clean Redmond's clock? Or will Microsoft's Software + Services strategy deliver benefits that its mobile competitors won't have?