Windows Mobile 6.5 Announcement at Mobile World Congress 09

Windows Mobile 6.5 was official announced at the Mobile World Congress 2009 conference in Barcelona, Spain.  Event highlights can be found at this link.

While Windows Mobile 6.5 includes a revamped more consumer-oriented user interface, underneath the covers it is still based on the Windows CE 5.0 operating system.  Engadget provides a nice overview at this link.  Also, the common controls are updated to be more touch friendly (larger scroll bars, menus, etc.) so developers get those improvements “for free” without even having to recompile their applications.

For developers, Windows Mobile 6.5 provides excellent backwards compatibility with existing Windows Mobile 6.x devices.  Developers can continue to use the Windows Mobile 6 SDKs to developer for Windows Mobile 6.5 when it becomes available with the forthcoming device emulators.