Windows Mobile 6.5 Review: There's No Excuse For This
I really didn't want to beat up on WinMo here, because at this point it just feels tired. But man, come on Microsoft, you're giving me no choice. Windows Mobile 6.5 isn't just a letdown—it barely seems done.
Context & Ripple Effects
The verdict lands eight months after Engadget's February editorial laying out ten reasons why Windows Mobile 6.5 misses the mark, and nothing in the interim changed the trajectory: Gizmodo's reviewer calls the release barely done, and VentureBeat's first look on the HTC Pure echoes the same disappointment. What makes this round harsher is timing — Microsoft's own September data has Windows 7 surging while Vista sheds share and Internet Explorer loses browser ground, so the mobile stumble lands amid a desktop story that was finally turning positive.
The release also arrives with Microsoft's roadmap unsettled: leaked shots of the rumored in-house 'Project Pink' hardware drew a strongly negative reception, though reports that the effort might already be dead remain unconfirmed, leaving reviewers to judge 6.5 as the last word on the legacy platform for now.
First-order effects
- OEMs like HTC shipping 6.5 devices into the holiday quarter inherit a review cycle that frames their hardware as running an unfinished OS, forcing them to sell around the software rather than with it.
- Microsoft's carrier partners get a flagship mobile release that reviewers treat as a letdown at the exact moment competitors' touch-first platforms are setting buyer expectations.
Second-order effects
- HTC and other OEMs lean harder on custom skins and bundled services — TechCrunch's coverage of Microsoft's My Phone backup service shows Microsoft itself bundling cloud features to add perceived value the core OS lacks.
- A weak 6.5 reception raises the stakes for whatever comes next: if the rumored Project Pink hardware effort is genuinely dead, partners have no credible signal of where the platform resets, pushing them toward hedging bets on other operating systems.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — an aging codebase patched incrementally while rivals ship ground-up platforms — Microsoft faces a full mobile reboot rather than another point release, with carrier and developer confidence as the binding constraint.
- The 6.5 piling-on compounds a broader perception problem visible in the same month's share data (Vista losing ground, IE declining), where each weak product release erodes trust in the next one before it ships.
The trend: Microsoft's mobile business is caught between patching a legacy Windows Mobile line reviewers have written off and an unconfirmed hardware-and-platform reset, with every incremental release narrowing its room to maneuver.