Microsoft says it won't abandon Windows Mobile 6.5
Microsoft has reiterated that it will continue to support, ship and sell Mobile 6.5 alongside Windows Phone 7. — However, senior product manager Michael Chang told Computer World that the latest iteration of the OS represented “a [definite] departure and break at a code level.”
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft has spent months telegraphing a hard reset on its mobile platform: it rebranded Windows Mobile as Windows Phone in mid-2009 (Windows Mobile becomes Windows Phone), CNET reported in January 2010 that it was eyeing a clean break with the next version, and earlier this month it confirmed there would be no Windows Phone 7 upgrade path for existing 6.x devices. Today's statement to Computer World softens the optics of that break without reversing it.
Senior product manager Michael Chang's framing is the substance here: Windows Phone 7 is 'a departure and break at a code level,' meaning Microsoft is now running two distinct codebases in parallel — an aging Windows Mobile 6.5 line it pledges to keep supporting, shipping and selling, and the new WP7 stack it showed off at MIX10 last week with third-party apps like Netflix. The pledge is aimed at reassuring OEMs, carriers and enterprise buyers mid-transition.
First-order effects
- OEMs and carriers holding Windows Mobile 6.5 inventory can keep building and selling those handsets through the transition instead of writing off stock when Windows Phone 7 hardware arrives.
- Windows Mobile developers now have a confirmed fork to manage: apps written for 6.5 will not carry forward to a WP7 codebase Microsoft itself describes as a break, forcing a choice of which platform to target.
Second-order effects
- With Microsoft's developer energy visibly shifting to the new stack, the maintained 6.5 platform risks becoming a maintenance track, pushing ISVs weighing effort against reach toward Android and iPhone where one build covers the roadmap.
- Rivals can sell against the split: handset makers hedging between two Microsoft platforms may find Google's single-track Android an easier commitment for their mid-range lineups.
Third-order effects
- If the dual-track pattern holds, Microsoft's mobile business consolidates into a classic legacy-plus-next-gen structure — enterprise 6.5 revenue funding a WP7 rebuild — while its third-party application base fragments across incompatible platforms, weakening the ecosystem position it needs to challenge iOS and Android.
- A sustained two-codebase strategy also raises the odds Microsoft eventually sunsets 6.5 once WP7 reaches feature parity, making today's reassurance a bridge rather than a permanent commitment — though nothing in the company's current statements sets that timeline.
The trend: Platform owners are increasingly managing generational mobile-OS transitions as parallel legacy-and-rebuild tracks rather than in-place upgrades, leaving developers and OEMs to absorb the fragmentation cost.