Steve Ballmer: Even Google Wins Android Business ...

Microsoft to Launch Windows Mobile 7 Next Year

by Mark Hachman

Microsoft will launch the next major iteration of Windows Mobile, or Windows Mobile 7, in 2010, according to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer. Ballmer made his comments in a strategic update session on Tuesday, where he also disclosed that Microsoft would not ship the next version of Office until 2010, and disclosed a "netbook"-like version of Windows Server, called Foundation Edition.

Ballmer also disclosed that the company would be releasing Windows Mobile 7 next year, somewhat of a surprise given that Microsoft released Windows Mobile 6.5 on Feb. 13 at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona.
"We've made a nice release announcement last week of Windows Mobile 6.5," Ballmer said, acording to a transcript of Ballmer's remarks prepared by Microsoft. "We've got Windows Mobile 7 coming next year. We're getting more and more synergy with Windows, so the browser improvements, et cetera, should be quite rapid."

Microsoft also won't be building its own phones, Ballmer said, taking a shot at rival Google as he did so.
"People ask me, will you build your own phone? [It's] not our strategy to build our own phone," Ballmer said. "It's our strategy to sell software that we can use and support across a wide range of device manufacturers to encourage choice, choice in devices, choice in the operators. We have a positive price on our software. Google does not. I don't know how it is a sustainable thing to not have a positive price. And don't tell me you think it's search, because even when they win the Android business, they have to pay to have their search installed on that phone, just as we do, that's a competitive bid that the operators mandate. So we're going with a real price, with real investment, with a professional approach, and a positive price on software-based model."

Ballmer also said that he was proud of the fact that Windows Mobile was the foundation for low-cost phones. Furthermore, he said, while the phone market may contract, the market for smart phones is a healthy 100 million to 200 million units per year.

"So smart phones will grow, in my opinion, even as the phone market as a whole decreases," Ballmer said. "I do think the guys who are in the best position to benefit are the guys who actually have phones at low price points. I think that's a distinct advantage that we have. We have manufacturers who have low price point phones compared to the iPhone, particularly, which is a very high priced phone. You may get subsidized down to lower prices, but the operators care a lot about what they get charged for the phone, and I think you'll see very low cost, low price form factors with Windows Mobile, possibly also with Android as well."