TechEd 2004 Europe coverage : Windows Mobile future revealed - in details
July 01, 2004 [General] | By Edward J. R.
Windows Mobile has future. We can't say the same about Symbian - a company owned by Nokia, spies of which we have personally seen during the TechEd!
In this news item we are reporting live, from TechEd conference from Amsterdam in EU, about plans of Microsoft regarding future versions of Windows Mobile: those that will come after Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. So what's beyond Second Edition? Read on...
Today Robert Levy from Windows Mobile team at Microsoft:
... presented a session "Windows Mobile Development Platform Futures". The room was full with people and although it was the first public presentation in Robert's professional career, the session was a success. The fact that the topics covered in the session were very interesting, vastly contributed to it. No wonder that Microsoft let the youngest member of Windows Mobile team to present the future - by the time things discussed here will be implemented and available commercially, the older members of the team may already be no more there.
Here we present some highlights from this session of Robert, that cover also to some extend things that we learned from other sessions, press briefings and 1:1 interviews with Microsoft's employees (our interview with top European Windows Mobile manager - Annermarie Duffy will be published by us next week). The others just touched these subjects superficially and Robert's session covered some topics in more details and has allowed us get rid of some doubts regarding future plans.
The future of Windows Mobile (beyond Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition in summary:
- still it will be NOT possible to develop home screen plug-ins with help of managed programming (i.e. with .NET languages like C# or Visual Basic .NET) ; for many years to come the only way to write home screen plugins will be an overly complex and awkward way with use of Visual C++ and COM programming
- Windows Mobile platforms - Pocket PC and Microsoft Smartphone - will share to big extend more and more in common - the times when some things were available only for Pocket PC but not for Microsoft Smartphone are coming slowly but surely to an end. It is no wonder considering that some hardware vendors are working now on Microsoft Smartphone with resolution of 320x240 pixels and that some Microsoft Smartphones are as fast as some new Pocket PC devices - 200 MHz is becoming a standard. See below for further details.
- SQL CE (now named "SQL Mobile") which is a local database engine, will be embedded in ROM of both Microsoft Smartphone and Pocket PC devices. Just imagine: you will have "mini-me of SQL Server" in your pocket! Not only Microsoft Smarphone at last has been taken seriously but also embedding this database engine in ROM means that plenty of fantastic applications will become possible.
- .NET Compact Framework 2.0 (.NET CF 2.0) will be embedded in ROM of all Windows Mobile devices - faster, with more controls and more APIs (see also below). .NET CF 2.0 brings more features in C# language (generics, anonymous methods, iterators), better interaction between native and managed code, more controls (DataConnector, DateTimePicker, DocumentList, LinkLabel, MonthCalendar, Notification, RichInk, Splitter, WebBrowser), better keyboard based navigation, better XML support (XML serialization, XML schemas, XPath [our favorite! - so that searching through XML files programmatically will be easy]), and many many more features...
- MFC 8.0 and ATL 8.0 libraries embeded in OS - both in Pocket PC and (!) in Microsoft Smartphone!
- State & Notification API coming - programs will not be forced to poll some cell phone functions, but will simply subcribe and will be notified once some state or event happened! It will simply programming and save a lot of battery time! Values of system and software state will be located in documented registry locations, with possibility to be notifed about chagnes, and it will encompass many aspects such as: battery level, signal strength, hardware capabilities, etc etc
- Location API coming - writing location aware applications will be easy and close integration with MapPoint Location Server and other location based services (LBS) and technologies will make construction of LBS software for Windows Mobile a bliss. Microsoft as standard will provide MapPoint location provider, but plugging-in of other providers will be also possible, for example: Mobile Operatork, GPS, 802.11x, Bluetooth or arbitrary Web Service.
- D3DM - 3D graphics for easier and faster gaming, supporting hardware 3D acceleration. This API will be similar to desktop versions so porting games to Windows Mobile from PC versions will be easy. It will included comprehensive, high-performance 3D embedded graphics API, that will be realized (depending on hardware manufacturer) either in hardware or in software and will include such features as: transformation and lighting engine, rasterization engine, operation either in Windows or full sceen.
- more Managed Wrappers for various functions of the phone.
- Dr. Watson comes to Windows Mobile devices! Once program crashes, users will be able to send information to the Microsoft, information that will include information about reasons of the crash, etc and this information will be even accessible by non-Microsoft developers of these programs, for the sake of faster debugging.
- Unified Installer - creating CABs for Pocket PC and Smartphone will be possible in the same way with the same tools. It will feature more options and will bring smartphone security model to Pocket PC platform.
- Persistent Storage - this technology is already available on Smartphone and will be now moved to Pocket PC - so that files and settings on your device will not be lost, even if you brutally pull out the battery out of it in random moment. Interestingly the name of the folder where storage is located, will change. It was "IPSM" in Smartphone 2002, it is "Storage" in Smartphone 2003 and it will change again to some other name, so developers are adviced to use SHGetSpecialFolderPath() method before writing or reading anything to this storage.
- many features will be accessible from managed .NET code, for example:
- Managed Telephony - Microsoft.WindowsMobile.Telephony - for making calls
- Managed POOM - Microsoft.WindowsMobile.PocketOutlook - to access contacts, appointments and tasks
- Managed MAPI - Microsoft.WindowsMobile.PocketOutlook - to send and receive SMS messagers and emails and to handle attachments.
- Managed SMS interception - let your .NET program to intercept incoming SMS and act upon its content.
- Contact Picker - standarized dialog for picking contacts from "Pocket Outlook" - accessible from third party applications
- Picture Picker - since most Windows Mobile cell phones will have built-in camera it may be handy
- Camera API - application control of camera functionality like displaying of viewfinder window, capturing pictures from video stream and controlling camera operation and properties. Based on DirectShow API from desktop Windows. With camera API developers (and users) will not be worrying that one program will work with Mitac Mio Smartphone but not with Motorola smartphone - it will be hardware vendor agnostic.
- Managed Configuration Manager - configuring Windows Mobile devices through XML programmatically. Could be useful for making applications that facilitate users who change among various Windows Mobile devices from time to time.
- all these fancy features are available now for viewing for developers who signed-in for developer partner programs - they can get Visual Studio 2005 which has new emulators with features described above. It may allow developers to better prepare for this future!
On picture above you can see Robert Levy, who glances at Neil Enns, who just went bonkers today because Neil is a Canuck and it's Canada day today apparently:
And in meantime, during Robert's session, the Nokia spy :
... was watching all this circus quietly and reporting in Finnish language directly to Nokia headquarters what is going on at Microsoft. Well, we can only say: if Nokia thinks that it can stay one of leading cell phone vendors without making Windows Mobile powered cell phones, then it truly is living in illusion...
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