A concise intro to Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS, the applications built into it, and the devices that use it.
"Windows Mobile" is the brand name Microsoft uses with the operating system and software applications it developed for touch screen and non-touch screen mobile devices. Most of the devices described in this magazine come with a version of Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6 OS and a suite of Windows Mobile productivity and multimedia applications built-in and ready to use. The Windows Mobile OS and applications are "embedded" programs; Microsoft licenses them to the companies that design and manufacture the devices, and these manufacturers build the software into the devices. With the exception of system-wide upgrades offered by some device vendors, the Windows Mobile software cannot be deleted or reinstalled by the handheld user.
This Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine Buyer's Guide describes the Windows Mobile software and the handhelds that incorporate it. These small, full-featured devices come in a variety of shapes and sizes, with a variety of features.
This article focuses on two major types of Windows Mobile devices: those with touch screens and those without them.
Three Windows Mobile touch screen devices: The HP iPAQ 200 (left) is a Windows Mobile 6 Classic device with a large 4-inch screen but no phone; The Sprint Mogul (middle) is a WM 6 Professional device with an integrated phone and slide-out QWERTY keyboard; The Palm Treo 750 is a WM 5 phone-enabled PDA with a QWERTY thumb keyboard on its face. (right)
Touch screen devices
These days, most Windows Mobile touch screen devices have phones built into them, but a few without phone capability (known as "Pocket PCs" or "Windows Mobile PDAs") are still available. In fact, HP recently released two new Windows Mobile PDAs: the iPAQ 100 and 200. The PDAs tend to be larger devices with larger screens; the phone-enabled devices tend to be smaller. However, either type of touch screen device fits in the palm of your hand and can be carried easily in your pocket, purse, or briefcase.
The device is designed to be controlled with a small pen-like "stylus," which is used to tap or write on the color touch screen. In addition to this, most phone-enabled touch screen devices have small QWERTY or numeric keypads that can be used to enter text and dial phone numbers.
The first touch screen devices–Pocket PCs–were introduced in April of 2000. The most recent versions of the OS and software suite designed for touch screen devices, Windows Mobile 6 (WM 6) Classic and Professional, were released in late spring, 2007. A variety of WM 6 touch screen devices are available, the majority of which have phone capability. You can still find a few new touch screen devices running previous versions of the OS/software suite in the retail chain.
Three Windows Mobile non-touch screen smartphones: the HP iPAQ 510 Voice Messenger (left) has a traditional numeric keypad on the front; the HTC S710 (middle) has a numeric keypad and slide-out QWERTY keyboard; the Motorola Q (right) has a QWERTY thumb keyboard on its face.
Non-touch screen smartphones
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