Windows Mobile 6, formerly codenamed “Crossbow” is the latest version of Windows Mobile platform and was released on February 12, 2007 at the 3GSM World Congress 2007. It comes in three different versions: “Windows Mobile 6 Standard” for Smartphones (phones without touchscreens), “Windows Mobile 6 Professional” for Pocket PCs with phone functionality, and “Windows Mobile 6 Classic” for Pocket PCs without cellular radios.

Windows Mobile 6 is powered by Windows CE 5.0 (version 5.2) and is strongly linked to Windows Live and Exchange 2007 products. Windows Mobile 6 Standard was first offered on the Orange’s SPV E650,while Windows Mobile 6 Professional was first offered on the O2’s Xda Terra. Aesthetically, Windows Mobile 6 was meant to be similar in design to the then newly released Windows Vista.

New features/built-in applications include the following:

• 320×320 and 800×480 (WVGA) screen resolution support
• Office Mobile support for Smartphones
• Operating System Live Update
• Improved Remote Desktop access (Available for only certain Pocket PCs)
• VoIP (Internet calling) support with AEC (Acoustic Echo Cancelling) and MSRT Audio Codec
• Windows Live for Windows Mobile
• Customer Feedback option
• Enhanced Microsoft Bluetooth Stack
• Storage Card Encryption (encryption keys are lost if device is cold-booted).
• Smartfilter for searching within programs
• Improved Internet Sharing
• HTML email support in Outlook Mobile
• Search ability for contacts in an Exchange Server Address Book
• AJAX, JavaScript, and XMLDOM support on Internet Explorer Mobile
• Out of Office Replies with Microsoft Exchange 2007
• Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) support for select operators
• Server Search on Microsoft Exchange 2007
• .NET Compact Framework v2 SP2 Preinstalled in ROM
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Preinstalled in ROM
• Office Mobile 6.1 announced with support for Office 2007 document formats (pptx, docx, xlsx).

Windows Mobile 6.1 was announced April 1, 2008. It is a minor upgrade to the existing Windows Mobile 6 platform which brings with it a redesigned Home screen featuring horizontal tiles that expand on clicking to display more information. Several other improvements such as threaded SMS and full page zooming in IE have also been added.

Future versions

Windows Mobile 7 is a major upgrade planned for release in 2nd half of 2009. Not much else is known about the release, though leaked information suggests a revamped UI with touch and finger navigation.