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The arrival Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 operating system for smartphones and PDAs triggered a race to see who would be first to come out with a product that runs on the new OS. In Canada, Palm was first, with the Treo 750; a couple of weeks later came the Motorola Q9h.
What's interesting about Windows Mobile 6 is that Microsoft has focused on the business user, with most of the improvements being to its e-mail system, and to its office productivity tools. Palm and Motorola have tried to design cellphones to appeal to the corridors of corporate power.
Mobile 6 will appeal to other people, of course, but users of Windows Mobile 5 won't benefit by upgrading. Sure, they will get a cleaner interface, easier navigation and support of higher screen resolutions, but if they don't rely on their handhelds for business, they won't get the full benefit of the system.
The whole operating system has been beefed up to look more like Outlook, the desktop e-mail client. E-mail now has a search function, and it can also display e-mail in HTML format. There are nine new e-mail shortcuts to make it easier to delete, reply to and move messages, and Send Text Message.
The oddly named Motorola Q9h is sleek and looks a little lethal, clad as it is in glossy Darth Vader black. (Motorola)
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Big improvements have been made to the calendaring and contacts functions, which have been dressed up with colour coding, but have been given more horsepower with Microsoft's push e-mail through its Exchange servers, allowing completely automatic synchronization with desktop Outlook tasks, calendar and contacts. Users can also set up an Out Of Office reply to e-mails.
Microsoft continues to support both POP3 and IMAP e-mail — POP3 delivers all your e-mail at once, IMAP allows you to choose which messages to download, which cuts down on data transmission. Live Messenger, Microsoft's renamed MSN Instant Messenger, has also been upgraded to support multi-party chats and the ability to send images and voice clips.
On little evidence (the two phones reviewed here), Mobile 6 features drain battery life. The posted battery-life specs are probably true if they're limited to phone use and downtime, but with all the other features, these phones require daily charging.
At this point Blackberry owners should be chuckling. They might not have all the eye-candy and razzle-dazzle of the Mobile 6 OS, but they don't have to recharge every day either. And this should be a consideration for mobile professionals.
