There could, however, also be bad news for Windows Phone at MWC. As far as I know only HTC have reasserted their support for the mobile OS following Nokia’s and Microsoft’s strategic partnership announcement which could mean some of the other OEMs aren’t happy about it.

Anyway we shall found out lots of about where the mobile market is heading over the next few days and it will be Nokia’s announcement this afternoon that kick it all off. Their presentation starts at 5:30PM GMT and can be watched online at mobileworldlive.com. The Steve Ballmer will be presenting Microsoft’s announcement tomorrow at 3:00PM GMT.

Sadly for the second year running, I wont be able to provide live coverage of either event. However you can be sure that if any announcements have got me excited/interested enough I will be writing about post on here about it. You can keep track of all my MWC posts at mymicrosoftlife.com/mwc (currently its full of last year’s posts).

I look forward to seeing what is planned for the future of Windows Phone.

Videos

• Official Video of the Keynote
• Channel 9 Demo of Windows Phone 7 Series
• Windows Phone Channel
• Neowin’s video of Windows Phone 7 Series UI
• Engadget hands-on videos
• Gizmodo hands-on video

Pictures

• Long Zheng’s photos of the demo phone
• Engadget’s hands-on pictures | Engadget’s UI pictures
• Gizmodo Pictures

People’s Views

• Engadget Impressions
• Gizmodo

Sites

• Windows Phone 7 Series
• Windows Phone Blog

There was a lot announced and demoed today but there are still many questions about the new mobile OS such as will it multi-task and what will developers be able to do with the OS. Microsoft just keep saying to wait until MIX for those kind of answer, so on to the next conference.

Just a few thought from me about what I think could still be to come.

More Hubs

I wonder if the hubs we saw today will be the be all and end all of hubs or if there will be others, I can certainly see more Microsoft services as hubs. It would be good if Internet Explorer was a hub with access to pinned (bookmarked pages), history and a list of currently open tabs, similar to my hopes for IE9. Bing could also benefit from being a hub what with a local tab, pulling news and info about the user’s location, recent searches etc. One final hub I could see existing on the devices is a Windows Live one with all the various services quickly accessibly from one screen, perhaps we can expect to hear more about this when Wave 4 debuts.

Project Natal

I was expecting Microsoft to include aspects of Project Natal in Windows Phone 7 such as voice recognition and control but this appears to have been left out, or not announced as blogged about on MSFTKitchen.

Project Pink

The saga continues…

I look forward to hearing a seeing more about Windows Phone 7 it has the potential to be game changing. Now if only there was a leaked version for my HD2.

If you want to follow what Microsoft announce at the keynote (seeing as most people I have spoken to about it are free to follow) you can watch it streamed live from Microsoft or read some of the Live Blogs from the likes of Long Zheng and Tom Warren or Engadget(no link posted yet).

I am very excited to hear what Microsoft have planned for their mobile devices (and maybe the wider consumer market) but I’m very disappointed I shall be missing it.

I had said I wasn’t going to post much more about what Microsoft may or may not announce at MWC but when seeing such compelling evidence as the pictures from Engadget I can’t help but start thinking how this could all work together.

Caution all ye who read on from here, there be some serious speculation up ahead.

Windows Phone 7 Series

Over the past few hours I’ve been wondering what could constitute a “series” from Microsoft. If you look at Windows 7 there are several versions in the market but that is only marketed as one product. Therefore I think the idea of the series only being different version of Windows 7 doesn’t make sense.

As suggested in an earlier post Microsoft will be announcing Windows Mobile Starter Edition that is thought to be a version of Windows Mobile 6.x. It makes sense that Microsoft would want to avoid any confusion with having several versions of Windows Mobile by having all versions of Windows Mobile branded under one name, Windows Phone 7 Series.

Another aspect of the “series” name is that it could incorporate Microsoft branded hardware too such as “Zune Phone” or Project Pink running variations of Windows Mobile 7 (making it part of the series) but with very different interfaces.

The “series” idea could actually answer one question I have had about Microsoft and its phone plans which was how they could avoid confusing within the marketplace when offering what looks like several very different experiences. Rather than making it a “Windows Phone” which suggests a device that will run the same OS a “series” suggests differences within a collection, exactly what could be the case.

The there is the question of “7”, yes the next version of Windows Mobile is scheduled to be 7 but I think Microsoft is trying to use the good publicity about Windows 7 in its mobile branding. I personally don’t like the sound of Windows Phone 7 Series, the number suggests a single experience and series suggests variation; unless, of course, there are 7 different components that make up the series (ie 7 different products that make up the series).

…although having just seen this tweet from @jont84 I really shouldn’t get ahead of myself, things might change.

Microsoft Store Announcement

One unrelated idea I have had about other possible announcements by Microsoft during its keynote is news of more Microsoft Stores. For me part of this poster (from Engadget) bares an extremely close resemblance to the Microsoft Store logo.

If Microsoft is serious about bringing Windows Phone to consumers in a big way then being able to showcase and sell the device through their own stores would be a great way to achieve this. If, as rumoured, the first phone running Windows Mobile 7 aren’t released until September then there is plenty of time for Microsoft to open several more stores across the world than just the 2 in the US.

I am concerned of an iPad situation where the rumours make the final product seem very bland, but at the same time I am too much of an optimist and want the best from Microsoft and to share my ideas.

Below you can see the sticker over the poster against the effect of revealing what it say below.

*Sigh* Another rumour now to add to the mix for MWC, not sure what believe Microsoft will announce any more, things just keep changing today. My guess is that there will be a business version and media version just like I have stated a few times.

I wonder if this series idea also explains this morning’s news of Windows Mobile Starter Edition running a Windows Mobile 6.x variant so the various OSs in the series don’t all need to be running Windows Mobile 7.

As always, roll on Monday!

“Zune Phone”

For anyone looking forward to the rumoured “Zune Phone” or who are waiting for Microsoft to release a Zune app for their Windows Phone.

Windows Mobile 7

For anyone looking forward to Microsoft announcing and demoing Windows Mobile 7.

Mobile World Congress 2010

If you are looking forward to Mobile World Congress or are attending the event you might want to use this Twibbon.

Windows Mobile 6.5.3 or 6.6

It is very likely that Microsoft will officially announce and release the latest version of Windows Mobile 6.X. The update will most notably include a revised UI across the whole OS and support for capacitive screens.

Microsoft have already announced this update to Windows Mobile.

Zune

Zune Windows Mobile Software

Steve Ballmer promised, via The Engadget Show, that when Microsoft next release a version of Windows Mobile (6.5.3 or 6.6) they will also release a Zune app for their mobile OS. As far as I can tell in the US and Canada the app will link in with the Zune service, as the Zune HD does, however outside of those countries the Zune app, if there is one, will only play music synced from a user’s PC.

“Zune Phone”

Rumours have been growing over the past year about a Microsoft branded phone(s) firstly beginning with Project Pink, well documented by Mary Jo Foley, and has recently taken on the form of the “Zune Phone”.

This phone, whatever it may be, is likely to be Microsoft branded with heavy Zune integration both in terms of the UI design and how to sync content on the phone. The operating system is likely to be a scaled back version of soon to be announced Windows Mobile 7 and will use a the same Nvidia Tegra chip as in the Zune HD.

There is likely to be a brand new set of premium services on devices(s) from Project Pink but what exactly these service will feature is unknown.

Windows Mobile 7

Probably the most anticipated announcement Microsoft could make at MWC is about Windows Mobile 7 which they have described as “more than evolutionary”. Little is known about what Windows Mobile 7 will be like and what new features Microsoft will be adding but it is rumoured that there will be two versions of the OS; a business version which will allow OEMs to replace the default UI and a Media version which is likely to have close integration with several Microsoft services such as Zune and Xbox Live.

Windows Live Wave 4

There has been no word on whether Microsoft will demo any parts of the new Windows Live release however I expect and hope Windows Mobile to make use of Microsoft’s social network, online service and features to enhance Windows Mobile. I hope that Live Mesh technology is used to backup data to the cloud and user’s computers and things like contacts and calendar can be easily kept in sync across the whole suite and all devices that can access the services.

If you have heard or hear of any other rumours about what might be announced by Microsoft at MWC then please let me know via comments or Twitter.

Keep up to date with all the latest “Zune Phone” and Windows Mobile 7 news.

I’m introducing a countdown to the event as a widget in the sidebar so you know how long we have to wait until the event kicks off .

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Thanks to @Dovella for the idea of the counter :)