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Windows Mobile - aiming to steal the iPhone's thunder with V 7.0

If you haven't got your invite for next month's Windows Mobile thrash, you're probably not being ignored. It's all too secret to tell invitees, apparently. Steve Jobs might get to hear...

The iPhone news which Jobs won't want to spill, is that the Christmas version of the 3G iPhone will have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. HTC already has one, and will be announcing more. But the main cause of tooth-gnashing in Cupertino, say sources, will be corporate sales, where Microsoft is, at last, in a position to make Apple look inadequate.

Rumours suggest that Microsoft and HTC will combine in early June to launch several new Windows Mobile phones, and to start talking about Windows Mobile v 7. Either way, it will take much of the wind out of the sails of Steve Jobs when he reveals the first version of the iPhone 3G, say sources.

Star of the HTC party (some say June 3, others say June 6 or even June 12) will of course be the Diamond, with WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and HSDPA. But the message will be: "We've sold a LOT more Microsoft systems than people realise."

I'm expecting the "partner launch" to be June 3, and the official Press Party to be June 12, and I'm also expecting some headline stats.

Those of us who rather poured scorn on Microsoft's boasting back in February may have to eat our words; the 20 million sales which Windows mobile chief Robbie Bach predicted for year-end results (next month, duh!) are going to be higher than he said. But even more astonishing will be figures projected for 2008/9 say insiders.

HTC are privately saying that all five UK carriers will announce Diamond phones. That may be where the excitement gets less thrilling; it's one thing to announce, and quite another to ship...

But the figures for push email should terrify RIM shareholders, with corporate IT managers now switching from the Blackberry as their portable post box of choice. "We have to be able to handle HTML messages," said one source pleading for anonymity ("I've signed the NDA!") and the latest version of Windows Mobile makes a seamless link to Microsoft Exchange far easier, she added.