Microsoft Chairman & Chief Software Architect Bill Gates officially announced Windows Mobile 5.0 during his keynote address at the Microsoft Mobile & Embedded DevCon 2005 today. As with Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, the new version comes in Pocket PC and Smartphone flavors.

Windows Mobile 5.0 ports features previously only available on the Pocket PC to the smartphone. These include support for QWERTY thumb-keyboards and Wi-Fi. The upgrade also adds to the Pocket PC edition of Windows Mobile Softkeys from the Smartphone version to make it easier to use these types of handhelds with one hand.

The purpose of these Softkeys, located on the bottom of every screen, depends on context and the application running. The Pocket PC Today screen assigns Home and Contacts to the Softkeys, for example. As with traditional Pocket PC hard keys, a user can change the functions assigned to the Softkeys.

During his speech, Gates emphasized advancements in the platform itself as well as how developers can differentiate themselves. Mobile development tools reside in Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2005 and new application programming interfaces (APIs). Developers can use them to creation location, 3-D game and video (for entertainment and productivity) software, for example.

Gates also indicated Microsoft, as basically the software company, is ideally positioned to tie information from the PC, enterprise and handheld together. So when you express something in one of those computing environments, the data shows up in the others.

For example, when a smartphone user takes a picture of an individual under Windows Mobile 5.0, he can associate it with the contact listing in Outlook Mobile and have that image automatically synced with the person's entry in the desktop version of Outlook.

Gates also realistically stated the level and type of enhancements Microsoft brings to each upgrade of its mobile device platform depends on advancements in hardware technology. Without the development of ever more powerful PDA and smartphone processors, the addition of speech recognition into Windows mobile 5.0, for instance, wouldn't be as feasible at this juncture. The same goes for larger storage capacities that enable handhelds to hold large word recognition dictionaries.

Additional Enhancements

Productivity

With data and applications stored in ROM and only run in RAM, a user's work and information is much safer than before. Like palmOne's recent handhelds and smartphones, Windows Mobile 5.0 maintains everything in the event of a complete power drain.

Word Mobile adds the capability to view tables and numbered lists, while Excel Mobile can now be used to generate and exhibit numerous types graphs and charts. Documents synced from the PC maintain their formatting on the Pocket PC or smartphone as well. And a mobile version of PowerPoint is finally available to let you view but not create presentations.

Pocket Internet Explorer adds features too. Users can, for example, view Web pages in full screen mode at last. Pocket IE also handles Security Zones the way its PC counterpart does.

Microsoft said Windows Mobile 5.0 has gone through extensive threat-modeling testing and completed the company's Trustworthy Computing security review. The platform is also FIPS-140-2-certified, meaning it meets the U.S. government requirements for IT products.

Multimedia

Windows Media Player 10 Mobile is integrated into Windows Mobile 5.0. With it, users can play protected digital music, video, and recorded television files that can be synchronized from a PC or downloaded from many Internet-based services and mobile operators' music stores. The updated player also enables synchronization of users' playlists, album art and song ratings.

A new picture and video application adds features like burst mode and a timer for Pocket PCs and smartphones with cameras.

The new platform also offers internal hard drive and Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0 support to help hold and exchange more information between a handheld and a desktop faster. During the Gates keynote, a Samsung smartphone, the i300, with a 3 GB hard disk drive was demonstrated.

Microsoft didn't introduce any new handhelds or smartphones running the upgrade today. Gates did show off High Tech Computer's (HTC) previously identified but unannounced Universal smartphone (also known as the T-Mobile MDA IV) running Windows Mobile 5.0, which makes it the first 3G device to leverage the new OS. Hewlett-Packard and Dell announced plans to release updates for existing iPAQ and Axim handhelds respectively this summer.

Click here for more on the HTC Universal