Windows Phone Thoughts: Motorola Working On WM7 Device?

"Thing is, well-trained eyes at UX Evangelist have found a Moto software engineer's job experience on LinkedIn with app development and migration to Windows Mobile 7 beta -- yes, beta -- listed front and center. The project's mentioned for a device codenamed "Caesar," which would slot in nicely with Moto's trend of assigning ancient rulers' names to smartphones ahead of release."

This year has seen a slow but increasing migration by Windows Mobile OEMs and ODMs towards alternative OSs like Android, to the point where you have to wonder about the future of Windows Mobile. Granted, since the iPhone's release two years ago there was always the possibility that WM would be relegated to a niche - but that threat has never been so clear as it has been in the last six months or so. On that basis, it's encouraging to see a major device manufacturer still trying to progress with WM. Even if working on a beta of an OS not slated to be released in another year isn't exactly concrete proof of commitment, the fact that WM7 has some interest and backing this early means we'll at least see some devices in a reasonable timeframe. Whether that's enough to ensure future iterations would depend on how good the OS actually turns out. I'm hoping WM7 will do for Windows Mobile what Windows 7 is doing for the Windows franchise generally, which is to show that just occasionally Microsoft can actually do things right - changing branding every couple of years notwithstanding.