While Vista’s success (or lack thereof) has garnered most of the operating system attention this year, the release of Windows Mobile 6 may actually make a bigger impact than its desktop cousin.
Over the last couple of years, Windows Mobile 5 has created a devoted following especially for road warriors accessing information remotely. For the small business community, the ability to ActiveSync their PocketPC phone with their Small Business Server back in the office has offered new levels of responsiveness in communicating with colleagues, clients, vendors and even family and friends.
Along comes the new version – Windows Mobile 6. While not the visual adventure that upgrading from Windows XP to Windows Vista offers, Windows Mobile 6 allows small business users a suite of improvements which make remote access to information simpler and more efficient.
The email search capability is a significant improvement over Windows Mobile 5. Just as the popular first character search works in selecting the addressee for email, now using first characters will narrow your list of email in your Inbox to those matching the query. The ability to actually display HTML emails is another feature making life for the road warrior a little easier.
An Internet Sharing system makes it easier to leverage the high-speed internet connection available on many new phones for use on your notebook computer.
Other handy improvements include the linking of calls to contacts to allow the user to see a call history based on a particular contact. In addition, there are new views offered in the calendar which make scheduling a little faster.
There are other added features which only work with Microsoft’s Exchange Server 2007. While this is in place at many offices, a great majority of small businesses will not have Exchange 2007 in place until it becomes part of a new Small Business Server suite which is not available at this time.
All in all, Windows Mobile 6 is a worthwhile upgrade. It is generally up to the wireless carriers to determine if upgrades will be offered at all. Since most new devices will ship with the new version, it should be a welcome tool as you replace that old cell phone and get busier with a PocketPC Phone: your new small business information tool.
