Today is the day when Microsoft goes live with Windows Mobile 6.5, the long-awaited next step in the platform. While largely acknowledged to be a step on the road to WM7, the real “next big thing” from Redmond, 6.5 adds interface changes to bring the platform more in line with the competition. Today should also see the grand opening of the Windows Mobile Marketplace, the app store for the Windows phone owner.
GigaOM interviewed Jon Rubenstein, CEO of Palm, to ask about the current state of the smartphone market, and to get insight into the company’s plans to deal with all of this competition. It turns out that Palm is not very concerned about Windows Mobile, GigaOM had this to say about the conversation with Palm:
Rubenstein told us that he considered Palm, Apple and RIM as “three companies that have an advantage to everyone else in the space” because they deeply integrate its hardware and software together into a complete smartphone package. He noted that there’s room for three to five other players in the mobile business.
That’s a heady statement, coming from Palm who is by anyone’s account struggling for survival. Palm does recognize the importance of the developer community, and intends to bend over backwards to help them build apps for Palm’s WebOS. Rubenstein told GigaOM that over 7.5 million apps have been downloaded for the Pre to date.
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