According to a new report at DigiTimes, Microsoft’s plans for Windows Mobile in the coming year will be anything but straightforward.  The piece predicts that Windows Mobile 6.5 – as we’ve seen it up to now – will launch on October 1, but be followed by an upgraded, more touch-friendly version (6.5SE?) slated for release in February 2010.  Windows Mobile 7 would arrive in Q4 (between October and December) of 2010, months later than expected.

But the story doesn’t end there.  Digitimes goes on to state that when Microsoft does finally release Windows Mobile 7, WinMo 6.5 will remain. Rather than replacing 6.5 or 6.5SE, Windows Mobile 7 would be the premium version of Microsoft’s mobile OS, while 6.5 licenses would be reduced in price and become a budget option.

We’re not sold on every aspect of this theory, but it likely contains nuggets of truth.  The “dual-platform strategy,” as the story labels it, makes sense in some respects, but as told it doesn’t seem entirely likely.  Microsoft does need a low-cost OS to compete with the free Android OS and the all-but free Apple iPhone OS (free in that only Apple uses it and doesn’t have to pay itself for the license).  But wouldn’t it be better to lower the cost of the Windows Mobile 7 license across the board, while still providing top-tier features? 

If Microsoft wants to reboot its mobile OS over the next 16 months, it must eliminate or greatly reduce the impact of its licensing fees since its primary competitors’ handsets’ final price isn’t impacted by an operating system fee.