It is now being widely rumored that Windows Mobile 6.5-based mobile devices will hit the market in the third and fourth quarters of the year. Despite the lack of a formal announcement, it was none other than Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who mentioned it in an unrelated speech. Microsoft is also expected to unveil three new mobile service offerings called SkyBox, SkyLine and SkyMarket. SkyBox is a service which lets users synchronize their phone information with the web and which provides automatic data backup and restoration. SkyLine, on the other hand is targeted squarely at the SMB, and allows small businesses to easily setup their phones with Exchange hosting.

Windows Mobile 6.1 was created to hold over customers for Windows Mobile 7.0, which may have been delayed. Windows Mobile 7.0 is thought to be a major operating system upgrade to help Microsoft bring its user interface up to date and be more competitive with competition that is more recent.

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