What you see above is the Microsoft sign at Mobile World Congress. At first there was nothing special except for a large sticker covering...something.

The savvy cats at Engadget decided to use the "X-ray filter" in Photoshop and lo and behold, beneath the sticker it says: 7 Series.

Seven?  Series? Sounds like that might be hinting at the rumored Business and Multimedia editions that we mentioned a few weeks ago.

While we don't know all of the details about what Microsoft has in mind for Monday, we're still surmising that the overall strategy (and what we've talked about during the podcast #88, #89) is thus:

• Pink/Zune/Turtle/Pure phones = Feature phones; not full Wp7
• Business Edition = The true upgrade path for WM6.5 --> Wp7; customizable 
• Media Edition = Combine the Pink & Business edition for one high end smartphone

Call us crazy, but we think this three-pronged approach (with only two being 'true' Windows phone 7 devices) is what Microsoft is attempting.  Mind you, according to the WSJ, we might not even hear about Pink/Zune/Turtle/Pure at Mobile World Congress. That actually makes sense as those devices are not true Windows phone 7 series nor would they want to scare off their OEMs.

It's also becoming more clear that last week's "rumors" were probably more about Project Pink than Windows phone 7, which we strongly suggested ;-)

So, what do you think? Sound off below!

We really shouldn't joke about something as serious as this, but the lead-up has been so long and winding -- years, actually -- it's kind of hard not to.

Yes, Microsoft undoubtedly will debut Windows Mobile 7 in some form Monday at Mobile World Congress. We've been saying that for a long, long time now (November, actually). Now that the likes of the Wall Street Journal is saying it, well, then it must be officially unofficial.

At a wireless industry conference in Barcelona on Monday, the company plans to publicly show a new version of its cellphone operating system, Windows Mobile 7, for the first time, according to people familiar with the matter. The operating system sports a revamped user interface that resembles the look of Microsoft's Zune HD music player, people who have seen it said.

As luck (and Delta) should have it, we'll be at that "wireless industry conference," also known as Mobile World Congress. More on that over the weekend. But suffice to say, big things are in store.

So often in the gadget business, you know something without actually “knowing.” For example, we’ve known Windows Mobile 7 was coming for quite a while, though it is only now being confirmed. Likewise, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer making some noise at Mobile World Congress in regards to Windows Phone (potentially Windows Mobile 7) was mentioned in passing at CES (and a couple other times since then); but now it’s officially official.

According to Microsoft’s News Center, Steve Ballmer will be hosting a press conference to discuss Windows Phone at MWC. Slated for Feb. 15 -- that's next Monday -- the press conference will be streaming live and viewable from Microsoft’s Windows Phone page. After the conclusion of the press conference, an on demand version will be made available.

With as rampant as the speculation has become over WM7 and what it will or will not include, we’re not going to read much into the fact that this is only a press conference instead of a full-blown keynote. We’ll be there Monday to watch it go down.

We're a little more than a week away from likely finding out what all the Windows Phone Seven (or Windows Mobile 7, or Seven, or whatever) is all about. And that means it's time for more rumors to come crawling out of the woodwork.

After the break, let's tackle the latest batch that was seeded to a couple of sites (Mobile Tech World and PPCGeeks) and what we think of them.

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No shock here, but as the closer we get to Mobile World Congress next month, the more news is leaking out.

Unfortunately, it's still just crumbs from a a giant, delicious Microsoft cake.  Perhaps someday we'll see what that cake is and tastes like. Until then...enjoy these bits:

Stephen Chapman of Microsoft Kitchen (msftkitchen.com) has been finding all sorts of morsels.  For one, Windows Phone 7 will be featured and discussed at Energize IT 2010, a conference for developers.  Its focus will be "...the client to the cloud, this fun-filled demo-intensive exploration will excite you about the possibilities of the Microsoft-based platform".  Sounds right in line with this whole "three screens", mobile and cloud computing system that Microsoft has been slowly edging too.  Looks like it will all be pieced together during that conference.

Likewise, he also managed to get his hands on a Chinese Office 2010 .pdf. On one slide, he found the same image reported earlier, mentioning a Spring release-to-manufactures (RTM) deadline.  The interesting part?  The document is dated December 11, 2009.  Guess those "it's delayed again" headlines were a little premature?

In addition, WMPU has a clip up from Fox News where Microsoft's CFO says what we've been hearing for awhile, that they (Microsoft) will have more say on Windows Mobile 7 in February at Mobile World Congress.  So yeah, confirmation of what we already expected.

Finally, Eldar Murtazin of mobile-review.com, aka the person who everyone keeps citing, even though his info keeps turning out to be off-the-mark, has scribbled some info on his Live Journal.  In fairness, in this post he's citing Evgeny Pavlov, product manager HTC Russia via Twitter, and even Eldar seems a bit skeptical.  Evidently, Mr. Pavlov was twittering some of the minimum specs of Seven.  We won't quote the specs, because it doesn't even make much sense.

But what we want to do is nip this in the bud:  the image to the right is not a screen shot of Windows Phone 7.  Eldar received this from either Mr. Pavlov or someone at HTC. So please don't pass it around speculating.  We have run it by our folks in-the-know and, to quote "Looks like a pretty skin - almost like an iPhone? Not anything like what I have." Of course, you've already figured that out, right savvy readers?

Of course, you are encouraged to doubt our info as well, like the good skeptics you are ;-)  Lets hold off till something more definitive, eh?

So the iPhone Fanboys Gadget Blogosphere have received their fabled Apple Tablet, known hitherto as the iPad (hit up The iPhone Blog for complete coverage). Featuring a 9.7 inch capacitive display, a 1GHz Apple A4 processor, 802.11n WiFi, and flash storage of 16, 32, or 64GB; the iPad hardware falls somewhere between cell phone and notebook computer.

From the software point of view, the iPad is running a modified version of the iPhone OS. As of now, that means it has most of the same shortcomings as the iPhone including but not limited to lack of multitasking and support for Adobe Flash. To be fair, however, the iPad does support copy and paste (snicker).

What does this mean for the WinMo faithful? The market for devices in the dark void between cell phones and Laptops has been steadily heating up for years, but it seems to be hitting the boiling point in 2010. Already this year we’ve seen Microsoft announcing the slate form factor at CES and Apple releasing the iPad; and that’s not even touching on the major push that Netbooks are getting right now. Even on the Windows Mobile front we’re starting to see devices starting to push the obnoxiously large boundary with the HD2.

Looking at the hardware numbers that have been bandied around in the last week or so in regards to “Seven”, it’s not hard to speculate that perhaps Microsoft already has an eye towards devices with similar hardware running a Windows Mobile based OS. Could Ballmer and Co. be taking a hard look at MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) running Windows Mobile 7? We’ve seen attempts at this in the past, but nothing that ever hit the big time. Here’s hoping that Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona is the turning point in the evolution of Windows Mobile.

Flashback 2008...

MaryJo Foley of ZDNet is continuing her Microsoft "code name of the day" contest, which seems really kind of fun and a neat way to gather info. Well, today's entry is "Rouge."

Rouge? Pink?  Sound related?  She thinks so. Using info that she's gathered she states: 

Best guess on what it is: Microsoft’s business-focused premium mobile services

Meaning/context of the codename: Rouge sounds like the business-side complement to Pink, Microsoft’s forthcoming family of consumer-focused premium mobile services.

Basically, Rouge was meant to beef up Microsoft's "... family of Office Communications Server, its corporate instant-messaging/VOIP/conferencing product."

Call us crazy, but that sounds like the sort of thing we heard described to us about Seven Business Edition, with real-time document editing between multiple sources.

So is there a code-name for the supposed Media Edition?  What do you get when you combine Pink and Rouge?  How about Project Awesome.

[via ZDNet]

Behold, the HD2 that we'll see on T-Mobile. HTC's product page for the device is now live, and we learn that it's getting a memory boost over its European brother. ROM capacity will be 1GB (up from 512MB); and RAM is up from 448MB to 576MB.

An easy answer for the change could be that's what T-Mobile ordered. But that's no fun, is it? A better guess is that in testing Windows Mobile 7 on it -- remember that we're all assuming it's getting WM7 -- a need for more memory was discovered. Either way, it's not a huge bump up, but we're not the types to turn down free RAM. (Thanks to everyone who sent this in!)

Since our big story on Seven a few days ago, leaks and information have continued to come forth.

We'll just summarize them all here since nothing is conclusive yet, but there are lots of interesting tidbits:

• Windows Mobile 7 session at MIX 2010 announced: Evidently Microsoft is going to host a session on how to make apps and games for Seven in March at the big MIX '10 conference.  Looks like that Mobile World Congress debut is quite likely. (via MobileTechWorld)
• Twitter comments are coming from some Microsoft/Danger employees. Mention WinMo7 team, doughnuts, private testing, and milestones. Tweets originate not from a Sidekick client but from Microsoft. Project Pink lives? (via EngadgetMobile)
• Part II: List of those tweeting from Danger/Microsoft: Carlos Picoto, Director of program management at Microsoft; Jeff McKean - Senior Product Planner at Microsoft; Bruno Silva - Director of Development at Microsoft Corp., Zune; Daryl Welsh - Director of Test -Premium Mobile Experiences at Microsoft; Michael Ducker - Program Manager, Premium Mobile Experiences at Microsoft; Namrata Bachwani - Release Manager at Microsoft (Thanks azimmerm)
• Our leak of the HTC Obsession gets backed up by another anonymous source at WMPU, who says that it is really the Diamond 3, which seems kind of obvious. Also AT&T may grab it too. (via WMPU)
• Our own source reveals to us that Seven is backwards compatible with WM6.x applications (contra an earlier rumor), but it is limited to resolution restrictions. A security warning pops up on launch, but the program will work.  That info leads naturally to...
• ...the idea that Seven is based on WinCE 7 aka Chelan, which our man with the knowledge Conflipper confidently states.
• Finally, commenter drphysx, mentions this article from a few months back, which we think dovetails nicely with our big post.  It seems to fill in the background info on decision making. It's all theory, but we think its well thought out.

We're sure that's just the tip of the iceberg and we're expecting a lot more info to come forward in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned!

Everybody, meet Mel. Mel, meet everybody. See, Mel was part of a pretty cool thing Microsoft did leading up to the Professional Developers Conference last year in Los Angeles. A bunch of WinMo devs took a train from Seattle to L.A., and on the 36-hour journey they developed some eco-friendly apps. And Mel, as you can see, introduces himself as a member of the Windows Mobile 7 team. That in and of itself isn't that remarkable -- there surely are tons of people on it. But Mel did out himself before WM7's even been announced, and that makes us smile.

So thanks, Mel. Now check out more on the WinMo Train Race after the break.

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