Windows Mobile to top iPhone at web browsing?

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Microsoft is promising that the forthcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 will offer a better mobile-browsing experience than the iPhone.

Speaking to financial analysts, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, admitted that it had been a "challenging year" for Windows Mobile, which has been made to look distinctly old hat by the iPhone.

Despite this, Bach was bullish about Microsoft's forthcoming mobile OS. "You will have a very rich browsing experience on [Windows Mobile] 6.5 devices," he told financial analysts at a Microsoft event.

"It will give you access to more websites than you will be able to get to on an iPhone. They will work actively and work well. It really is a much better experience."

At the heart of this claim was a promise that Microsoft was working closely with hardware partners such as HTC to achieve "dramatic improvements between the integration on software and hardware."

While a noble sentiment, the claims ring a little hollow in the wake of Steve Ballmer's comments that Windows Mobile 6.5 is "not the full release we wanted... We still don't get some of the things that people want on the highest-end phones. Those will come on Windows Mobile 7."

Windows Mobile 6.5 was originally slated to be released by the end of the year, but has now slipped into the first half of 2010.

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