CTIA Coverage: The Microsoft Booth Is a Huge Meh 2009

By Dan Hope Apr 1st, 2009

You’ll probably find it completely unremarkable that we expected Microsoft to have some good teaser info/displays for Windows Mobile 7 and Windows Marketplace. This is one of the biggest conventions in the wireless industry after all. It turns out we were wrong. Well, 90% wrong, anyway.

The Microsoft booth at CTIA was completely underwhelming, with nothing more than a desk with a bunch of smartphones running WinMo and a guy doing presentations on how improved WinMo 6.5 is over 6.1. Boring. WinMo 6.5 isn’t really that much different, except for a few UI changes. And it was nice to see some of the latest smartphones, but they are all available for touching at manufacturer booths.

In fact, the most interesting thing was seeing the HTC Touch Pro 2 (just announced) running WinMo 6.5, but it was locked away under glass. No hands allowed.

Turns out that we’re not getting a whole lot more information about Windows Marketplace two. All Microsoft had was a couple of TVs running the

Yeah, money clips. Somehow that just seems beyond tacky, Microsoft. There’s also a site you can visit if you want to develop something that will put money between the zinc-coated tongs of said money clip, developer.windowsmobile.com. Check it out if you’re interested.

You never know, it may be vastly more interesting than Microsoft’s CTIA booth.