Two of Apple's rival mobile platforms announced news this week at the 2009 Mobile World Congress, with Windows Mobile 6.5 on the way, and a new Android-based handset from HTC.

Windows Mobile has updated its user interface to more closely resemble the iPhone's. I can imagine the brainstorming session:

Developer 1: "It needs to look, work, and feel like the iPhone, but -- you know -- not be."

Developer 2: "Instead of putting the icons on a rectangular grid, let's do a (one two three four five six) hexagonal one!"

Developer 1: "Brilliant! Book it. Done."

I kid, I kid. I'm sure it was more complicated than that. Anyway, Windows Mobile will also feature two new services, a "My Phone" synchronization service, and a new marketplace that will sell mobile applications from both phones and desktops. It's like I've heard this song before, but can't remember exactly where.

Also at the conference, HTC announced the Magic, a handset to run Google's Android operating system. Unlike the G1, the Magic will not have a slide-out keyboard. It will first be available to Vodafone customers in the UK, Germany and Spain, among other European carriers. Cult of Mac's Ed Sutherland suspects T-Mobile will carry the handset in the U.S. because it can handle the phone's transmission protocols.

Both the Windows Mobile and Android platforms also announced they'll support Flash (along with Symbian and Palm's new webOS) in 2010. And what of the iPhone? No dice: Adobe lobs the ball back in Apple's court, saying during the announcement, "We would love to see it on the iPhone, too, but it's Apple's decision on when and how they support any new technology. So we will continue to work on it."

[Via Hardmac, MDN, and IGM.]

Apple saw the iPhone's market share triple over the past year, capturing 12.9 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, according to a new Gartner analysis.

For the quarter ending September 30, iPhones accounted for 3.4 percent of the market in 2007. That figure was more than 3x higher on the same day in 2008.

Nokia is the leader worldwide in smartphone sales, with 42.4 percent of the market. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion comes in second with 15.9 percent. In North America, Apple is in second place behind RIM, with iPhones accounting for over a quarter of all smartphones.

Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza also noted that this quarter marked the first time iPhone sales exceeded those of Windows Mobile devices; that's pretty astonishing when you consider how many flavors of WM handsets are out there.

[Via Macworld.]

In a rather surprising move, the publishers of the top Windows Mobile monthly magazine, Smartphone & Pocket PC, have announced that they're suspending publication. What's even more interesting is that they will be publishing a quarterly iPhone-oriented magazine titled Smartphone magazine's iPhone Life.

Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine publisher Hal Goldstein noted in a blog entry that the reason isn't that sales of Windows Mobile devices are plummeting -- on the contrary, almost 20 million Windows Mobile devices were sold during the last Microsoft fiscal year. It's just that advertising support from Windows Mobile manufacturers, cellular carriers, and developers has dropped significantly.

It appears that they are expecting big things from the iPhone market and advertisers, as they will be publishing the quarterly iPhone mag in paper and online versions. My personal speculation is that they realize that with all the venture capital going into iPhone development, there will be a lot of developers who will want to buy ad space to flaunt their products.

Do you think this move is indicative of a larger trend that may spell doom for Windows Mobile? Voice your opinion in the comments!

For quite a few years, I've enjoyed getting Windows Mobile news from a traditional print magazine called Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine that does a great job of covering the use of mobile tech in the enterprise. The magazine was called Pen Computing back in the old Newton MessagePad / Palm days, but Executive Editor and Publisher Hal Goldstein moved with the market and changed the title and focus of the mag.

They're following another industry trend, as recent issues have had a number of iPhone articles. Many compare one Windows Mobile phone or another to the iPhone, wondering if a Sony Ericsson EXPERIA X1 or HTC Touch Diamond is going to be the "iPhone Killer".

I was glad to see that the magazine is looking beyond the comparisons to a special iPhone edition ($14.95) to be published in August (cover mockup at right). A quick glance at their Web site showed that TUAW is one of the "Best Web Sites" for iPhone, so they're obviously doing their homework. ;-)

The publication date in August ensures that many of the App Store products and iPhone 3G accessories to be announced will end up in the special edition. It should be a fun collectible to look at 10 years from now!

In the interest of full disclosure, I've been on the Smartphone & Pocket PC Board of Experts for several years, evaluating software for the annual Best Software Awards issue.

It's sad but true; not everybody can have an iPhone. But for those poor souls with a supported Windows Mobile device, things just got a little bit better as Mark/Space has released version 4.0 of their Missing Sync for Windows Mobile with support for the new Windows Mobile 6 platform. New to version 4, Mark/Space has added plugins for video support (both ways), call logs, and SMS messages. And as always Missing Sync continues syncing support for iCal, Address Book, iTunes, iPhoto, etc.

Missing Sync for Windows Mobile is $39.95 and upgrade pricing is $24.95 from a variety of Missing Sync products.

Oh those endearing Chinese manufacturers - what would the electronics industry be without at least a few crappy knockoff products to keep original manufacturers on their toes? (Answer: companies like Apple could probably lay off a few lawyer infantries, but that's a whole 'nother conversation.) Engadget has caught footage of the 'tPhone', which sounds and looks like some sort of Windows Mobile (strangely, it uses a desktop Windows startup sound) device with heavily modified and/or skinned software. Does this look appealing? Remember: you don't have to be afraid to say 'no.'

Of course, Engadget touts the advantages of this device, namely a removable battery and microSD card slot. That said, eagle-eyed TUAW readers have also pointed out that the recently updated iPhone gallery reveals what could possibly be some sort of slot at the top of the iPhone, as exhibited in the gallery's first picture. Add that to all the interesting new iPhone tidbits we're digging up, and it looks like we might still be in for more discoveries (and possibly even official Apple announcements) before the iPhone actually lands next week.

John Gruber already pointed out some flaws of The Register's Lance Davis who doubts the iPhone, but I have an even bigger problem with the line of thinking Davis used in his analysis. He writes:

Remember, the mobile industry is one where some of the biggest companies in the world have tried and failed: Siemens, Philips, Fujitsu. None of them have creditable [sic] market shares. Even IBM put a toe in the water in the late nineties and then stayed away.

Obviously, no one can truly say one thing or another about the iPhone until we all get our hands on one and the market decides whether the device sinks or swims. Until then, everyone is free to say what they want as long as we all take it with a grain of salt. The qualm I have with Davis' analogy is that the manufacturers he cites - Siemens, Philips and Fujitsu - are using Microsoft's Windows Mobile platform on their smartphones. Setting aside the debate about Microsoft's ability to write software for a moment, the more significant factor here is that these manufacturers are using someone else's software on their products, which means they're susceptible to all the circumstances that come with pairing one's hardware with software they have an inarguable lack of knowledge and experience with.

It is ironic that I just recently found this new beta of Missing Sync for Windows Mobile, as a BlackBerry Pearl is arriving today to replace my Samsung BlackJack, which I can no longer stand. Nevertheless, I know there are plenty of Mac users out there who are rollin' with Mark/Space's Missing Sync to get their Windows Mobile device to sync with Mac OS X, and I thought y'all might be interested in a new beta that takes Flight Mode out of the picture. Though it isn't specifically listed in the release notes for this current version (3.0.2b6 as of this writing), Windows Mobile users no longer have to shut off the phone radio (what is known as Flight Mode) to perform a sync over Bluetooth. This is great news since turning off the phone radio, as handy of a UI as it may be, is still a clunky and annoying process. Support for a few more devices has also been added, as have the typical batch of bug fixes, so check out Mark/Space's testing page for a download link and release notes with more details.

Now, where's FedEx with that Pearl...

Okay, I'll admit right up front that this is completely pointless, but nonetheless it's a nice demonstration of the power of OS X (with Parallels). Jaanus over at Skype realized they have released clients for four platforms: OS X, Windows, Linux, and Windows Mobile. He started wondering if it would be possible to run all four at the same time. Turns out, thanks to Parallels, it is. He set up two Parallels virtual machines (one for Windows and one for Linux), then within the Windows VM he ran the Windows Mobile emulator. He had a little trouble with the WM version, but eventually even got that working. Behold the Power of Mac! Also, check out his screenshot on Flickr for full notes.

[Via Download Squad]

German site iFun.de has created a very cool video that compares iPhone features with the equivalent feature on a Windows Mobile device. It is important to note that most currently shipping Windows Mobile devices can do everything (and more) that we saw the iPhone do. The real difference is not in what these devices can do, but how they do it. Apple didn't revolutionize the MP3 player market by coming up with features that no one had ever done before. They revolutionized, and captured, the MP3 player market by making the iPod the easiest to use MP3 player available. I think, as this video illustrates, that is Apple's tactic with the iPhone.

Will the iPhone become the iPod of mobile devices? I'm not sure, but it will be interesting to watch.

About a month ago I swallowed the poison and picked up a Cingular BlackJack, a new Windows Mobile Smartphone (I know, I know). I had been looking to step up to some sort of a PDA phone so I can surf and keep on top of WIN/TUAW business without having a MacBook sewn to my head, and so far it's been working out well. The one thing I haven't been able to figure out yet is how to use this cutting-edge HSPDA phone (a new high-speed wireless data network) as a modem - until now.

While cruising Smartphone Thoughts (a good resource for other WinMo5 users in the audience) and their forums, I found this post at Mobility Today by David Ciccione that describes how to use a BlackBerry 3G Driver (of all things) to tether a BlackJack to a Mac for getting online. It isn't a simple process, but I just went through the paces and can confirm - it works.

Now before you run off and start tethering your BlackJack to your Mac all over the place, I want to add a few things to Mr. Ciccione's awesome work so everyone in our diverse audience knows what they're getting into. First off: if you don't have the proper data plan with Cingular, I have no idea if or how much they'll charge you per KB or MB for connecting, even if you're just testing this out. Try this at your own risk - we can't be responsible if you connect and start downloading movies from the iTunes Store, only to get a $300 bill for data next month. Call Cingular, like I did, before you goof around with this to make sure you have the right data plan. For what it's worth, I have the $20/month Smartphone unlimited data plan, which gets to fly under the radar of their ~$50 PDA data plan since it's a 'Smartphone' instead of a full-blown Pocket PC phone or data card for a notebook.

Continue reading after the jump for some add-on tips and gotchas to make this a smooth and worthwhile process.

Due to a SonyEricsson phone that recently passed away, I took a leap of faith and purchased a Windows Smartphone device, primarily because I want push email and I think the BlackBerry OS was beaten beyond death with a fugly stick (yes, I know it's still all the rage with the kiddies these days). Device and OS debates aside, I was pleased to discover that the most recent 3.0 version of Missing Sync for Windows Mobile supports syncing items from Yojimbo, though there is a limit - bookmarks and PDFs don't seem to sync; just text notes (to Missing Sync's credit, however, browser bookmarks can be synchronized through a separate included plugin).

I'm not sure how long it's done this, since I helped test the 2.5 beta back during the summer and I don't remember Yojimbo being on the list. Regardless, it's a welcome addition and alternative to syncing mostly Apple and Microsoft apps, however I should warn you of one more catch: Smartphone devices (which I bought) don't seem to be able to edit these notes (just like they can't edit Office docs either; only view them), though full-fledged Pocket PC/Windows Mobile can edit them just fine. I've found a few 3rd party apps that might be able to overcome this hurdle, though I haven't had the chance to give any of them a run-through just yet. If anyone knows any better, you know what to do.