Windows Mobile is Microsoft’s operating system for mobile phones (smartphones) and portable computers. Although now superseded by Microsoft’s new Windows Phone operating system Windows Mobile and its variants are still widely used outside of the fast evolving smartphone market, particularly on scanner devices which fall into the category of warehousing, inventory and stock control. This article takes a look at what Turbosoft offers for terminal emulation on Windows Mobile devices.
Flavors of Windows Mobile
The original release of Windows Mobile took place in the year 2000 and, as you would expect, over the course of it’s decade long lifespan it underwent some fairly substantial upgrades and alterations. With that evolution came a number of name changes which can sometimes lead to confusion amongst owners of such devices. Initially released as Pocket PC 200x, the operating system morphed into Windows Mobile 2003 before reverting to a version number based naming system such as Windows Mobile 5 and its’ final iteration, Windows Mobile 6.5.
Usage
Windows Mobile was particularly popular as a smartphone operating system with business and corporate users owing to it’s strong integration with the rest of Microsoft’s product suite, however both Windows Mobile and successor Windows Phone have declined in popularity over the last five years thanks to the rise of competitors like Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android operating system and the popularity of RIM’s blackberry platform with the business community.
In terms of terminal emulation Windows Mobile remains in use on hand held devices and in particular rugged industrial devices including those equipped with barcode scanners for use in inventory and stock control. Some of these devices, particularly the more high end devices run Microsoft’s Windows CE - you can read about our terminal emulation software for Windows CE here - however a large number continue to be powered by Window Mobile. Testament to it’s wide usage, Microsoft’s official support for Windows Mobile is set to continue well into 2013 and in some cases support has been extended until late 2015.
What Does Turbosoft Offer?
Turbosoft has created special Windows Mobile versions of TTWinCE tailored to this platform. These are designed to be touch friendly and come with support for scanners. Three install methods are supported for Windows mobile devices: ActiveSync, direct .cab install and extracted zip file versions. As with all our terminal emulation products they share a common emulation heritage with our Windows terminal emulation software TTWin, meaning you get the same range of emulations, many of the same productivity features and, importantly, the same quality, accuracy and reliability across terminals.
Versions of TTWinCE for Windows Mobile are available for Pocket PC 2003 and above and for Windows Mobile 6 and above. To download a free trial version of visit our TTWinCE for Windows Mobile trial downloads page.