Microsoft CEO Gets Earful About iPhones In ITMicrosoft CEO Gets Earful About iPhones In IT

Bill Gates may not allow iPhones in his home, but that doesn't mean that Apple's smartphone hasn't infiltrated the rest of the world.

Grilled by a CIO at Microsoft's Public Sector CIO Summit Thursday, CEO Steve Ballmer defended Microsoft's lagging Windows Mobile effort when it was compared to the growing appeal of iPhones and Android phones that are creeping into IT environments.

Ballmer agreed with the CIO, Chris Kemp of NASA's Ames Research Center, but repeated Microsoft's already-announced plan to deliver more entertainment and consumer-oriented features when it releases Windows Mobile 7 next year.

"With platforms like the Google phone and iPhone coming out," Kemp complained, "it's really tough to continue to stand behind Windows Mobile when our employees are bringing these consumer devices into our environments. And in your presentation you put Windows Mobile right in the center there, but it was a phone that doesn't work in America and an operating system that you haven't released. I'm wondering what your commitment is to continuing to get newer versions of the operating system in our hands so that we don't have to fight this battle on the ground."

Ballmer replied as best he could.

"We have a significant release coming this year. Not the full release we wanted to have this year, but we have a significant release coming this year with Windows Mobile 6.5. I think that would look a lot like the phone that I showed that was in the slide, but very good catch, very impressed. He was right on both scores, very good.

"But I think with Windows Mobile 6.5, there will be phones in market this year," Ballmer continued. "We still don't get some of the things that people want on the highest-end phones. Those will come on Windows Mobile 7 next year. Certainly I'm not, um -- there're opportunities for us to accelerate our execution in this area, and we've done a lot of work to really make sure we have a team that's going to be able to accelerate."

Microsoft is already on record as vowing to make Windows Mobile 7 more consumer friendly with beefed-up features for music, IM, texting, social networking, and photo applications. Users of existing Windows Mobile releases can download some applications already but not via a central location, although the company has indicated that function could be added in future Windows Mobile releases.

Ballmer did toot Microsoft's horn a bit, saying: "We did sell more Windows Mobile devices last year than Apple did iPhones -- just an important factoid to have."

Despite Microsoft's plans and Apple's gains with iPhone, BlackBerry still remains the mobile device of record in the majority of enterprises, according to IDC.

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