Microsoft will introduce three new internet-based services as well as Windows Mobile 6.5 at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona next month.
According to sources at Neowin.net the new services are codenamed SkyBox, SkyLine and SkyMarket and form a part of the Windows Azure platform.
SkyBox syncs phone information such as contacts, calendar, emails and SMS to a cloud storage system that allows automatic backup and retrieval.
SkyLine is the business version of SkyBox with the additional option of hosting business Exchange servers with Microsoft.
SkyMarket is the online store for Windows Mobile apps, a bit of a sore point for Microsoft really if you consider that every other major OS manufacturer has already announced or launched their own application marketplace.
We're expecting to see the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5 at MWC too but we aren't sure what to expect. Given the 6.x title we think we will get a tweaked and polished version of Windows Mobile 6.1 to tide us over until the launch of version 7.
All of this is welcome news for Microsoft fans and the announcement of a centralised app store couldn't have come at a better time given the mobilisation of its competitors in this area, we'll just have to wait and see what goodies Windows Mobile 6.5 has in store for us.
