Microsoft already setting a high expectation bar for Mobile World Congress

After the no-show (and no mention) of Windows Mobile 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, Microsoft officials have begun touting the Mobile World Congress (MWC) event in mid-February in Barcelona as the place that Windows Mobile 7 will finally be on public display in some way for the first time.

Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division President Robbie Bach basically said as much in his January 7 Financial Analyst Briefing at CES (which I listened to via Webcast). In response to an analyst question, Bach said to expect in WM7 �things will be talked about at MWC.� (Istartedsomething blogger Long Zheng is expecting and hearing the same.)

On Thursday, Bach reiterated some of what the Redmondians have been saying for months, specifically that WM7 won�t be just a business-focused mobile OS platform any more.

�I�ve seen it and played with it,� Bach said. He said he believed Windows Mobile 7 will �set the bar forward not in (just) an evolutionary way.�

Bach said to expect Microsoft to step up its �go to market approach� so that it will be �more engaged� with its mobile OEMs. He didn�t get more specific than that, but my take was he was talking about Microsoft tightening its development and marketing connection with its mobile-phone-maker partners.

Bach also took a couple of shots at Apple (which controls the entire end-to-end mobile platform) and Google (for providing conflicting signals to its Android ecosystem by offering its own �Google phone�). I keep wavering as to whether or not Microsoft might actually release its own Microsoft phone, but if it does at this point, Bach would be the pot calling the kettle black. So maybe any kind of Microsoft-branded Pink phones are off the drawing board, after all.

I�m betting Microsoft is going to show off more than just the Windows Mobile platform in Barcelona, based on what the company did last year at the MWC show. I�m thinking the Softies might also be ready to talk about the next version of its My Phone service, which stores Windows Mobile phone data to the cloud.

Last year, according to my sources, the version 2.0 of My Phone (codenamed Skybox), was on the Microsoft internal roadmap. This release was supposed to allow users to change ringtones, backgrounds and manage their mobile apps, music and video all from the cloud. Version 2.0 was supposed to integrate with Skymarket (Microsoft�s Marketplace for Mobile site), providing users with a way to buy and store applications and application data on remote servers. Supposedly, with My Phone 2.0, Microsoft also ws supposed to enable integration with Windows Live services and Live Mesh.

So I wouldn�t be too surprised to see a My Phone announcement in Barcelona, alongside whatever Microsoft says about WM7. Then, at Mix in mid-March, Microsoft is on tap to share details about developing for WM7, as officials said late last year.

What are you hoping and realistically expecting Microsoft to show in the Windows Mobile space next month?

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