Eldar Murtazin of Mobile-review has allegedly gotten some hands-on time with the possibly-soon-to-be-announced Windows Mobile 7, and has found that the operating system does not support legacy apps (meaning those from the 6.x version of Windows Mobile and below). And this sort of makes sense. Here’s why.

Recall that in August of last year, there were rumors that Microsoft was taking a dual-pronged approach to their mobile strategy in 2010 by keeping support for Windows Mobile 6.x (perhaps 6.6 as we’ve recently heard) for lower-end devices, while providing 7 for “premium” devices that will showcase the best possible experience for mobile.

We’ve also been hearing rumors that Windows Mobile 7 would be built on an entirely different kernel (no more Windows CE, maybe), which would indeed break compatibility with legacy apps. It’s possible that there may be some sort of emulator on 7 to support older apps (think Palm Pre Classic that allows Pre users to run legacy Palm OS apps).

Let’s take this a step further. You may be wondering: if Windows Mobile 6.6 and 7 will coexist without being able to run each other’s apps, does that mean that Microsoft will have a second Marketplace for apps? Probably not, but there could be a different interface (hopefully improved). The Marketplace for Mobile does a good job at detecting the type of device you’re using, so 6.6 (or below) users won’t be able to see apps for 7, and vice versa.

(via: wmpu)