Ok, so Windows Mobile 6.5 is real according to the CEO of Microsoft, much to the surprise of…well…everyone, as we thought that next stop in Windows Mobile land was version 7.

Well, Smartphone France has come up with these two images that they purport to be Windows Mobile 6.5.

Are these real? The cluster-based navigation for programs seems reasonable – it lets you visualize many programs in one frame, then scroll up or down to see more. And the second screen, which presumably shows the Today screen, also seems feasible and has a “sliding panel” (as found in WinMo 6.1 Standard) feel, which Microsoft has gotten good feedback on. This new look is close enough to the current Windows Mobile for existing users to recognize it as such, but different and flashy enough to make the critics happy. So yeah, I’d say that these could be it, though some things leave us skeptical like the swapped placement of signal strength and battery indicator in both screenshots, and the formatting of “YouTube” without the capital “T” – when we see these inconsistencies, it smells from Photoshop. What do you think?

Good eye, wmpoweruser.