Paul Thurrott, one of the world’s most respected critics on Microsoft products, has just published a great article detailing how Microsoft plans to save Windows Mobile. To start, he emphasizes how last year, the Windows Mobile team underwent a dramatic structural overhaul, similar to what happened in the Windows division after Vista launched which many attribute to the success of Windows 7. This should mean that better talent and management is in place to ensure that Windows Mobile 7 is as successful as Windows 7 was.

Then, he talks about the strategy with Windows Mobile 6.5, and how its main purpose was to allow Microsoft’s hardware partners to have something fresh and (somewhat) new to ship on new hardware in time for holiday 2009 (and considering the wave of Windows Phones released this fall, we consider this a successful move). Thurrott hypothesizes that the version of 6.5 that we saw in fall of 2009 wasn’t the fully baked version, and that by Q2 of 2010, we’ll begin to see Windows Mobile 6.5.3 (or whatever it will be called) shipping on new hardware with capacitive displays, thus breathing new life into Windows Mobile.

And then there is Windows Mobile 7, which still is a big mystery, though in the way that Microsoft is talking about it, it won’t be some refresh of the 6.x series of Windows Mobile, but a dramatic overhaul of everything (and it better be!). Thurrott thinks that although we may see a release of Windows Mobile 7 in 2010, it may not be until 2011 that devices begin to appear with the new operating system, meaning that we’ll see Windows Phones with 6.5.3 in the fall of 2010 with capacitive screens instead of 7.

If all of this is true, do you think it’s enough to save Windows Mobile?

Read the full article on WinSuperSite.

(via @PhilNickinson)