Touch screen mobile smartphones have become all the rage lately, but did you know that Windows Mobile Professional is one of the only mobile operating systems that is completely touch-screen friendly? That’s right, from the beginning when it was Windows CE 2.1 for Palm-sized devices, and then the Pocket PC operating system, it has been designed to be completely usable without any use of hardware buttons. There are on-screen user interface elements such as the Start menu, softkey menus, and minimize buttons that let users easily access commands and other applications via the touch screen. This means that it is possible for manufacturers to design Windows Mobile devices that consist completely of screen area, requiring only a hardware power button.

Palm OS requires menu and home hardware buttons in order to do anything within the OS… the iPhone requires a Home button in order to do any kind of navigating between programs… and if you’ve seen the T-Mobile/Google/Android G1 demo, you’ll notice that even this highly anticipated operating system (at least in its first incarnation) requires the use of Home, Back, and Menu buttons on the hardware. The Blackberry Storm that’s coming soon still requires the Blackberry button, back button, and end button for navigation as well.

What makes Windows Mobile even more flexible is that it is now also completely navigable using only hardware buttons and highly efficient keyboard mnemonics. That means you have the option to use only the touch screen, only the hardware buttons, or any combination of the two. With most of the other smartphone operating systems, you are required to always use a combination of a touch screen interface and hardware key interface.