Windows Mobile 6.5 out 'by the fourth quarter'

Believe it or not, we've been working all this time without a firm date of when we'll start seeing the official release of Windows Mobile 6.5. (Yes, we're fully aware of more nefarious ways of getting it right now.)

Just before Mobile World Congress and the official announcement of WM6.5 came a story from ZDNet saying that we'd be looking at September. At Steve Ballmer's presentation in Barcelona (watch it here), he'd only say "later this year." But in a transcript of Microsoft's fiscal year (different than the calendar year most of us follow) third-quarter earnings report, the launch window is specifically narrowed to this:

"You can expect to see phones running Windows Mobile 6.5 by the fourth quarter of this calendar year."

Of course, anything can happen, but we're taking that to mean we should see Windows Mobile 6.5 officially released by October. Hopefully we'll find out more in a couple of weeks at the TechEd event.