Interview: Microsoft's Ya-Qin Zhang seeks power

The head of research for Microsoft's Windows Mobile software for handheld computers, Ya-Qin Zhang, was in Taipei last week talking up the company's latest major operating system release, Windows Mobile 5.0.

In an interview, he lamented the slow development of battery technology for mobile devices and offered a glimpse of what Microsoft is already up to for its next major upgrade to the mobile computing OS.

The vice president of Microsoft's mobile and embedded devices division hopes the current release, out last month, will challenge the popular BlackBerry messaging system and will grab some accolades for its mobile Office upgrades, including a slimmed down version of PowerPoint.

IDGNS: What kind of hardware or bandwidth issues are holding back software development in handhelds for Microsoft?

Zhang: Battery life is the No. 1 limiting factor. Its performance is only improving by 10 percent to 15 percent every year. Footprint [memory for programs, not for storage] is number two: can you increase the footprint? It's a tough problem because if you add more SDRAM [synchronous dynamic RAM], it requires more power.

The LCD display is also a factor. The No. 1 issue is size. You can increase resolution but you can't increase the physical size. You want to do more on your phone, but it's too small, the screen is too small. Also the price is still high. Over the next five years, I think we're going to see a 50 percent drop in price, but not now.

I think bandwidth will become less of a factor. It's a big factor right now, but look out two years to five years -- it's still a factor then, but not as much. Processing is more important. We're looking at 2GHz to 3GHz processing power in five years. Right now, my phone has 400MHz -- it's pretty good for the kind of things we want to do, but we want to do more things, right?

IDGNS: What technologies has Microsoft worked on to help solve the screen problem? Virtual displays?

Zhang: We have worked on virtual display, virtual projector, virtual keyboard -- those will help, but in the next few years, I don't think any of these things will become mainstream.

IDGNS: When can users expect to see some new devices based on Windows Mobile 5.0?

Zhang: We announced 5.0 a little bit over a month ago. Bill Gates made the announcement. We had about 3,000 people attend the conference and there was a lot of enthusiasm in the developer community.

Of course, it will take some time for the actual devices to get to the market, but over the next 12 months, we expect at least 30 new Windows Mobile devices from our manufacturing partners, including one from Samsung Electronics Co. [the SGH-i300] with a 3GB hard drive so you can store 150 to 200 songs, and a 3G [third generation telecommunications] device from High Tech Computer with a full QWERTY keypad and DVD-quality VGA screen.

IDGNS: Have you started on the next major upgrade to Windows Mobile 5.0?