A group of Microsoft folks got together at the TechEd conference yesterday to discuss the upcoming launch of Windows Mobile 6.5. They talked about widgets, the new Windows Marketplace app store, and about how Silverlight won't be offered. But the most surprising admission was the fact that Microsoft doesn't really consider the Windows Mobile 6.5 user interface to be "complete."

Responding to a question about the UI, Windows Mobile Senior Product Manager Loke Uei Tan said the team "couldn't complete the interface on Windows Mobile 6.5" due to time constraints. Microsoft spent about 8 or 9 months developing Windows Mobile 6.5, and the emphasis wasn't really on the UI.

This isn't to say that Windows Mobile 6.5 will be completely unusable. It is a complete operating system. It's just that some of the new UI elements haven't been updated. So while there's a new program launcher and home page, large portions of the Windows Mobile 6.5 user interface will look a lot like Windows Mobile 6.1.