Though nobody expected Windows Mobile 6.5 to break any ground, it even failed to fulfill whatever few expectations people may have had. It is hard to imagine Windows Mobile 6.5 spurring handset shipments. However, HTC CEO Peter Chou claims there is strong demand for the company’s Windows Mobile 6.5-based HTC HD2 smartphone.

According to a Digitimes report, Chou is confident that his company’s handset shipments and revenues will both grow sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2009. His confidence stems from the strong demand for the HTC HD2 phone. In fact, the demand is so strong that the handset maker is finding it difficult to keep up with it. Chou said that the HD2 will be available in North America in the first quarter of 2010.

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Microsoft had announced last week that Sprint, AT&T and Verizon have all committed themselves to the October 6 launch of Windows Mobile 6.5, now Digitimes’ trusted unnamed sources – the finest in Taiwan - have revealed that Microsoft has secured the backing of many other telecom carriers around the world, including NTT DoCoMO, T-Mobile, Orange, Softbank Mobile, SKT, Telstra and Telus.

According to Benjamin Tan, senior director of Microsoft's GCR Mobile Team Unit in China, there will be more than 30 smartphones running WinMo 6.5 by the end of this year. He told a congregation of reporters in China that the first batch of WinMo 6.5 phones will be supplied by 15 different handset vendors.

Digitimes added that HTC, Acer, Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, and Hewlett-Packard are among the handset vendors backing the new mobile OS.

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