A Spanish pickpocket may be among the first to beta test Microsoft’s answer to the iPhone and Google’s open-source Android mobile software. An Australian telecom chief reported the theft during the Mobile World Conference wrapping up today in Barcelona, Spain.
The prototype phone and a copy of the yet-unreleased Windows Mobile 6.5 was taken from the pocket of a Telstar executive. Microsoft lent the prototype to Telstar’s CEO soon after announcing Windows Mobile 6.5 at the Mobile World Conference.
“One of our product executives was given the phone to test the system. He had it with him at an organized evening event and it was stolen from him,” a Telstar spokesperson told the London Telegraph.
Telstar is not the only victim of pickpockets. Conference organizers have threatened to move the event if such crimes are not curtailed.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
