Telstra chief executive Sol Trujillo was not given the phone with Microsoft beta software that recently went missing in Barcelona, Telstra said this morning.
Windows Mobile 6.5
(Credit: Crave UK)
A Telstra spokesperson confirmed reports that a loaned phone from Microsoft had gone missing while in the possession of one of its employees in Barcelona. However, the phone had not been personally given to Trujillo by Microsoft, but instead to a Telstra executive, they said.
Reports have said that the phone was pickpocketed, but Telstra would only confirm that it was lost without details as to how. The spokesperson would also not give details as to the phone's make or the software which it carried.
The Herald Sun reported that the phone was believed to be either an HTC Touch Pro2 or the HTC Touch Diamond2, running the new Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system.
Microsoft revealed Windows Mobile 6.5 on Monday in Barcelona as a future update for three new handsets announced at the show, HTC's Touch Diamond 2 and Touch Pro 2 and LG's GM730.
The phone which Microsoft demonstrated to ZDNet.com.au sister site Crave at the event running Windows 6.5 (pictured) was a HTC Touch Diamond2.
Featuring a new hexagonally partitioned home screen that presents various icons or widgets in a honeycomb-like matrix, Windows Mobile 6.5 is aimed at making the software more "finger friendly" and generally more appealing.
The update is not slated to turn up on phones until the fourth quarter of this year and features a revamped mobile Internet Explorer browser and a new "marketplace" for buying software that can run on the phone.
Despite concerns about industrial espionage, Microsoft did not consider the event likely to have an impact. "Although we regret that the prototype phone given to Telstra was misplaced, we don't envisage this incident as impacting Microsoft in any way," a spokesperson for the company said.
ZDNet UK's David Meyer, CNET News' Ina Fried and Crave's Nate Lanxon contributed to this article.
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