Steve Ballmer, the chief executive at Microsoft, announced that the company will release the next sequel of Windows Mobile, which is Windows Mobile 7, in 2010. A strategic update session from Tuesday was the perfect moment for Ballmer to announce the big release and also the fact that Microsoft won’t dispatch the next version of Office until 2010 too.

Ballmer also spoke about the “netbook,” which is much alike a new version of Windows Server, called Foundation Edition. Given the fact that the company had released Windows Mobile 6.5 on February 13 this year at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, the release of Windows Mobile 7 next year sounded much like  a big surprise.

According to Ballmer’s speech, which had been prepared by the officials at Microsoft, the release announcement of Windows Mobile 6.5 last week was “nice” and they already have the next model ready for next year. He also talked about the “synergy” they now have with Windows, the browser improvements and all the rapid stuff that permits them such a quick release.

Ballmer added that the company won’t be building the phones, but it will only give the ideas, the design and software. He said that even if many people ask him whether he builds his own phones, he usually says that Microsoft’s strategy isn’t the one of building their own phones.

Microsoft’s strategy is based on selling the best software and supporting the device manufacturers by encouraging the choices of devices and operators. Ballmer said that the software programs have a positive price, as long as Google can’t permit to do that becuase they are building their own software.

In addition, Windows Mobile 7 represented a good step for the low-cost phones.