Although the word is the mobile phone world won’t be seeing Windows Mobile 7 hit anytime this year, according to sources reported over on digitimes, Microsoft has plans to push out Windows Mobile 6.6 sometime in February.

Of course this is unconfirmed rumour at the moment, but the word is Microsoft is launching Windows Mobile 6.6 to “strengthen its competitiveness against iPhone and Android based platforms.”

Could it be that Microsoft has finally wised up that they are losing ground hand over fist in the mobile operating system arena, and that for a long time now the iPhone and Android smartphones such as the Nexus One have been making the divide wider.

According to the article, sales of Windows Mobile 6.5 have been “flat” since the platform’s Q4 launch and have pushed Microsoft to bring forward Windows Mobile 6.6.