Should you type “Toshiba TG01 Windows Mobile” in to Google, select the options ‘Recent Results’ and ‘pages from the UK’, and hit return, you will achieve around 375,000 results.

That’s a pretty staggering total.

And were you to believe the old adage that all publicity is good publicity, you would think  Toshiba and Microsoft must be delighted.

To generate so much interest in a new phone must surely auger well.

After all, with a 4.1-inch QVGA screen and the industry's fastest processor, the 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon, the TG01 is the first touchscreen smartphone to bridge the gap between netbook and mobile phone.

As such it should surely be a resounding success with anybody wanting a handset to surf the net, view videos, or to be able to send and read emails without constantly having to scroll.

However, click on any of the links Google provide, and you will soon be dissuaded.

Were confirmation required that Windows Mobile 7 might be too late, a possibility recently discussed here, then it can be found virtually everywhere.

Take for example The Link, who point out that the TG01 “houses that speedy Snapdragon processor, which should make it faster than a speeding bullet, but in reality it’s slower than Superman wearing a kryptonite necklace.

“Why not go with Google Android, eh Toshiba?,” The Link says sneeringly. “It’s a much smoother operating system. That said Toshiba has pointed out that the TG01 will be getting Windows Mobile 6.5, which is an improvement, but still no Android.”

Electricpig agree that “in spite of a spec sheet that makes most other smarties blush with embarrassment, the Toshiba TG01, with its outdated Windows Mobile 6.1 OS, doesn’t cut it against the big boys. Windows Mobile 6.5 is a vast improvement, but you can’t help but feel Tosh should have stuck Google Android in instead.”

Five also “would have rathered Android, but hey,” they complain, “Toshiba has shackled the TG01 with Windows Mobile 6.1.”

IT Pro thinks the TG01 “is a very impressive piece of hardware, hindered only by an OS that isn’t up to the task.” Cnet despairs, saying Toshiba “turns its back on greatness.” SmartphoneDaily believes “the choice of OS is still its biggest weakness.” And even the Daily Mirror argues “the whole thing is somewhat hamstrung by the presence of the old–school Windows Mobile 6.1.”

And there is more. For Toshiba. For Microsoft. Much. Much. More.

iGizmo admit that “while to many the presence of Windows Mobile 6.1 will be chalked down in the 'negatives' column, at least the TG01 will be upgradable to the allegedly much improved 6.5 when it is released in the coming months.”

The use of the word “allegedly” might infer a certain lack of confidence, a concern shared by T3, who acknowledge “even with WinMo 6.5 available as a free download later this year, it's unlikely to completely solve the issue.”

“Like many phone manufacturers adopting the Microsoft OS Toshiba have tried to disguise it with their own interface,” Moby1.co.uk explain in order, as MSN UK of all people go on to say, “to hide the monster of Windows Mobile 6.1.”

Should Toshiba and Microsoft have failed to get the message, then arguably this extract from Engadget sums up the almost universal reaction to their joint offering.

“Toshiba,” Engadget pronounces, “has certainly come out with a technically accomplished device: 800 x 480 resolution, HSDPA, WiFi and GPS are all packed atop a truly potent chipset, and the whole thing is wrapped inside an attractive package. Yet the overwhelming feeling after playing around with the TG01 for a while is one of frustration. The somewhat sluggish and unwieldy UI fails to properly tie together all the capabilities of the underlying hardware and the end product is a smartphone that can be said to amount to less than the sum of its parts.”

Without question, the consensus is damning. Condemned, the TG01 may never recover. And what could have been a good handset will have been dismissed primarily because of its choice of operating system.

Nor is there any confidence than WinMo 6.5 is going to offer any real improvement.

So, with the Android alternative so readily available, it is hard to imagine many handset manufacturers taking the risk of installing Windows Mobile at any time soon.

As a result, by the time WinMo 7 finally makes an appearance, there is every chance that Windows Mobile will have joined MS-DOS and OS/2 on the shelf of now defunct Microsoft operating systems.

And, should that happen, the tombstone ought properly to take the shape of the TG01.