Knowing what people want is no guarantee that you can provide it.

For proof, look no further than Windows Phone, iteration 6.5 of Windows Mobile, Microsoft’s operating system for mobile phones.

Begin by reading the words of Liz Sloan, Senior Marketing Manager for Windows Phone, on the Windows Phone blog. She writes:

“Bottom line is people want great phone experiences wherever they are.”

Then listen to what the critics have to say.

Under the heading ‘It still sucks’ the authoritative TechCrunch states: “If you did not like Windows Mobile 6.1 (or if you’ve never used it), we honestly would not recommend purchasing a Windows Mobile 6.5 phone.”

Gizmodo are even more damning.

“I'd like to think,” writes their reviewer, under the heading ‘There’s no excuse for this’, “that 6.5's stunning failure to innovate is a symptom of a neglected project — maybe Microsoft just needed something, anything to hold people over until the mythical Windows Mobile 7 comes out, whatever it is.

“It's an interim product, and a vain attempt to hold onto the thinning ranks of people who still choose Windows Mobile, despite not being somehow tethered to it, until the tardy Windows Mobile 7 comes out, whenever that may be. And,” they conclude, “it won't work.”

Ars Technica are inclined to agree.

“In many ways WinMob 6.5 is a transitional release, meant to tide handset makers and consumers over until the long-awaited overhaul due with version 7.0.”

Nor will Liz Sloan and her colleagues in Seattle find Ars verdict any more encouraging.

“With Microsoft having fallen far behind in the smartphone market over the past couple of years, the software giant has its work cut out for it.”

Certainly such critical vitriol is doing little to encourage developers to produce apps for Microsoft’s own Windows Marketplace.

With only 60 applications available in the UK when launched yesterday, compared to more than 85,000 for the iPhone, Windows Phone needs all the support it can generate.

Yet that support may not now be there.

Take for example the reaction of BuzzVoice, authors of an application enabling users to listen to over 1,400 text-based internet news sources on their mobile, to the aforementioned review on TechCrunch.

“After seeing this,” John Atkinson of BuzzVoice writes, “we’re definitely waiting to see WM7 before rolling out any Apps for the Windows Mobile marketplace.”

Even so, Microsoft still allegedly intend to run a global advertising campaign to promote the launch of the new Windows Phone software, supposedly costing “several hundred million dollars”.

Welcome as that will be to beleaguered media companies everywhere, many will say that is simply another case of throwing good money after bad.

The most brilliant of advertising is not going to sell a poor product. And Microsoft is perhaps not best known for brilliant advertising.

However Microsoft may be desperate to keep handset manufacturers happy.

In the UK the new operating system is available on the HTC Touch II and HTC Touch HD II from T-Mobile, the LG GM750 from Vodafone and the Toshiba TG01 from Orange, along with the Samsung Omnia II and Samsung Omnia Lite, both of which can be found on several networks.

Additionally, customers with an existing T-Mobile HTC Touch Diamond II can upgrade to the new version of the software, as can Vodafone customers with an HTC Touch Pro II. The HTC Snap S552 is another handset that can be upgraded.

At the end of the month, Windows Mobile will also appear in the UK on the Samsung Omnia Pro and Sony Ericsson X2 from Vodafone, while in late November O2 will start stocking the Samsung Omnia Pro B7610.

Unfortunately, given the paucity of apps coupled with the singular lack of critical accolades for the operating system, sales of those handsets are unlikely to prove spectacular.

Only HTC, thanks to their TouchFLO interface effectively disguising the Microsoft presence, have any realistic chance of proving such predictions wrong.

As a result, long before WinMo7 finally makes an appearance, handset manufacturers may finally decide it makes no sense to continue paying Microsoft for an inadequate and dated operating system when the Android alternative is to be had for free.

Indeed, Motorola have already chosen not to offer any Windows 6.5 phones.

How long before LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and HTC conclude they should have taken the same decision?