In an interview, Kevin Chen, General Manager for HTC Middle East, Africa & CIS confirmed that the HTC Shift will come with Windows Vista but not Windows Mobile. That alternate operating system that we have seen in videos is a wireless data modem with advanced BIOS and some of the same applications as you would see on a Windows Mobile Device. It will be used to provide push email capabilities while the HTC Shift is in sleep mode.
This would definitely explain why the HTC Shift specifications on the HTC web site don’t show Windows Mobile.
From what Hugo Ortega’s video back in August, it’s clear that it will do more than just sync mail. Just how much more we still have to see…