Windows Mobile 6.5 phones are not yet expected to arrive until the second half of the year, but Microsoft sounds like it was ready to boast of a new operating system next month.

Electronista discovered in a post in Microsoft Windows Mobile blog last week that the company plans to “launch” the new mobile operating system at TechEd 2009, which is scheduled for May 11. “Launch” can mean a lot of terrible things in the business world, and in this case, it’s likely that Microsoft refers to the “liberation of the manufacture of” a milestone, when the product is available on your phone partners for testing and certification.

Microsoft representatives did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on what will be announced and demonstrated in May. When the general director of Microsoft Steve Ballmer discussed the Windows Mobile 6.5 in February at Mobile World Congress, he said that phones with the new software will not be available until the second half of this year.

Update 4:15 PM - Microsoft has released a statement on the Windows Mobile 6.5 and TechEd 2009. And here it is:

“We are pleased to TechEd as an opportunity to talk with business customers and developers about the software for a new generation of Windows phones. There will be several sessions, we believe, will help people find more to their ideas to the planning began on the new phones coming to market in 2H 2009.