Part of the reason CE 6 didn't get much love is that everyone had been burned so many times by all the previous CE releases -- not to mention that CE 6 was far too late!
In the end, though, it was better than Mobile, but hindsight is 20/20.
Parent poster is probably conflating Windows CE, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone.
Windows Mobile 5 was tremendously popular with over 100 phones from various manufacturers. But that was also around the time iPhone was released and by the time Windows Mobile 6 rolled out, the iPhone 3G/3GS was taking the world by storm. Windows Mobile 6.5 had a partially revamped UI but not enough to be competitive. From there we go to Windows Phone 7, 8, and 10 and that story is well known.
Parent poster is probably conflating Windows CE, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone.
Windows Mobile 5 was tremendously popular with over 100 phones from various manufacturers. But that was also around the time iPhone was released and by the time Windows Mobile 6 rolled out, the iPhone 3G/3GS was taking the world by storm. Windows Mobile 6.5 had a partially revamped UI but not enough to be competitive. From there we go to Windows Phone 7, 8, and 10 and that story is well known.