Can Microsoft Turn the Big Windows Mobile Ship Around in Time?
Courtesy of Microsoft
Windows Mobile is old. The basic UI and underlying technology is the same today as it has been for years. Microsoft understands this and lately has been talking up its upcoming version 7.0, prompting Om over at sister site GigaOM to call the chatter what it is: noise. While I don’t totally agree that Windows Mobile is irrelevant, I do agree that it needs a technology facelift — and it needs it now, not a year from now.
But while Om takes issue with Microsoft’s decision to make versions 6.5 and 7.0 available in the marketplace at the same time, his bigger beef is the fact that it will take until the fourth quarter of 2010 before launching Windows Mobile 7. I agree — the company is hampered by its speed to market with major updates. I use the term speed facetiously, as Microsoft is just too darn big to move fast. It’s like one of those big Carnival cruise ships — it needs to start turning today in order to get turned around by next year. That’s something I’ve groused about before, and I don’t see it changing. At least not anytime soon. And Redmond needs to get that Windows Mobile ship turned around today, not next year.
Bare Win7 with small screen UI adaptation.
Call me crazy … I dare you
It would be nice to see Windows mobile do something with their UI. They have a decent following but I think that getting new users is going to be hard with the much more user firendly UI’s that are coming from Apple, Palm and Google. Their hook with Exchange server can not hold them forever. Seems like starting from scratch is in order. Though the way Microsoft moves most of us would not live to see the result.
The problem is that Microsoft targeted the smartphone market and it is still better phone for getting done core smartphone activities than the iphone. The difference is that the iphone is a feature phone which does not scare people in to thinking they are buying a smartphone. I don’t see why Microsoft cannot be successful again in this market through they have to as a company invest more in windows mobile and not think of it as purely being a way of selling Exchange licences. Another solution might be just buy HTC and rename there range the Windows phones as it seems that HTC has done more in the last few years in terms of UI design than Microsoft or Google. I think it would be good to see Microsoft being strong again as they think about the developer and provide an open platform that has to be something that is important.
Get a grip dude. WinMo is SloMo and NoMo (soon to be No More). Windows on a Phone just doesn’t make any sense and most people have figured that out already, hence MS single-digit marketshare. It’s time for you to break out of that WinMo bubble you seem trapped in. WinMo is an horrific UI, just not user-friendly and somebody beat it with an ugly stick.
It’ll be interesting to see if the UI from the ZuneHD can be expanded into a proper smartphone OS.
September’s looking like an interesting month…
What boggles me is that Apple started the iPhone from scratch, designed the hardware and software, and released the first generation, in less time* than it has taken Microsoft to iterate from version 6.0 to version 7.0. Now, I like Windows 7. Vista is better than it gets credit for. But how Windows Mobile development can be so slow is inexplicable to me.
* I have done the math: According to Wired**, Apple started development of the iPhone at the end of 2006 and released it less than a year later. Windows Mobile 6 was released in early 2007 and WM7 won’t be out for another year.
** http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone
[1] http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone
Don’t discount the fact that it takes approximately four(4) MS engineers to do the same amount of work that one(1) Apple engineer can do. The results speak for itself.
The fact that Microsoft has to talk up WinMo 7 even before 6.5 comes out accentuates just how broken the Windows Mobile group is. The browser is terrible, the UI is horribly dated, and there’s nothing in the near term that Microsoft seems to be able to do anything about. They’ve got crazy “maybe you can upgrade” plans for phones which arent even out yet. There is no reason for anyone to make an investment in a Windows Mobile device with all of the other choices that are on the market. And with everyone able to license ActiveSync, they’ve lost the big competitive advantage they once had.
No multi-touch, no decent browser, no cohesive application environment, and no clear upgrade paths? No thanks.
The browser question is really not a problem just use opera or one of the other alternative browsers. That is an advantage over Apple that they really should push much harder.With Apple you only get what Apple wants you to have. The dev environment for Windows mobile means I can have a small app up and running in minutes and reuse code from other .net applications. That is much stronger than the Apple alternative which requires you to develop on the mac in a language which seems to be only used in the Apple World.
That is very true. But, the iPhone browser is still much better than alternatives, even Opera Mobile. Hopefully others will catch up soon.
I think iPhone apps are written in the C language which is prolly the most popular programming language in history (with the possible exception of Java).
Win7 could probably be scaled down if they wanted… would be pretty awesome.
As for the whole both versions on the market at the same time… no different than 5.0/6.1 or 6.1/6.5. Really not as big a deal as the blogosphere is making it out to be.
Hi,
in the end it is not the syntax of the programming languages that is so important but the libraries that it uses. The two major development platforms that are used in business are java and .net. Apple uses objective C and libraries that are tied to the Apple platform. Also there is no way in which you can develop on the platform that 90% of people use…ie. Windows.
Microsoft needs to standardize their Windows Mobile group, and fast. Integrate them with the team working on the Zune HD while they’re at it. The way I see it, the Zune HD should just be a phoneless Windows Mobile device like they used to make back in the good old days (Dell Axim X50v/X51v, HP iPAQ hx4700, etc.), before the focus fell on smartphones with small screens and inflated price tags due to the inclusion of a cell phone radio.
Anyway, I’m still stuck on Windows Mobile because the other platforms don’t have the apps I’m looking for. It may have a lacking UI I actually have to use paid apps to get around (PocketBreeze and iLauncher), a lacking file explorer (Resco File Explorer is a must), a downright pathetic Web browser (thank goodness you can use Opera Mobile 9.7 and Iris), and an even more pathetic default Office suite (why should I need to buy SoftMaker Office in the first place to get that sort of functionality?), but once you find out about all the apps out there (TCPMP, Kinoma Play, XnView Pocket, Resco Photo Viewer, Pocket Artist, WMWifiRouter, Pocket Informant, etc.), Windows Mobile currently has every single other platform beat hands-down in terms of app library due to its long history.
But I am not the average consumer. I should fall into that demographic that doesn’t need Exchange Server support and would buy up the iPhone, but the iPhone and iPod touch are far too limiting, Android doesn’t have the apps yet, and Palm webOS is also lacking in apps. I search the Internet far and wide for the apps I am looking for, and rarely am disappointed when it comes to Windows Mobile.
Most people don’t know what Windows Mobile has to offer, though, especially since there is no centralized app store yet and they probably don’t know where to start when it comes to third-party apps because of that. This is especially problematic because Windows Mobile is an OS that shines only after you bring third-party apps into the equation.
WINDOWS, WINDOWS MOBILE, MICROSOFT, THESE ARE FOR LOSERS WHO LIVE IN TRAILER PARKS.