WinMo Wrap — Marketplace Opens; WinMo 7 a Year Away
The week marches on and today being Saturday means it is time to recap the recent happenings in the world of Windows Mobile. It was a quiet week on the Windows Mobile front, perhaps the hoopla with the launch of the Droid and Palm Pixi kept WinMo providers quiet until it all blew over. The Windows Marketplace for Mobile turned the lights on for business, making a place for Windows phone owners to go for the latest and greatest in apps for WinMo. Phones with the Windows Marketplace app get purchased apps pushed OTA to the phone. The Marketplace is confined to Windows phones running WM6.5 currently, but Microsoft confirmed it would be available for WM6.0 and 6.1 later this month.
Windows Mobile 7 is the upcoming version of the mobile OS that everyone, including Microsoft, is expecting to help bring the smartphone platform up to speed competitively. WM7 is long overdue, even Ballmer thinks so, and according to those in the know it is still on track for a release during the third quarter of 2010. That’s almost a year away, and I wonder how far the competition will go in that time. WM7 could be obsolete before it’s even released.
If 7 integrates Zune and Xbox on solid hardware, 1ghz, then it will not matter that is released in the 3 qrt of 2010. Apple has shown that it’s not when you enter the market that matters, rather it’s do you enter the market with a compelling offering.
Are you assuming that all other competitors will stay status quo on their features and functions over the next year? I wouldn’t.
Let’s use your example of Zune and Xbox. The iPhone is already widely considered the new portable platform to beat when it comes to gaming. Zune would add subscription music — couldn’t Apple add that as well?
I’m not suggesting that Windows Mobile 7 will be a bust, but you simply can’t assume that all of its competitors will be standing still. Ironically, that’s basically what Windows Mobile did over the past few years — it stood still while newer and more nimble platforms leap-frogged past in terms of market share.
“The iPhone is already widely considered the new portable platform to beat when it comes to gaming”
Really? By who? I’ve never seen gaming on the iPhone taken seriously by anyone. Do you really think the iPhone is (or will ever be) a more successful portable gaming device than the DS or the PSP?
Just because Steve Jobs says something doesn’t mean it’s actually true
Some of the new games on the Zune HD show what Microsoft software on good hardware can produce. If those are the types of games that will be available on 7, sign me up. I do not think Apple will go to a subscription model, they have not shown any interest in doing so in the past.
And, I’m not suggesting that the competition will sit still, rather I believe 7 will leapfrog the competition. Finally, Apple may be the player to beat for casual games, but not for others. Finally, Apple’s recent offering have lacked inovation. Of course, only time will tell.
Gaming is HUGE on the iPhone. Hundreds of Millions of User downloads don’t lie. More people have played more games on the iPhone than on Xbox, PS3 and Wii COMBINED ! And don’t even talk “quality games” garbage since I have seen many crappy console games that cost$. Apple wins.
GAME OVER.
“That’s almost a year away, and I wonder how far the competition will go in that time.”
Who knows, they might even have multitasking.
They all do multitasking well, except of course the iPhone.
iPhone is based on BSD Unix. All Unix and Linux OSes multitask. You’ll find the iPhone will be running lots of OS functions concurrently, and multitasking. Apple made a decision to only permit one user application too run at the one time. This was done to preserve battery power and for user interface simplicity.
And what makes the rest any better than WinMo? The mindless bashing that goes on on this site is increasingly tiresome.
Just like the unsubstantiated, incorrect claims you reported last week (without checking) that Samsung was abandoning WinMo, this article is full of baseless opinions.
The reality is that WinMo is capable of everything that its competitors can do and more. The only thing letting it down is a tired UI but Android’s is no better and both can be improved by 3rd parties. I don’t know if your new owner makes you come up with this crap to try and get more page views but you’re letting yourself and your readers down with these posts.
“WM7 could be obsolete before it’s even released.” Or it could simply not be the killer OS that Microsoft is hoping for.
Microsoft needs to move away from infrequent sink-or-swim kitchen-sink updates and towards smaller less risky more frequent updates. If your update of the month isn’t popular, you adjust, and make up for it the next month. If your yearly update bombs, your in serious trouble. What will be the consequence if WM 7 turns out to be the next Vista?
It would also be a vast improvement if Microsoft worked with manufacturers and carriers to guarantee that all purchasers of new WM phones would receive over-the-air OS upgrades for at least a couple of years, something iPhone owners are accustom to.
WM7 should not be coming a year away – it should already be here today! I’m seriously adamant that by next year there won’t be better hardware and software to take on WM7.
I’ve been recently playing with the ZuneHD, as nice as the interface is, but it fails miserably by audiophile standards because it lacks a functional graphic equalizer. You cannot aim a device at serious listeners and not include options for shaping the audio.
If MS is even thinking of coming out with a Zune Phone next year toting WM7, they would need to do it right otherwise it will flop totally.
As for the ZuneHD, make one with 64GB storage, a 7-band EQ, and a sexy 4 inch 800×480 OLED.
Judge a phone platform for what it will do today. Not what you imagine it may or may not do a year from now.
Windows 6.5 has bombed. Bad reviews everywhere. If you search, you will find many analysts say that Windows Mobile will be discontinued after version 7 is released.
The crazy part is, that Microsoft did make a nice interface. But not for Windows Mobile (which was designed for ye olde stylus pen of last decade). They made the nice interface for Zune, which proves that Microsoft is capable of it. But what mismanagement. To have the Zune and WinMo developers in isolated bubbles, not communicating with each other. The two units should have been one. A disastrous move by Microsoft.
The latest Gartner figures put Windows Mobile on a 7.9% market share, and it lost 20% share in the past 3 months. Total disaster. With version 7 a year away, that is too late to save it. Windows Mobile will be the first platform to get cancelled.
Puleeez No more windoze on a phone. Desktop Ok. Phone…NO.
Too little…..too late. Windoze7 on phone is a non-starter people. MS needs to start from scratch and LOOK at the competition. If anybody has the resources to restart from the ground-up it is Microsoft. You can do this Microsoft ! But do you have the will ? (i wish they did but doubt they do).
WinMo fans need to take a serious look at Android. Come on fellas, hope on board. The Android Train is leaving the station!