Windows Mobile - aiming to steal the iPhone's thunder with V 7.0

surur · 05/23/2008, 02:59 PM

Quote:

Windows Mobile - aiming to steal the iPhone's thunder with V 7.0
by Guy J Kewney | posted on 23 May 2008

If you haven't got your invite for next month's Windows Mobile thrash, you're probably not being ignored. It's all too secret to tell invitees, apparently. Steve Jobs might get to hear...

The iPhone news which Jobs won't want to spill, is that the Christmas version of the 3G iPhone will have a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. HTC already has one, and will be announcing more. But the main cause of tooth-gnashing in Cupertino, say sources, will be corporate sales, where Microsoft is, at last, in a position to make Apple look inadequate.

Rumours suggest that Microsoft and HTC will combine in early June to launch several new Windows Mobile phones, and to start talking about Windows Mobile v 7. Either way, it will take much of the wind out of the sails of Steve Jobs when he reveals the first version of the iPhone 3G, say sources.

Star of the HTC party (some say June 3, others say June 6 or even June 12) will of course be the Diamond, with WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and HSDPA. But the message will be: "We've sold a LOT more Microsoft systems than people realise."

I'm expecting the "partner launch" to be June 3, and the official Press Party to be June 12, and I'm also expecting some headline stats.

Those of us who rather poured scorn on Microsoft's boasting back in February may have to eat our words; the 20 million sales which Windows mobile chief Robbie Bach predicted for year-end results (next month, duh!) are going to be higher than he said. But even more astonishing will be figures projected for 2008/9 say insiders.

HTC are privately saying that all five UK carriers will announce Diamond phones. That may be where the excitement gets less thrilling; it's one thing to announce, and quite another to ship...

But the figures for push email should terrify RIM shareholders, with corporate IT managers now switching from the Blackberry as their portable post box of choice. "We have to be able to handle HTML messages," said one source pleading for anonymity ("I've signed the NDA!") and the latest version of Windows Mobile makes a seamless link to Microsoft Exchange far easier, she added.

http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/3916

Well, this should be interesting. Maybe this is related to that 40% of smartphones in 2012 claim...

Surur

theog · 06/05/2008, 10:14 AM

Microsoft always needs competition to get kicked into gear... nothing better than apple providing the competition.... too bad they are stuck on att.

beachtrader · 06/07/2008, 03:09 PM

Half of those dates have already passed. And the 3G iPhone is supposed to be revealed on June 9th. I doubt anything coming from Microsoft unless it is actually out the door. They have a terrible history of vaporware announcements and this one sounds just like another one.

jhoff80 · 06/07/2008, 07:22 PM

I still maintain that focusing on a touchscreen only device as competition is to overlook the major shortcomings that WM already has.

bearxor · 06/09/2008, 06:05 PM

We won't see Windows Mobile 7 devices here in north america until late spring at the earliest. Most likely mid summer. In my opinion, the iPhone is now leaps ahead of the Windows Mobile platform. WinMo is 12-18 months behind at this point. Who's to say that when WinMo7 comes out, it will be any good. The iPhone has been here and is here now. Microsoft has a lot of catching up to do.

surur · 06/09/2008, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bearxor

We won't see Windows Mobile 7 devices here in north america until late spring at the earliest. Most likely mid summer. In my opinion, the iPhone is now leaps ahead of the Windows Mobile platform. WinMo is 12-18 months behind at this point. Who's to say that when WinMo7 comes out, it will be any good. The iPhone has been here and is here now. Microsoft has a lot of catching up to do.

Exactly how is it ahead?

Surur

Bob-C · 06/09/2008, 06:57 PM

I was thinking about getting one of those 3G iPhones when I read about it today too. Then I started reading more about all its' shortcomings which Windows Mobile has none of:

- No Copy & Paste: Are you kidding me? How can the company that INVENTED Copy & Paste not have it in the iPhone?!?? Why wouldn't it even be in the first gen iPhone? It is built right into the OS X base code.

- No Multimedia Attachments to SMS messages: I was shocked by this one too. Just about ANY piece of junk cellphone and can take a picture and text message it to someone.

- No video recorder: Just about ANY piece of junk cellphone can do this too.

- No A2DP Stereo Bluetooth: I don't understand how they market it as also being an iPod and don't even realize people would like to wear wireless headsets. Just boggles my mind.

- No voice command: Would be helpful for a touch screen phone.

Windows Mobile has all of these functions natively. PalmOS has 3 out of 5. I don't know what to make of it. I can't believe Apple programmers aren't good enough to put these into the iPhone. At the same time I can't figure out why they would elect not to put them in. It boggles the mind.

There is no argument whatsoever that there is no touching Safari by anything on Windows Mobile. But after that what is there? Can you even edit Office files in the iPhone? The way I am reading it is that you can view them as attachments but it says nothing about editing.

If Windows Mobile had the same exact Safari browser, what would the iPhone have over it?

-Bob

surur · 06/09/2008, 07:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob-C

There is no argument whatsoever that there is no touching Safari by anything on Windows Mobile.

If Windows Mobile had the same exact Safari browser, what would the iPhone have over it?

-Bob

Have you seen Opera Mobile 9.5? Its better than Safari.

Surur

cmaier · 06/09/2008, 07:04 PM

If so, I can't wait for the iphone version ;-)

surur · 06/09/2008, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cmaier

If so, I can't wait for the iphone version ;-)

Does Apple allow other javascript interpreters on their phone?

Surur

cmaier · 06/09/2008, 07:25 PM

Beats me. I haven't heard opera whining about it, and one would assume they're working on it, but who knows.

bearxor · 06/09/2008, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by surur

Exactly how is it ahead?

Surur

Obviously, everyone's needs are different. But here's a run down as to why I think Microsoft is behind and Apple is ahead on this curve:

8GB of storage - no expansion and I know the Sammy phone packs 8/16 storage, but here it is almost a year after the first 8GB iPhone was introduced.
3.5" screen - God I miss my PPC-6600... I used to stream TV on it all the time. When I had a 6700 and with my Treo and the 6800 I tried out i don't even bother.
Software store with purchases, downloads and installs right on the phone. This is one area Microsoft is way behind in.
Standard 3.5mm headphone jack - honestly, i own a pair of BT stereo headphones and they're crap. Probably not the best $100 I've spent. I ended up using a pair of earbuds instead.
Nice apps - like Safari, Youtube, google maps, etc all built in with more free apps on the way via the software store.

I know some of this stuff is fixable with WinMo but I'm just tired of tinkering with my phones. That's why I have the Treo 700wx now. I want it to just work without me having to do anything to it. 2 years ago, I said I would never be a Treo user. I've had this thing almost 2 years now. A year ago, I shrugged off the iPhone as a poor man's smartphone. Now I can't wait to pick one up and leave Sprint behind.

I think there's no room for fanboyism and you have to keep your mind open to new and exciting things and right now Apple has it. The WinMo landscape is just a mess right now, IMO, and no one is target what I'm looking for, except Palm. I've had a good long run with Windows Mobile. I like to consider myself somewhat of an advanced WM user, but the fact is I'm tired of dealing with it. Hopefully something enticing on the WM side can bring me back in a year or two but we'll have to wait and see. I don't think WM7 is going to be the answer to anyone's prayers. Maybe WM8. That's why I don't get your blog entry of "it seemed to have landed with rather a damp squib." It landed like that for you, not everyone.

Either that, or OS X is where disgruntled Windows Mobile users go to die...

surur · 06/09/2008, 07:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bearxor

Obviously, everyone's needs are different. But here's a run down as to why I think Microsoft is behind and Apple is ahead on this curve:

8GB of storage - no expansion and I know the Sammy phone packs 8/16 storage, but here it is almost a year after the first 8GB iPhone was introduced.
3.5" screen - God I miss my PPC-6600... I used to stream TV on it all the time. When I had a 6700 and with my Treo and the 6800 I tried out i don't even bother.
Software store with purchases, downloads and installs right on the phone. This is one area Microsoft is way behind in.
Standard 3.5mm headphone jack - honestly, i own a pair of BT stereo headphones and they're crap. Probably not the best $100 I've spent. I ended up using a pair of earbuds instead.
Nice apps - like Safari, Youtube, google maps, etc all built in with more free apps on the way via the software store.

I know some of this stuff is fixable with WinMo but I'm just tired of tinkering with my phones. That's why I have the Treo 700wx now. I want it to just work without me having to do anything to it. 2 years ago, I said I would never be a Treo user. I've had this thing almost 2 years now. A year ago, I shrugged off the iPhone as a poor man's smartphone. Now I can't wait to pick one up and leave Sprint behind.

I think there's no room for fanboyism and you have to keep your mind open to new and exciting things and right now Apple has it. The WinMo landscape is just a mess right now, IMO, and no one is target what I'm looking for, except Palm. I've had a good long run with Windows Mobile. I like to consider myself somewhat of an advanced WM user, but the fact is I'm tired of dealing with it. Hopefully something enticing on the WM side can bring me back in a year or two but we'll have to wait and see. I don't think WM7 is going to be the answer to anyone's prayers. Maybe WM8. That's why I don't get your blog entry of "it seemed to have landed with rather a damp squib." It landed like that for you, not everyone.

You are comparing an OS with a product. What you want is everything packaged up. The WM OEM's understand this now, and are producing phones like the HTC Touch Diamond, Experia X1 and the Samsung Omnia.

Quote:

Either that, or OS X is where disgruntled Windows Mobile users go to die...

Yep.

Surur

bearxor · 06/09/2008, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by surur

You are comparing an OS with a product. What you want is everything packaged up. The WM OEM's understand this now, and are producing phones like the HTC Touch Diamond, Experia X1 and the Samsung Omnia.

I don't think that's fair. In the WM world, the OS is the product. I can't go out and buy a WM phone and then build it my way with only installing parts i want and/or need. In fact, most of them come with stuff you don't want. Same as the iPhone. It comes how it comes. The difference is, in the WM world we have people that are able to go and tinker with things to do thing the developers of these phones never intended. I'm just tired of tinkering with it. Even now, I experimented with flashing my 700wx with some custom roms and then just loaded the default rom back on to it and it's been like that for a couple of weeks. I just don't have time anymore in life to worry about it.

surur · 06/09/2008, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bearxor

I don't think that's fair. In the WM world, the OS is the product.

Again, tell that to the HTC Touch Diamond. Its a self-contained product with an interface that cant be moved to older phones.

Surur

comedytreogirl · 06/09/2008, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bearxor

I don't think that's fair. In the WM world, the OS is the product. I can't go out and buy a WM phone and then build it my way with only installing parts i want and/or need. In fact, most of them come with stuff you don't want. Same as the iPhone. It comes how it comes. The difference is, in the WM world we have people that are able to go and tinker with things to do thing the developers of these phones never intended. I'm just tired of tinkering with it. Even now, I experimented with flashing my 700wx with some custom roms and then just loaded the default rom back on to it and it's been like that for a couple of weeks. I just don't have time anymore in life to worry about it.

I agree i like the way i can add to my os device. Yes they do they come with stuff that you dont want .

bearxor · 06/10/2008, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by surur

Again, tell that to the HTC Touch Diamond. Its a self-contained product with an interface that cant be moved to older phones.

Surur

hehe, I had a whole paragraph on HTC but decided to nuke it because I didn't think it was relative. Suffice to say, the likelyhood of me buying a htc-branded device ever again is slim to none. HTC really needs to work on their software engineering. Piling stuff on top of Windows Mobile is not a solution.

Bob-C · 06/10/2008, 06:32 PM

Bearox - I have to agree with surur. Memory size, screen size and headphone jack size has nothing to do with WM. Microsoft has no control over what the hardware manufacturer builds.

From a PalmOS or Windows Mobile phone we could send you a picture of how well they work but... Oh wait, you have an iPhone and can't do multimedia messaging. Ouch. Maybe you could copy and paste something out of this post and.... Oh, that's right, you have an iPhone and can't do that either. What the crap?!? Can we even make a phone call to your iPhone?

I just couldn't resist.

surur...

I will have to check out the Opera browser surur is talking about. I have been considering moving on from Palm OS to WM. My one concern about jumping to a Windows Mobile phone is ease of navigation vs the Treo. Can I still do quick one handed navigation without stylus assistance to quickly move back and forth between making speed dial calls, checking my calendar, checking my email and text messaging?

surur · 06/10/2008, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob-C

surur...

I will have to check out the Opera browser surur is talking about. I have been considering moving on from Palm OS to WM. My one concern about jumping to a Windows Mobile phone is ease of navigation vs the Treo. Can I still do quick one handed navigation without stylus assistance to quickly move back and forth between making speed dial calls, checking my calendar, checking my email and text messaging?

If you look at the Treo 800w, it has dedicated keys for the mail and calender. It would just be one key press to move from all the apps you mentioned, and because it multi-tasks you would be where you let of in each app. In WM you can also go from mail account to mail account just by pushing the d-pad side-ways. Its pretty efficient in that way.

I think the only problem with Opera on Windows Mobile is screen size really. Especially on a Treo its difficult to imagine good browsing on such a small screen.

Surur

oalvarez · 06/10/2008, 09:30 PM

^ jeeezus....what is that thing? looks like something from the past trying really hard to look like "today."

nice job Palm!