Windows Mobile 6.5 Launched, Panned 202
Barence writes "It's not Windows Mobile 7, but at least it's here. PC Pro has posted its full review of Windows Mobile 6.5, as found on the new HTC Touch2 handset, which is also reviewed. If you're expecting something to challenge Apple OS and Android, prepare for a very large let-down. The damning quote: 'Business users, as much as consumers, deserve a phone that's quick and intuitive to operate as well as one that hooks in neatly to Exchange and Outlook and is easy to manage centrally. If this is the best [Microsoft] can muster in the year-and-a-half's worth of development time since Windows Mobile 6.1 appeared, we'll be dramatically lowering our hopes for Windows Mobile 7.'"
you can thank bill gates for this one as well (Score:5, Interesting)
i remember when smartphones and PDA's were first taking off 10 years ago and people were coming up with interfaces Bill Gates decreed that MS will have a "consistent user experience" and that was the end of any chance that MS had at success.
Apple and RIM went back to the OS 9/Win 3.1 days for an interface that works on a mobile device and it proved to be popular. MS stuck with it's stupid start button and pocket versions of MS Office and IE. i had a pocket PC back in the day and IE was so bad that it wouldn't close out and you had to reboot the device to free up memory.
Then there is Microsoft's use of selling a bare OS to Chinese and Korean companies who make the device. Apple, RIM and Palm proved that if you control the phone hardware and the OS you get a good user experience and a good brand name. MS and Google's strategy of using OEM's means their customers don't care which OS they use and no one knows the names of the phones since they are always changing and are considered throwaways. the phone manufacturers put on their own GUI's and themes so you can have two WinMo or two Android phones side by side and they will look completely different.
This is why people are buying blackberries and iphones. when you compare the 2 year cost of the phone it makes sense to buy a brand name.
Re:Great (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, "stylus hand cramp" is a thing of the past with the iPhone, Android and the Palm Pre, yet the review states that most of the applications require the use of said implement. If that means that the damn thing is as unfriendly and frustrating as the WinMob devices I've used in the past (especially the PIM apps, which were so backwards I don't know how it even got mildly popular as a mobile OS).
The fact is that Microsoft need to remove the existing UI libraries and do what Apple did - create a Touch variant of their current libraries. I.e., a ".NET Touch". All packaged applications need to be implemented in this for consistency throughout the system.
However with Microsoft competing against itself in the mobile OS stakes - Pink Phone UI, Zune UI, WinMob UI, they haven't got a hope in hell of creating a single, decent, developer-friendly and attractive mobile interface.
Nothing new (Score:2, Interesting)
Besides this interface doesn't matter much, people are still going to use interface add-ons on most WM phones (SPB mobile shell, TouchFlo3d, Samsung TouchWiz etc).
In short, no new information in this review. However, the announcements of the new phones (e.g. HTC Leo, Samsung i8000) are much more interesting.
Re:Typical Linux fanbois (Score:5, Interesting)
OS/2 and BeOS were complete failures... they had their chance and got beaten down. And its not because they were inferior products, its because they just couldn't sell themselves. Windows succeeded not because it was better, but because Microsoft was able to position it to the point where it didn't have to sell it.
Linux is to HURD in the same way, only bigger, than Windows is to OS/2 or BeOS. Windows was supposed to be a stop-gap until OS/2 was fully functional, but then it just sort of took over all the momentum and steam rolled the original plan. Linux was supposed to be a stop-gap kernel until HURD was fully functional and a completely GNU system could be deployed.
Well, that shit isn't ever going to happen, just like OS/2 is never going to rise from the dead to regain its rightful throne as king of the corporate desktop. Shipping isn't everything, and it isn't even enough -- you need to ship at the right time to steal the momentum and draw in a critical mass. Windows did it, Linux did it, and both left a trail of dead bodies in their wake.
But I still prefer BSD...
Re:Ouch. If that's consensus... (Score:5, Interesting)
Except the whole point of Windows 7 is that it's being re-written from scratch to compete with the iPhone (and other multitouch phones.)
I'm with him on 6.5, but that doesn't necessarily mean 7 will also be a huge failure.
Re:Ouch. If that's consensus... (Score:2, Interesting)
"Except the whole point of Windows 7 is that it's being re-written from scratch to compete with the iPhone (and other multitouch phones.)"
Hmmm, lets see.
Netscape re-write? disaster (in a business sense)
Palm re-write? Disaster
I'm sensing a pattern here...
Re:Ouch. If that's consensus... (Score:5, Interesting)
I know nothing about Windows Phone 7 (formerly Windows Mobile, and also distinct from Windows 7), so I can't comment on it. But the review seems to paint a bleak picture of how Microsoft treats end users. By the time WinPhone 7 hits the market, many manufacturers could already be committed to Android or Symbian, leaving Microsoft an also-ran.
What the review doesn't mention is the schizophrenic strategy Microsoft is following on the handheld market: Windows Phone, the Zune, and now Project Pink all overlap, yet none of the devices interoperate with one another. This also doesn't help Microsoft sell its OS to phone manufacturers.
Re:It's a secret plot, and they succeeded! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ouch. If that's consensus... (Score:3, Interesting)
Except the whole point of Windows 7 is that it's being re-written from scratch to compete with the iPhone (and other multitouch phones.)
I'm with him on 6.5, but that doesn't necessarily mean 7 will also be a huge failure.
But 6.5, like 6.1 and 6.0, is basically just a facelift to the years-old 5.0. Since 6.0 was launched, Google, Palm, and RIM have rewritten or created new mobile OSes that can hold their own, and here we have Microsoft slapping yet another veneer on their tired old OS. Why isn't 7 out already? Why can't Microsoft even keep up with everyone else?!
As Gizmodo pointed out [gizmodo.com], the really bizarre thing is that even the Zune is more polished and up-to-date than Windows Mobile. What the hell have the WinMo team been doing for the past five years?!
Re:Runs fine on my TP (Score:4, Interesting)
The UI reponse and stability issues are really all that anyone who owned a WinMobile phone after version 5 complained about.
Oh, really? How about when the phones look like they're on the network, with nice, full signal meters, appearing ready to make/receive calls and send/receive emails, but they actually are doing neither and will not until rebooted? That happened with me with two of the three company-issued WinMo phones* I've used in the past.
Believe me, it's a real treat when you're on-call over a weekend and come Monday morning everyone is asking you why you didn't answer the client emergency calls or respond to the downed server alerts that came in. Well, turns out those are pretty easy to miss when your phone never made a peep. After that happened to me twice I stopped trusting my WinMo phone when I have on-call duty, and started having emergency calls directed to my personal cell phone, and server alert emails sent to my personal mail account when I have on-call duty. This has happened to a few co-workers, too.
For two months now I have had my third company-issued WinMo phone, an HTC Touch Pro running 6.1, and I'll be damned if I'm going to trust it or any Windows Mobile-based phone, regardless of version, after being burned by its predecessors.
~Philly
* HTC PPC6700 running WM6.0 and PPC6800 running 6.1, neither with any software other than what they had out of the box.
Re:6.5 is a minor update, leaked versions a year o (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Direct ascent. (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm not contradicting you, just curious. Is that phones or smart-phones?
It's smartphones. Have you heard of Symbian and S60?
Nokia doesn't seem to be a big player (at least from the anecdotal evidence of "stuff I see people using")
You're most likely in U.S. or Canada. Global market is much bigger than that (remember that EU alone is larger), and plays out differently.
Re:Direct ascent. (Score:4, Interesting)
The mobile market belongs to *nix and Apple. It's just that simple.
Sales figures suggest otherwise.
What Nokia has going for it, is the fact that it gained dominance years ago. Symbians market-share is going down fast, while sales of iPhone is growing fast. The only reason why iPhone does not dominate the market is is the fact that it has been available for just a bit over 2 years. You can't take over a market like this in such a short time.
Symbian is becoming Nokia's VIsta. And they know it too, their new flagship-phone runs Linux, not Symbian.