who else will be jumping ship to android?

[CDRacingZX6R]

I bought the Iphone and had it for about two months. There is nothing wrong with it if your needs are limited to it. It's great for watching movies. It's great for listening to music on (even though I hate Itunes). It's built in functions work as they are supposed to (Alarm, threaded SMS, etc).

And of course, there are even lots of free 3rd party programs if you have jailbroken yours.

But what it lacks in for me, are the deal breakers. It's inability to run a high speed network, makes the the amazing feeling you get when you see a full web page on safari turn into pure hatred as you sit there for 20 minutes loading large sites like IGN.

The built in keyboard function works great for people with smaller hands. So if you find yourself a texting whore like myself, it takes to long to really get anything out there.

It's lack of professional built applications at the moment. (If you want things as simple as check book balancers, document viewing and writing, detailed day planners, etc) It's not there in either the private department through jailbreak, or through apple themselves.

I know that you have to pay for these features to be useful on the PPC.. But you still have that option. With dev kits hitting soon for the iphone, this will change eventually. But right now, there is just far to much software that is out there. To much ability to customize and change, etc that goes with Windows mobile for me to consider going to anything like the iphone again.

Windows Mobile is far from perfect, but the last device I used was windows mobile 2003 (old IPAQ), and to me it has come a long way. Not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but a long way nonetheless.

[SyXbiT]

This wasn't really meant to be a review of relatively new products such as the iPhone, or the unreleased Android.

the point was, if the iPhone is already this good, in its FIRST revision, shouldn't WM be amazing. After all, they've been at it for years.

Microsoft has a HUGE advantage. being there first, having the userbase having the most money etc.. yet, in many ways (not all) the new iPhone, is far superior.
and microsoft will probably take a long time before they release something comparable. maybe WM7 or 8, which are years away.

My main point was, apple and google innovate, microsoft reacts, and reacting always leaves you a year behind

[Genjinaro]

Originally Posted by SyXbiT

This wasn't really meant to be a review of relatively new products such as the iPhone, or the unreleased Android.

the point was, if the iPhone is already this good, in its FIRST revision, shouldn't WM be amazing. After all, they've been at it for years.

Microsoft has a HUGE advantage. being there first, having the userbase having the most money etc.. yet, in many ways (not all) the new iPhone, is far superior.
and microsoft will probably take a long time before they release something comparable. maybe WM7 or 8, which are years away.

My main point was, apple and google innovate, microsoft reacts, and reacting always leaves you a year behind

Wow.....I couldn't agree more. Hell its true.

[TurboFool]

I have to agree with you. I wasn't sure where you were going at first, but you're absolutely right. Windows Mobile is drastically far behind, which is very unfortunate. Microsoft tends to react to something that's out there by first releasing a poor competitor, updating it with a passable competitor, and then surpassing it and taking over the market, but as soon as they kill the competition (let's face it, Palm's been DOA for a while now), they grow stagnant and have trouble repeating their previous success when a new challenger arrives. This happened with IE (IE7 was too little, too late), and so far it's happened with Windows Mobile.

I have hopes for them. I really do. The overall possibilities of WM are strong, and a good version of it that takes into account the design lessons being taught by the competitors is exciting. But for the moment they're been drastically outclassed by the iPhone, despite its major deal-breaking shortcomings. Nobody can put their hands on an iPhone for five minutes and not be impressed by its sheer usability and clean, [relatively] reliable interface. Now use it exclusively for a bit more than five minutes and, if you're like me, the limitations start rearing their ugly heads, but still, if Apple manages to iron those out (although a few will never be improved on because they're just Apple concepts), the iPhone will kill. Microsoft has a lot of work to do to respond to this and I'm not sure it's in them any time soon.

But yes, Android does have this potential. Google has already taken over a lot of aspects of my life that were once run by Microsoft, and I'm far more willing to trust them than Apple. They seem to grasp both the needs for clean, simple, responsive designs while still providing genuine functionality, extensibility, personalization, open standards, and more. Android seems to me like it has the potential to be what the iPhone could have been if it wasn't made by Apple. If they can get that level of hardware quality (multi-touch and the capacitive touchscreen are important aspects of the iPhone experience) and get enough support for the Android I would consider switching, assuming my MS-exclusive needs (pretty much just access to Office documents and Exchange syncing) are met by it, as well.

As for the possibility of loading Android onto our phones, I doubt this will be impossible. HTC's designing Android hardware, and the whole OS is essentially open source. Google certainly will have no complaints with us doing it and will likely leave it wide open to do so, and since HTC's probably not scrapping their basic design concepts and starting fresh for Android, there should be enough similarities to give the good crackers a foothold to port it. I give it less than a month after Android phones hit the market before someone manages to get a barely-functioning version of Android on a Titan and six months before we can run it smoothly.

Now that having been said, by that point I expect some pretty sweet Android-native phones (details on the Dream are, if accurate, very impressive), so I may be more likely to just take the plunge and buy myself a real Android phone as long as the software's where I need it to be.

[dreamerboy]

(To SyXbiT) AMEN BROTHER! You should email your post to some technology blogs as a "letter to the editor."

[pflatlyne]

Originally Posted by otacon72

Android will be to Windows Mobile as Linux is to Windows.....

Reasonably stable,hideously difficult to properly configure for the typical user,poorly supported by commercial applications and confined mostly to the pocket protector crowd?
Actually,Linux has its place,its used for alot of scientific applications,but often your better off with a Mac if you need a unix box. I don't really know alot about Android,but it certainly will be interesting to see Google take on Microsoft. Certainly stiff competition will make phones better in general. Firefox vs IE is certainly a good example.

[timothydonohue]

i had pretty much forgotten about the g-phone hype until reading this thread. so, naturally, i did a quick search (and yes, i used google, although dogpile is much better, lol) and found the sdk immediately (code.google.com).

if i can get my hands on a machine that can swing it, i think android will yield the motherload of sweetness. there're too many bright people that would really be able to whip up some pretty crazy programs. i mean, look at what we're holding in our hands, courtesy of some pretty bright people here and at xda-dev. imagine if we were actually encouraged and supported....

[Genjinaro]

Originally Posted by timothydonohue

(and yes, i used google, although dogpile is much better, lol)

OT:
LOL I had forgotten all about Dogpile, yeah it is awesome. Given its nature, it should be.

[yakky]

I will concede that most WM6 devices, especially the Mogul, have tons of issues. However I don't think MS is to blame. I think much more of the blame lies with HTC and their hardware and drivers. IMO WM6 is pretty reliable, most of the problems arise from third party apps or crappy drivers for crappy hardware. Yes WM6 isn't as flashy but its a pretty decent OS. Does it need to be updated, heck yes. But thinking that a new OS will be more reliable? I'm not falling for that. The reason the Ipone works so well is that there are what, 5 or 6 apps on it? More stuff=more bugs, its that simple.

[aughsum]

Originally Posted by yakky

I will concede that most WM6 devices, especially the Mogul, have tons of issues. However I don't think MS is to blame. I think much more of the blame lies with HTC and their hardware and drivers. IMO WM6 is pretty reliable, most of the problems arise from third party apps or crappy drivers for crappy hardware. Yes WM6 isn't as flashy but its a pretty decent OS. Does it need to be updated, heck yes. But thinking that a new OS will be more reliable? I'm not falling for that. The reason the Ipone works so well is that there are what, 5 or 6 apps on it? More stuff=more bugs, its that simple.

*facepalm*

wm hasn't changed since I had my casiopedia in 2001.. probably before that.

all the moguls problems lie with sprint and ms.. weve determined this numerous times.

htc's hardware is lightyears beyond the software made for it. wm is ancient and sprint overcomplicates things by crippling the basic functionality of the phone.