How Microsoft blew it with Windows Mobile

[thejacer]

here we go, lets do this. instead of talking about how wm crashed and burned lets thank MS for what it did right. innovation (oh no! someone referring to innovation and not talking about iphones **barely** finger friendly grid of square icons?!). thanks MS for giving us a persistant, CONSISTENT, dependable medium for communicating all of our important business material while on the go. thanks for inspiring all of this competition.

but MS wasnt the first. and apple actually only came into the game 2 years later. but apple died out in 98. they couldnt compete. and 98 isnt so far back...its recent enough to make this iphone craze apples second coming. so lets look at who REALLY dropped the ball. MS hasnt had to give up yet. MS gave the consumers what they wanted/needed when it mattered and stayed consistent. who would have guessed that their client base would ditch funcionality for mediocrity and fart machines.

[x10guy]

Originally Posted by thejacer

here we go, lets do this. instead of talking about how wm crashed and burned lets thank MS for what it did right. innovation (oh no! someone referring to innovation and not talking about iphones **barely** finger friendly grid of square icons?!). thanks MS for giving us a persistant, CONSISTENT, dependable medium for communicating all of our important business material while on the go. thanks for inspiring all of this competition.

but MS wasnt the first. and apple actually only came into the game 2 years later. but apple died out in 98. they couldnt compete. and 98 isnt so far back...its recent enough to make this iphone craze apples second coming. so lets look at who REALLY dropped the ball. MS hasnt had to give up yet. MS gave the consumers what they wanted/needed when it mattered and stayed consistent. who would have guessed that their client base would ditch funcionality for mediocrity and fart machines.

I'm not sure what you are saying. Are you saying that it was the consumer dropped the ball for not supporting Microsoft? Windows Mobile is a nice platform .... like 4 years ago. No one disputes that in general Windows Mobile works fine. It just is too late and too slow in innovation and UI development. What company who controlled the handheld OS market for 7 years, allows one company to leapfrog it in less than 1 year?

WinMo is not going away, but I'll still stick to my prediction that it will be a Android/iPhone/BB world in a year or so.

[neuteboomt]

If it is going to be a android/iPhone/BB world in a year I going to be like the kid dressed in 80's cloth in the 90's. I do not a big fan of any of these platforms. The iPhone was nice when it came out. I loved the screen size and the ability to scroll but now I have that with WM, I am still trying to find out what makes Android so different, and the BB has not changed much since it came out. I guess I am happy with WM and everything I can change with it to the point I am not changing anytime soon.

[thejacer]

Originally Posted by x10guy

I'm not sure what you are saying. Are you saying that it was the consumer dropped the ball for not supporting Microsoft? Windows Mobile is a nice platform .... like 4 years ago. No one disputes that in general Windows Mobile works fine. It just is too late and too slow in innovation and UI development. What company who controlled the handheld OS market for 7 years, allows one company to leapfrog it in less than 1 year?

WinMo is not going away, but I'll still stick to my prediction that it will be a Android/iPhone/BB world in a year or so.

just saying it was a market sway. even if microsoft had foreseen consumers would want a toy over a useful phone i don't think they could have seen enterprise users in such large numbers would make that trade. and just wanted to point out: windows mobile isn't the first mobile os to decline sharply. the apple newton was fairly popular but its failure to produce a halfa** workable handwriting program and other things lead to their demise after 6 years of being a top contender in the field. a little sick of reading how wm is failing due to lack of innovation (and ive never read what type of innovation or any type of suggestions for that matter, other than more finger friendly) which is exactly where apple failed at first. maybe MS will do better after they hit rock bottom. but i dont call anything the iphone has to offer innovative OR desirable for that matter.

of course maybe i haven''t spoken to the right person, what iphone features do you all call innovative anyway? and maybe what innovative features would you like to see MS include. i know it must be difficult to innovate without any direction.**and of course ive used an iphone**

[x10guy]

I think you guys are misunderstanding my post. I said Winmo is NOT going away. I myself have been a dedicated use since the days it was called Windows CE. So I am actually a bit biased towards it.

But I'm just saying, Microsoft has lost the lead in the handheld market and probably will never get it back. You can hate all the other makers all you want, but that is just reality.

[DavidinCT]

Originally Posted by x10guy

I think you guys are misunderstanding my post. I said Winmo is NOT going away. I myself have been a dedicated use since the days it was called Windows CE. So I am actually a bit biased towards it.

But I'm just saying, Microsoft has lost the lead in the handheld market and probably will never get it back. You can hate all the other makers all you want, but that is just reality.

I was too, I started this with a HPC PocketPC 1.0 (NEC MobliePro 400 that I still have and works fine).

Microsoft didn't blow it, PocketPC/Windows Mobile always had it's market, just never really big (that is mostly due to it's marketing, never too much). They have been making the OS for PDAs and phones for many years now. It really appealed to corporate people who wanted something different than a blackberry and gave great Exchange/Office support out of the box. People who own them, tend to love them once they know them if they can live with the minor flaws (battery life is still one of it's major issues on most phones).

The iPhone is a love/hate thing for me. I've used it, it's nice, it's really fast but, it's just a simple app launcher in a fancy package, I was never impressed and I'm not a mac fanboy so, the "mac" thing didn't drag me over. In this case I hate it.

After what the iPod did to the MP3, you didn't have to be a marketing major to know the iPhone would do really well.

The thing I love about the iPhone is what it did for the market, Microsoft needs to step up it's game a lot to keep afloat here and they know it. The iPhone gave features that many of us has dreamed about for years in a very small package (thin) and really opened up on the touch screen feeling, not just by using a stylus and also the fact that it's almost moron proof.

This has opened eyes at Microsoft, WM 6.5 is a start, it's finally moving in the right direction. The specs for a WM 7 phone are better than the iPhone current offerings, so if they get WM 7 right and not just towards the corporate market(but, not blacklisting them) but, to the hip younger croud, they might make it.

Microsoft if your listening....They need to get WM 7 right and spend some big $$$$ on advertising when it's released. Every phone(model) that is approved needs to go through some major tests before before it can be a WM7 phone.

I think if they miss out on WM 7, it's days are numbered. This is one they can't afford to mess up again. We really need WOW with this one....