Are WM based phones doomed to fail by nature of the beast?

[tharris297]

I've been a faithful apache user for about a year. And I must admit, that even though I have been faithful ... it has been painful at times. Bluetooth this, SD card that, Memory leak this, Patch that. NO matter if its old with many versions of the rom (aka AKU versions of WM5) or hacked versions of the newer OS (THANKS SO VERY MUCH FOR THE WM6 EFFORTS BY ALL PPCGEEKS THAT WERE AND ARE INVOLVED and also thanks go out to ALL persons that have contributed ROM or OEM or CAB or Registry entry or anything to make this phone work as advertised!!!).

But I am not sure if the highly customizable, highly hackable, secretly Open format of the HTC roms is the downfall of the system. Unlike linux, it seems that everyone is working on there own version ... and individually things are being worked out ... individually ... but not the way an Open source should. The fixes are not routed back to the source (they dont want it) so we get to play with our phones and still get partial fixes here and there. We get the wow factor of WM6 ... with the same old Bluetooth issues that has plagued at least me from AKU 2.X.

My question is this ... are Wm based phones doomed not to work, due to being forced out of the womb to quick? With out real testing and with the various parts that make it up, HTC, Microsoft, Broadcom, whoever else, not working together to fix the problems, but are rather working to get the next versions out so that they can keep up with the others?

Its time for me to upgrade my xv6700 ... but I just refuse to pay for the same problems just to get more memory.

I know this is a ran of sorts, and probably will get a few flames back ... thats ok.

[schettj]

Nope, not doomed to fail. Just what they are - MS products.
If you need em, you need em - if not the choice is Crapple (pass) or Symbian (ok, but rather British) or Palm (talk about dead and buried) or a closed java phone (pass)

I guess I am wondering what you see as the alternative. The Google Phone? Yeah, maybe, but that should end up looking like an officially sanctioned version of what we get with the kitchens for Apache now

[tharris297]

I don't know ... my attempt to correlate WM hacking to Open source projects like Linux was not a complete correlation. I guess what i comes down to is if it works for ya (like ya said) use it.

I have not heard any feedback on the i760. I know that from reading posts ... that Samsung is notoriously close to hacking. Some say because their phones are not as freely available as HTC products. But if the Bluetooth works (and I am not sure if it does) and AD2P and etc, then why would those fixes not be fowarded to MS so they can fix it. Does MS really care if Bluetooth works or not? I'm not sure.

This is a rant type discussion, but it seems that if you purchase any WM based device, no matter what year or type, its like you purchased a 67 Mustang that you never really completely get restored.

On the otherhand ... the WM smartphones seem to be ok. My wife has a Q and I had a Q here at my job (Got a Blackberry for work now). I set the Q's bluetooth and sync using exchange and it seems that except for poor battery life (works a lot better with the registry setting found here at PPCgeeks), it works as it should. Her Bluetooth never disconnects. It just works all the time.

But it seems a lot harder to "hack". I don't see roms for it, etc. And this is what I am basing my theories about the open design or easily hackability of the PPC.

What I want ... is a phone that out of the box that just works as advertise. No hacking ... no Kitchens ... but just works as advertised. All I want to do is purchase an occasional piece of software for it.

[Certs]

WM will fail ONLY if something comes out that is better.

Maybe it will be mobile osx with 3G and the SDK, maybe not. Maybe Android, maybe the new Palm-linux OS, maybe not. But WM has a ton of features (and apps) that have to be matched by their competitors.

I'm not saying it won't be done, but you have to remember we put up with these bugs/leaks/freezes for a pretty good reason!

[tharris297]

Originally Posted by patmannyc

but you have to remember we put up with these bugs/leaks/freezes for a pretty good reason!

This is very true!

Its time for me to upgrade, and I am just trying to justify not getting a non wm phone like the voyager over waiting for Verizon's Touch (will definatly be this time next year before its released LOL). My biggest issue is that i'm on the road a lot and its tuff talking on my bluetooth and then it just disconnects. Its like the one feature that I need the most, second is exchange server support, but that a distance second now that I have a blackberry.

[schettj]

Originally Posted by tharris297

What I want ... is a phone that out of the box that just works as advertise. No hacking ... no Kitchens ... but just works as advertised. All I want to do is purchase an occasional piece of software for it.

You want an iPhone. Seriously. Not the first gen phone, but whatever apple puts out next year.

That's exactly their mission statement.

Microsoft's mission statement is 'Microsoft experience in a handheld' If that's not what you are looking for, you will not be satisfied. If it is, you'll put up with the pain

[No1ustad]

Microsoft's experience in a handheld?? Oh god, looking at Vista, what should I expect for the WM 6.1 official release?