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T-Mobile Dumps MS SmartPhone
burgburgburg writes "It seems that T-Mobile International, Europe's second largest mobile phone operator, has decided against introducing a Microsoft SmartPhone after all. T-Mobile had announced their plans in February to introduce the MS SmartPhone this summer. Industry insiders say that the software for the phone continued to have 'fundamental problems,' leading to a high failure rate. French mobile carrier Orange introduced a MS SmartPhone, SPV, late last year. It initially had software security problems which Microsoft has claimed are patched."
....That a french cell phone would surrender so easily.
does it run linux?
Just wait for version 3.0 to come out. That'll probably be good enough to whack Nokia and Qualcomm around. Think about it: Windows, Pocket PC, Tablet PC, etc. All of these products didn't really do well until version 3 rolled around. MS usually tries to get a product into a niche just to get experience there. They then spend the next few years figuring out means to really grab hold of the niche, and then they dominate it. That's how it works with them. Not a bad business strategy at all. In fact, it's really good one.
iRooster, the Mac OS X a
I have to admit I'm a little skeptical about it having "security problems." After all, Microsoft is very pro-security. I highly doubt it was their fault that there were security problems.
Last I heard you couldn't even make the phone dial a number straight out of Pocket Outlook.
DUH.
Something went very wrong in the QA chain between Microsoft, the 3rd parties and the mobile telcos when they were trying to rush this out.
I'm sorry, but I'm not really enthused by the idea of having to download "service packs" for my cell phone to protect against some little script kiddie trying to mooch off of my free minutes, or whatever it is that he's trying to get at.
Jesus, it's a frickin PHONE, I can see PDA's, I can see embedded OS's, but trying to cram as much as they are into a phone the size that it is then springing the Microsoftian "security through service packs" is one straw too many.
I'll stuck with having slightly bulging pockets, thanks.
This is a more accurate story entitled "T-Mobile has NOT dumped MS Smartphone, just delayed it a bit".
Also, RCR says:
a T-Mobile spokesman said the carrier had never set a definite date, only that it would begin selling the phone sometime this summer. Spokesman Philipp Schindera said there are software problems with the phone, and that T-Mobile, manufacturer HTC and Microsoft are working to fix those problems. He said the phone has not been delayed, because there are still several months of summer left.
Read reviews of shopping cart software
It initially had software security problems which Microsoft has claimed are patched."
:)
Yeah, connect your smartphone to the SmartWindowsUpdate via GPRS. It only takes about several megabytes(every week) of download(yes in fact that's entire OS replacement) and in view of the present strikely *low* GPRS rate (US$1/kbyte) it won't be too much hassle, will it?
I have seen a MS smart phone being demoed at a recent MS product launch here in Sydney. The phone, apart from working as a standard GSM mobile, uses a GPRS internet connection to also connect to an exchange server (best with MSX 2003). (again this is carrier independent) Besides, for those who have used the XDA (a WINCE with mobile built in) can tell that the difference is only superficial, from a distance anyway)
So, I not exactly sure what this news is all about. It's probably in relation to launching the phone with some extra value-added services usable only with the smartphone.
I wouldn't read too much into it.
According to a study done by our crack research team, people like the color blue. That blue screen they keep talking about is not a reliability problem, it's a feature.
From cellular telephones to console video games to Operating systems. Is there anything they don't make?
Also, the microsoft phones sucking isn't a big surprise. Microsofts M.O. seems to be to release complete crap, get everyones expectations lowered, and when they finally get a good prodcut 5 or 10 years down the road, everyone says look how far they've come!
He who knows not and knows he knows not is a wise man. He who knows not and knows not he knows not is a fool.
when you'll know it's time to resign yourself to being a slahsbot.
At least you've still got +3 points to go. There's still hope! RUN while you STILL CAN!
Industry insiders say that the software for the phone continued to have 'fundamental problems,' leading to a high failure rate.
It initially had software security problems which Microsoft has claimed are patched.
But are those things REALLY bad from a marketing point of view? Everyone who uses MS products would feel right at home!
--- No 16-bit support in Vista? Half of our modules still use it! ---
Do you think the XBox will follow this too? I mean, it seems to be doing decently now (probably #2?) so I can only imagine what a 3rd version of it will do.
This is my digital signature. 10011011001
"hi mom" *CLICK*
Your phone has crashed, please restart and run disk check up before using your MSPhone again Error 8H
Salient points, but you're wasting your time. American fear and jingoism negate actual fact every single time.
Hmmm.
At the end of the msmobiles article:
" Make no mistake: Microsoft is on track to enter cell phone industry big time, and these initial teething problems will be soon over. "
The style is reminescent of perpared speeches and a certain Al-Shaf. Interesting.
http://msmobiles.com/news.php/720.html
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Cell phones require far more resilience then organizers or pocket PCs. For example: Compare the Treo to the Nokia Communicator. While the second is designed as a cell phone with added functionality, the first is primarily an organizer with crammed in phone functionality. I know a number of happy Communicator users, while the number of happy Treo users I know of is precisely zero.
In addition embrace and extend is a philopsophy, which rightfully has zero credibility in the phone business. It's all about (meticulously respected) standards.
ich bin der musikant
mit taschenrechner in der hand
kraftwerk
As the ex-owner of a Psion Revo+ (replaced with a Zaurus), I will say that I expect symbian to dominate the cellphone market.
The Symbian OS (formerly known as EPOC) was designed from the ground up for small devices with small screens. Even the older version that my Revo ran was more feature-rich and polished than any other PDA OS I've touched. Most importantly (for cellphone use) the OS itself was rock solid. I can't remember a single time when I was forced to reboot.
Simply put, Microsoft is offering too little, too late. Most of the major cellphone manufacturers has signed on for Symbian.
Life is too short to proofread.
From Reuters
Here is Microsoft's proud announcement of their partnership with BMW.
... just when I was looking sooooo forward to getting the blue screen of death while on the road!
"He who throws mud, loses ground." - proverb
First, MS has only been successful in things that they can bind to Windows (prime example is MS Office which generates about 40% of MS revenues, a phyrric victory is IE which generates no revenue but was also pushed by the Windows domination), everything else is losing money.
All the following projects have been canceled:
- Windows/Mips
- Windows/PowerPC
- Windows/Alpha
- "HomeR" Project
- Modular Windows
- "Otto" Project (SW for cars; 1992)
- MMOSA (Set-Top-boxes Operating System
- WebTV
- Blackbird/Internet Studio (1995)
- proprietary MSN (Microsoft should have become the sole ISP, remember?)
- COOl (C++ Object Orientated Language)
- PenWindows
- Microsoft Bob
- Ultimate TV
- Hailstorm (2001 - 2002)
Those projects are losing money:
- XBox (revenues declined by 40% in Q1 2003, losses nearly doubled (+96%) http://www.golem.de/showhigh.php?file=/0305/25460
- Non-proprietary MSN
- Mice, keyboards
- Cell phone OS (Stinger)
I don't know where all the "MS will win automatically" people crawl from, if you look at their track record, they have lots and lots of unsuccessful projects.
If you look at the big picture, MS is currently being stripped off everything except their core business (x86-desktop). And wether MS is really able to make the 64-Bit transition is questionable. They are so incompetent in producing something 64Bit that they will lose a lot of people to Linux/Athlon64, even on the desktop.
In the non-graphic embedded market, Linux is already the standard, on cellphones Symbian is the standard and Linux is coming, leaves only PDAs, where Microsoft is still holding out (but there Linux is coming, too).
It is funny.
Microsoft's security is hilarious. Laugh.
"The Orange SPV has not been 'hacked'," Hack wrote.
What a great name for a programmer..
" Make no mistake: Microsoft is on track to enter cell phone industry big time, and these initial teething problems will be soon over. "
The style is reminescent of perpared speeches and a certain Al-Shaf. Interesting."
Microsoft said the same thing with WindowsCE later renamed Windows-powered devices. Look now?
The palm folks laughed but look at palms stock price now? It was $.80 a share the last time I looked! MS took over 75% of the market in less then 2 years! NT and IE owned little if any market share when they first came out. Now look? What about VisualC++? They were nothing compared to Borland and in the mid 90's they just gobbled the market by bundling it with VB also known as MSDN. MSDN is just a fancy name for the VB and VC bundle which was name changed to fool the DOJ. It worked!
The examples go on and on. Eventually MS will get it right and monopolize the market. Bill Gates has an obession with this.
Remember this is Microsoft. They and not the industry set the standards. This is rumoured to even be in Microsoft's mission statement. I do not know if this is true but it certianly sounds like it. Sadly this is true. Anything standard made without bill's or Steve's approval infuriates them to no end. They are crazy.
http://saveie6.com/
http://saveie6.com/
I'm confused.
I underatand why Microsoft's operating systems and word processors and stuff might be buggy: they have to provide legacy support and the hardware configurations can be complex.
However, considering their resources and (I'm assuming) talent... shouldn't they be able to do something like this and have it be pretty sound technology?
I think nowadays even to non-technical people, Microsoft has come to symbolize a product that will work but also let you down in so many ways in terms of quality, security, bugs, price, etc.
ME is a name of a disease: Myalgic Encephalomyelitis. It figures.
Thank you for purchasing the Microsoft Smartphone. Be sure to activate your phone online within 60 days else your phone will be permanently disabled. Also please sign up for our .NET Passport SmartPhone service*
*Disclaimer:
Although we use the terms "security" and "privacy" in much of our press releases, we can guarantee neither. Your personal details and credit card numbers will be safely stored on our secure system which is roughly equivalent to leaving your keys in your car's ignition.
[Clipped from MacInTouch 5/15/03]
Jimmy Grewal followed up on recent notes about a BMW computer bug that trapped the occupant inside his car:
I work for Microsoft (program manager for Mac Internet Explorer), and I own a 2002 BMW 745i. Though the underlying OS the vehicle is running is Windows CE for Automotive, BMW and Siemens VDO wrote all of the software that the car is running: [BMW iDrive press release]
I don't think Microsoft should be blamed for problems with the applications written by others on top of their OS, just as no one blames Apple for the problems users have with third party software on their Macs. Furthermore, the on board computer that is running WinCEfA is used to control the radio, tv, navigation system, telephone, etc (commonly referred to a telematics features). The engine management system, electrical, etc. are controlled by another set of computers that also manage emissions, diagnostics, etc.
The 7-Series does have a lot of issues that BMW needs to address, including major failures like this, but most of those are related to the drive-by-wire systems rather than the navigation/entertainment system that's running WinCEfA. It has its own problems, but those are related to confusing controls and an unintuitive interface
As he said, he intended to troll. But an accident of wording made his comment funny instead.
Why does everyone insist on claiming that linux has taken over the embedded market? What about VXworks? PalmOS? QNX? Are these people quaking in their boots? I don't think so. What about all the special purpose real time OSes that many companies use. Linux isn't the standard in the embedded market any more than it is the standard on the desktop. Yes, it's more popular than it was a couple of years ago, and will probably get more popular with the increase in embedded products which are special purpose PCs like PVRs etc, but this doesn't make it a standard. If you have any figures to even suggest the opposite, I would love to see them.
If I seem short sighted, it is because I stand on the shoulders of midgets
does Billy really care?
What state or combo state lottery ticket do you want to win? Even if you win that lottery ticket, you don't even come close to Billy's wealth.
To the previous poster, you forgot about the consumer. The consumer now knows who and what Microsoft is about, especially big business. Businesses are trying to find all kinds of ways to rid them selves of them licencing fees. To us basement geeks thats easy; open source. The home market has shifted away from pc's and into the 'all encompasing entertainment console' which it seems Sony is the most active in that pursuit.
But jeez, Billy's got so much money, he can't even keep up with giving it away.
Or rather, I've experienced no more bugs than I've had with various Nokia phones I've used in the past.
My only real issues have been:
1. Crap battery life. Just over 3 days standby if you're lucky. (But that said, it's got a backlit screen that's so bright the phone can be used as a torch!)
2. Adding a contact makes a noise when the "Silent" profile is selected.
3. Occasional problems synchronising emails and contacts with Arselook. Easily fixed by re-syncing and not really a problem because I don't use outlook.
4. Occasional menu lagginess
5. Playing MP3's eats battery life. But this is to be expected.
Of course, the bonus of having an SPV is I can play Doom on my mobile!
That said, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before I see the good old BSOD!
Read it again...I posted a MS defense blurb from the MS PM, that was from another site...he didn't 'come onto /.'...
I took the liberty of posting his comment in relation to the BMW story above. And as I said in the title, I'm not impressed by what the MS PM said. Blaming the house fire on the painters may fly in court, but the fact that the foundation cracked, and the breaker box fell off the wall and onto a bucket of open paint, and the paint fire took the house down, is a bit weak, I think.
I bought an Orange SPV - I was annoyed to hell that they locked it from apps developers, but now all thats sorted. I'm very happy with it - does just what I need.
And it plays Doom too.
Just cos it's 'microsoft' everyone rants.
Just a sidenote about msmobiles.com site and their attitude towards different wireless players.
Msmobiles.com is authored by Mr Jacek Rutkowski (jpzr), who got kicked out of Nokia because of industrial espionage and disloyalty. He was in close contact with Microsoft and popular opinion is that he used his position to deliver confidential information to Redmond.
You can notice that he is using the site to vent his anger towards Nokia and to promote his one-sided pro-MS views.
I do not know all the details behind his firing, but I used to work with him so the information is correct.
Here where I live the Smartphone was officially introduced yesterday, and I've been using one for 24 hours now.
Say what you want about Microsoft, but this time I feel that their 1.0 product is very polished. I've not expirienced any instability, but perhaps I haven't used it enough yet.
Anyway, the user interface is much simpler, more to the point and more usable than competing Smartphone-ish operating systems, as the ones found on Ericsson P800 and Nokia 7650.
It's difficult to describe, really, but it's simpleness - with natural but (in this context) innovative functions as a home button and a back button on the keyboard - really makes it stand out. The browser "home" and "back" metaphor is uses throughout the OS.
I can't say I've often had this experience with a mobile phone (and I'm not sure that it's a good thing, money wise), but this made me _want_ to use it! *Much*. For mail (the Inbox is surprisingly good), for messaging (it has both SMS and MSN Messenger, as well as MMS), for contacts, for appointments, etc.
For years I've carried around both a Palm and a Nokia cell phone, but this is the first hybrid product that's a serious contender to the Palm.
The major gripe is Microsoft's ActiveSync software. I've never been able to make ActiveSync sync successfully with anything. It works the first few times, then it stops wanting to sync altogether. This happened with my HP Jornada 720, later happened with the original Compaq IPaq and now it happens with this phone.
It's a major let down. But the phone in itself is a joy to use.
Quote:But Hack explained that the two methods of avoiding the phone's security will not turn the world's 1.2 billion cell phones into a breeding ground for crippling viruses. The gaps developers discovered still do not let them commandeer the phone's radio, the only way to dispatch a virus to other phones, Hack said.
They need a carrier to subsidize it so the price comes down.
The palm folks laughed but look at palms stock price now? It was $.80 a share the last time I looked! MS took over 75% of the market in less then 2 years!
;-)
According to this article from Gartner it's more like:
PalmOs: 55.2%
Windows CE (sic): 25.7%
That's as of January.
PC World has similar numbers:
PalmOS: 48.6%
Pocket PC: 30%
That's as of October.
What was your source of info again? And did you wash afterwards?
-chris
San Francisco values: compassion, tolerance, respect, intelligence
Sendo: Britain's mobile maverick
UK mobile firm snubs Microsoft
Sendo sues Microsoft
Microsoft hits back in mobile row
"HomeR" Project
- Modular Windows
- "Otto" Project (SW for cars; 1992)
I wonder if the "Otto" project was an attept to drive away the Apple Lisa.
what? what I thought we were in the trust tree in the nest, were we not?
It took them at least 5 major release to get DOS right finally with v5.5.
It took them at least 6/7 major versions to get C(C++) right.
Its taken then 9 or 10 versions to get windows right with XP (v1,v2,v2.2,v3,v3.11,NT,95,NT3.5,98,NT3.5,ME) and finally XP.
It took them 5 major versions to get IE right and they throw it away with version 6.
And these where their core products.
Something they've never got *right*, Office (Outlook,Word,Access), IIS, Frontpage Outlook/Exchange, J++.
In some cases they took-over a right product and still got it wrong, i.e. FoxPro.
Where did it go today?
The Bush administration's motives for conducting the war are becoming increasingly suspect; apart from the real lack of any concrete evidence of a massive chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons programs in Iraq, senior members of the administration are begining to say that it's not important to find weapons.
Indeed, at least one piece of evidence presented by secretary Powell to the UN, indicating Iraqi attempts to purchase nuclear material from Nigeria was, upon inspection by those not in the US government, discovered to be a very bad fake. Not to say that the actual forgery was performed by the US, but the quality of the forgery was such that it is reasonable to conclude that the mistake was intentional.
You see, this was was not about WMDs. It was the implementation of an idea that has been percolating in the minds of neoconservatives for years now, to reorient US foriegn policy towards a militarily dominant position and up defense spending. It was a grab oil in the region; it's telling that the oil fields started working again long before the water came back in most cities.
It was also an attempt to distract and decieve. Distract people from the shitty state of the economy, and decieve people into thinking that concrete action was being taken to ensure the security of the US. The speed at which Saddam Hussein's government crumbled, and the fact that they didn't use chemical or biological weapons to fend off an attack that was sure to topple the government, and the total absense of weapons after the war is over - these three facts make it clear that the Bush administration vastly overstated the case.
The country was not directly threatened by Hussein. Hell, his immediate neighbors were probably safe from him. I was suprised that there were no weapons. But the Bush administration should not have been. Either the intelligence really sucked, or the administration was so hot to go to war that weaknesses in the argument were knowingly glossed over to suit the argument. Either case is disturbing; the second one is criminal.
Finally, this whole adventure really served one main purpose: the unnecessary carrier landing. That will appear again in the elections. This whole thing was a photo op, was a political tool. We're no safer. And the Bush administration will lie and overstate things to obfuscate that fact. But it remains none the less true.
So no, France would not have shown balls by joining us. Yeah, they had commerical interests. The Bush administration, however, had them too, along with numerous other ones. And they've showed an incredible willingness to warp the truth to suit them.
I have a Samsung i330, it was the only PDA phone that I could find that would work with my Powerbook and my existing Sprint number (only number that I gave out for about 3 or 4 years).
It absolutely SUCKS! Now, as someone that fails to carry much around, it's useful... now I have a PDA the 85% of the time I remember my cel phone. However, as a phone it blows. Everytime the software crashes, I lose my voice dialing settings. Without voice dialing, the lack of a real keypad is a killer.
I'll admit, actually carrying around a PDA is really useful, but the smart devices all suck.
A blackberry addict at another company that we work closely with LOVES his Blackberry phone. However, the thing is awful.
Yeah, we all are willing to suffer because we need more communications, but don't doubt for a moment that these devices REALLY, REALLY, REALLY suck.
The problem is that everyone throws tech at the problem, and the UI suffers. My phone is a PDA first and a phone second, that's REALLY, REALLY, REALLY annoying.
MS will not likely "win" in the cel market, it's not their bread and butter. The MS strategy is "cheap" and "good enough." PocketPC hasn't deplaced Palm DESPITE Palm's idiotic moves because they haven't been cheap. They are, however, "good enough," and many people buy the more "full-featured" device, whether they need/want it or not.
Extra features on phones need to be well integrated... they aren't...
Alex
`Persuade' service providers to offer their phones, by dangling money in front of their noses. The cellular providers like Sprint and Verizon are in a brutally competitive market, and every little helps. If MS offers them a hundred million dollars to feature MS phones, you can bet your ass that they will do it. In fact, they have used exactly this tactic to get Sprint to supply MS phones. MS can do this because of their desktop monopoly, and 60% margins. The profit margin of a cell-phone manufacturer is under 5%, and they cannot afford to throw money away like this.
Magnus.
PWNED!!!
Industry insiders say that the software for the phone continued to have 'fundamental problems,' leading to a high failure rate.
High failure rate? Bah! It isn't anything that wasn't cleared up with a simple reboot!!!
As for Windows Media Player -- I'm not even sure what Microsoft's goals were for that. ;)
WMP is a multi-pronged strategy. First, it helps cut off the Apple publishing/video editing platform leakage. Secondly it cuts off the air supply to other video format vendors/producers (such as Real Networks) by making those external products surplus to requirements for the average user. The Window Media formats hold the potential to control the encodings and base formats of a large amount of digital video in the future and thereby increase vendor lockin.
Funnily enough, this is a very similar strategy to the IE vs Netscape strategy. Establish a base in the core product that displaces external vendors and acheive market share as a result. Expect the same sort of maneouvre with SQL Server 2000 (or at least parts of the core engine) - it's already been seen in several places (MS VS.Net, MS Visio).
Cheers,
Toby Haynes
Anything I post is strictly my own thoughts and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the opinions of IBM.
There is a fundamental problem in WinCE which causes 90% of all the issues people see with these devices. The problem is that WinCE has poor memory management. Theoretically the OS is supposed to manage all memory aspects from stopping running apps to free memory to dynamically loading and unloading DLL's. The most serious problem however is that it restricts the amount of memory available to a DLL to 16 MB. On devices like the HP 5450 and these T-Mobile Smart Phones, this becomes a problem because of the numerous integrated devices the OS has to support. The 5450 has WiFi, Bluetooth and Biometrics which fill up 12 of the 16MB of available memory. As a result, user applications like Adobe Acrobat do not have enough memory to load their linked libraries. The only solution is to jump through hoops managing the memory manually and to disable unused devices like Bluetooth or the Biometrics (which negates getting to the device to begin with!).
.NET comes out which is due sometime this summer.
A solution to this problem is not due until WinCE
Its unfortunate that this problem exists. It has apparently been caused by these PocketPC devices growing in size too quickly for the OS. Talk about growing pains...
Since I'm sitting in my hotel room with my Powerbook connected to my Treo for internet access (about 2x modem speeds), I'd have to disagree.
By far the greatest thing about my treo is the ability for me to use *real* internet (not dumbed down, behind the firewall stuff) directly over it's internet connection. And since Sprint's internet access is a flat rate each month, I get unlimited internet over the thing.
Sure, browsing the web directly on the treo isn't quite the greatest, but doing SSH, email, and Mozilla on my laptop through it is really something.
MS is also the name of a disease: Microsof...er, Multiple Sclerosis.
Some great quotes from the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation website: "Common symptoms of MS include fatigue, weakness, spasticity, balance problems, bladder and bowel problems, numbness, vision loss, tremors and depression...More than 90% of men and 70% of women with MS report some change in their sexual life after the onset of the disease. Some problems include decreased sexual drive, impaired sensation, diminished orgasmic response, and loss of sexual interest."
And I thought having to reboot three times a day was bad! (My sympathies go out to those with the non-computerized form of MS, esp. Dean K.).
If it's anything like the PocketPC phone I tried, it's horribly clunky and overtly complex. It's like a tiny Windows XP box, which can look cute at first, but it falls down flat for a small device.
D
Remember, friends don't let friends use Microsoft products.
[Nelson voice]
Ha Haa!
[/Nelson voice]
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
HEY!!!
You must not be patriotic if you're talking like that! And if you're not with us, you're against us(resident idiot George W. Bush told us so!), so if you think that the facts are nessessary....you are supporting and comforting Saddam in Iraq!!!!!!
It's been a long time.
Using MS on a phone might turn the infamous Blue Screen of Death into a literal Scream of Death if you had to call 911.....not a fun thought.
Which would make an effective commercial for a company whose competitors use MS stuff.
According to this article the phone was delayed, not dumped... There is a difference.
The UN is dumb anyway. Having a world government only works if it has some level of authority.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
omg smartpfone canceled torlf
yeah... so being $bns in defecit and aborting UN decisions is being the muscle huh?
...world government...
I am ashamed of the US attitude to the UN... how can a global order succeed if at the behest of one powerful natons?
> The US is dumb anyway.
??? In what way sir, or are you appealing to the trailer trash? The UN is very canny, just its opinions do not always align with the US's own interests
>
The UN is not a world government. Perhaps you want the US to be a world government? Is authority anologious to military power... if so you are a sad sad simple simple person
The software has fundamental problems.
They were going to pick software from Microsoft, and it took them that long to notice it had 'fundamental problems'?? Have these people used any MS OSes between 1982 and 2001??
It isn't hard to imagine that a Microsoft-'powered' cel phone would all in all fucking suck hell on a stick.
Juln
And she's not dumped me. She only asked for a little more time to answer about my proposal...
Ok... opening myself up for flames for admitting not reading all the replies... and ranting... ... but it is beyond me why anyone would use any M$ product/service with all of the bloody security holes in everything the seem to produce.
[shrug]
[back to your regularly scheduled post readin']
"I'm not ashamed I can't function in society like I'm supposed to." - Paul Westerberg
So Sony is an unmovable object? Obviously even?
Do you even (ever?) read the news?
You sound very much like an optimistic Microsoft SalesPerson(tm), or somebody who owns a little bit too much stock of it.
--- Hindsight is 20/20, but walking backwards is not the answer.
Did you say MS just bought Symbian?
You are correct - I was in fact referring to the Pocket PC Phone Edition. Based on my admittedly limited experience, it's a genuinely; awful product.
I'm glad for your sake the MS Smartphone is better, but I can't say I really want the MS monopoly to take over the phone world. Fortunately, based on The Register's stories, it doesn't look like it will.
D