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Microsoft to Attack RIM with Magneto
An anonymous reader writes "At this week's Mobile and Embedded DevCon (MEDC) in Las Vegas, it's anticipated that Microsoft will finally unveil 'Magneto', widely expected to be dubbed Windows Mobile 2005. Magneto is rumored to merge the Pocket PC and Smartphone versions of Windows Mobile into a single platform that combines smartphone and PDA capabilities. Consistent with that strategy, Pocket Office will reportedly be renamed Office Mobile, with other key apps similarly redesignated Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, PowerPoint Mobile, and Outlook Mobile."
They're using an old X-Men villain to fight RIM?
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
Professor X unavailable for comment.
And tomorrow the stock exchange will be the human race
Maybe I should have known that but I didn't..
can they trust him?
Well, given the name, I expect that they'll be able to generate powerful magnetic fields and hatching nafarious plots. Apparently, Microsoft feels that the human demographic is no longer a viable source of income, and therefore must be wiped out to make way for the Homosuperiors.
Not, cooler, but it keeps with Microsoft's corporate vision, "be more evil each day."
Mod me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine!
So will Linux release mobile "Professor X", only to have the two OS's mutant API's do battle to save or destory mankind?
Blackberry is a great product. Not quite mainstream enough to be interesting to the 'big boys'. RIM isn't big enough to fight off Microsoft. If Microsoft decides to take a loss on this for a while then RIM is toast just like WordPerfect and Lotus.
Too bad. RIM just got through fighting, losing and paying for a patent law suit. Yet, I don't think all the patents in the world will protect them from Microsoft.
...the submitter could come up with about this new version was that they changed the name of Pocket Office to Office Mobile?
:)
Well, at least it continues the travesty that is PocketPC in good fashion
...Stan Lee sues Microsoft.
Circumcision is child abuse.
This is a good thing, since it will bring more devices to the market Familiar runs on. At least I hope so.
Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh.
I've been waiting for MS to merge the Pocket PC and Smartphone versions of Windows Mobile for a while. Having used Dell's Axim x50v, I have to say that it is a great (and relatively inexpensive) PDA. It is very fast, has a large screen and offers many expansion choices. Also, it runs a ton of WinCE apps. One major drawback - it lasts only a fraction of time compared to an average cell phone. However, if "Magneto" (ok, the name is cheesy) were to add a "hibernate" funtion which wakes PDA up on incoming phone call, that would really make battery last *much* longer (so you don't need to keep it on to receive calls). I think that MS is in a good strategic position to take on RIM because it recently became the #1 PDA OS shipped. http://www.physorg.com/news4003.html
"You mortals are so obtuse." -Q
The interesting part isn't the renaming it's where they "merge the Pocket PC and Smartphone versions of Windows Mobile into a single platform that combines smartphone and PDA capabilities". Needing to come up with a name for the new combined product is just a side effect.
I'd rather be lucky than good.
Shut the fuck up already. Every cellphone-related story has a few idiots like you bitching about modern technology, while ignoring the fact that every major phone manufacturer has an extensive lineup of budget phones with black&white or greyscale screens and almost no extra (useless) features. They aren't going to turn into Windows Mobile smartphones overnight. Go buy a $60 new phone and quit complaining.
My i600 currently is running Smartphone 2003. Being that it packs some beefy hardware for a phone (I ran the orginal Quake on it), I'm curious to know if MS will provide Verizon with an upgrade for users.
For the record, Smartphone 2003 was always sluggish and would crash. However, when I turned off the sound effects on the phone, all these issues went away and found it to be much more responsive. I suspect the media player components and/or codec is bugged. I hope the 2005 version provide major improvements in the GUI and sound effect response.
Life is not for the lazy.
I wonder ... some things have managed to make a very strong market share out of something or invention that was not understood, or had shaky legal basis in the past. Like was said here, what is the market (in units) for PDA's? What is the market for hand-size mobile computing?
There are several companies out there that keep hammering away at this market (even though it is not very big or profitable) and eventually, we will all become unimpressed with phones that don't have calendars, address books, do text messaging etc.
I guess that my point is this: does anyone see where this is going? Can anyone accurately predict what protocols, air interfaces, and file format standards will end up winning in this (now) mobile free for all?
I predict that the sheer size and market control that M$ has will play more than a significant role in this. To the point that I think anti-trust laws should be used to address anything M$ becomes involved in.... more or less. Not that I have any real fear that Excel will become a useful mobile application anytime before Cray starts making PDAs'
There are currently so many competing wireless interfaces and protocols, I don't see how anyone getting into the game can imagine they will make money unless they believe that they will be able to manhandle the market place and simply be able to metaphorically bludgeon the competition to death.
RIM started small, and with what I think was a sound business model. As they make their move into the more consumer oriented marketplace, it is a shame that they will have to fight M$ just to get in the game...
My real fear is that in the future you won't be able to get a phone without windozeXX on it, or be able to use any air interface not supported by M$ pocket-mobile-crap software.
I know that sounds a little defeatist, but I don't see any strong competition to M$... sigh
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Well I was talking last night .
.
.
. .
Magneto and titanium man . .
We were talking about you, babe,
Oo --- they said ---
You were involved in a robbery
That was due to happen
At a quarter to three
In the main street.
I didn?t believe them
Magneto and titanium man . .
But when the crimson dynamo
Finally assured me, well, I knew
You were involved in a robbery
That was due to happen
At a quarter to three
In the main street.
So we went out
Magneto and titanium man . .
And the crimson dynamo
Came along for the ride
We went to town with the library
And we swung all over that
Long tall bank in the main street
Well there she were and to my despair
She?s a five-star criminal
Breaking the code
Magneto said now the time come
To gather our forces and run!!!
Oh no . . . . .
This can?t be so . . . . .
And then it occurred to me!
You couldn?t be bad
Magneto was mad!
Titanium too!
And the crimson dynamo
Just couldn?t cut it no more
You were the law . . . . . .
The key issue is trademark is the issue of confusion.
Fight Spammers!
You shut the fuck up. I'm also of the camp that beleaves that a phone is, and should remain, a phone.
Listen, the simple fact is that unless a new interface is brought out that changes how we can use our phones, then 'features' such as 3g will remain expensive white elephants.
We've had video phones in the uk for years now, and no one uses them. Yet we are still pitched the service by dogged companies who's managment cannot accept or admit that they spent billions on dead in the water lisences.
If magnets can kill your hard drives and monitors, just think about what he could do to them...
Goo goo g'joob.
Is there any remote chance that you will be able to upgrade from Windows Mobile 2003? If not, then it'll be a long time before large numbers of people actually start using this.
Every time you post an article on Slashdot, I kill a server. Think of the servers!
but it'll be a cold day in hell before I rely on Windows to deliver those things.
Are we now going to see Sobig.Mobile?
To be ever so slightly serious, Windows Mobile as a smartphone platform isn't really too bad, wspecially when you're already in a Windows shop. I just deployed some of the Verizon/Audiovox 6600 phones for a client of mine that runs MS SBS 2003 as their server platform (a small accounting firm), and they absolutely love them. The phones are a little bulky, but phone performance is good, data performance and mobile sync work very well, and it only took me a little while to set them up with the server. And they work pretty simply, with decent battery life as phones.
I wouldn't replace my Sony Ericsson T637 with anything in the current generation (particularly because I use iSync), but when you want your PDA and your cellphone to be in the same device Microsoft is doing a decent job of it.
Even though it pains me to say that about them - but once in a while Microsoft pretty much Gets It Right with a product. The PocketPC OS is pretty good, Mac Office is very nice (except for the monolithic database file Entourage uses), and SBS 2003 is pretty good for the smaller company with limited Internet exposure.
And odds are that the new PocketPC/Windows Mobile 2005 won't suck.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Even though Microsoft has tons of money to spend, I think they will have a tough time beating the Blackberry.
... Sorry :)
I always thought PocketPC was kind of bloated, and suffered poor battery life mostly because Microsoft doesn't manufacture or develop the hardware as well.
However, RIM develops both the hardware and software ( with some minor exceptions ) and this makes it easier to make things efficient and more reliable. It's also the clean interface, you've got icons, a thumbpad and a trackwheel, I don't deed a bloody fingerprint scanner, or 3D acceleration to keep up with my daily schedule. This simplicity is what helped the low-end palm devices and the iPods sell very well.
The only weakness I see for RIM is MS Exchange. The Blackberry Enterprise Server(BES) works with the MS Exchange server to keep things in sync. I don't know if it would be legal for Microsoft to do this, but if Exchange suddenly refused to stop working with the BES, it might spell trouble for RIM.
Being a University of Waterloo student, I myself am rooting for RIM as they're a Canadian company and they're set up right next to campus.
I just hope the developers there get to keep their RIM-jobs.
Never underestimate the dark side of the Source
I would like to get a RIM: small keyboard, easy to type notes, addresses, to do lists on, etc.
The problem is the cost. The devices cost the companies that buy them from RIM hundreds must be expensive to buy. A company I work for buys them close to the selling cost, in the hopes of recuperating the cost on service plans. So the units are still around $500 to $600 CAN. And you have to sign up for a 3-year plan.
I think RIM needs to do higher volume on residential, non-business sales to survive.
If MS enters the market I can see a few things:
1) Either RIM lowers the price drastically, or, if they're lucky MS will price itself out of the market. Otherwise, its sink or swim with the 800 lb Gorilla. (Yes, comparison to Ballmer being made!).
2) MS continues vendor lock-in. Good luck getting this to work on OS X or Linux.
I hope RIM innovates and doesn't die. Its a really cool, profitable Canadian high-tech company.
I'm surprised nobody's put this link here yet but... http://www.mobile-review.com/pda/articles/wm2005-m agneto-en.shtml
This is a link to a preview of a Magneto beta build.
You can also download it for the XDA 2 [HTC Blue Angel] at http://forum.xda-developers.com/
Have fun!
The key reason why RIM has been so successful is because of their network architecture. RIM has the capability to trickle emails down to a device. Since the device is always connected to the network they have the ability to constantly receive these messages. The way the PocketPC devices are built they are not meant to be always connected to a network and if you did you would likely only get about 4-6 hours battery life. When you compare that to > one week for a RIM device there is no comparison.
I do like that Microsoft is making an alternative to the BlackBerry, I do not think that they will be much competition for RIM unless they build a network architecture like RIM's and they look into the battery life issues.
Adventure City Tours
Yes, my company does a lot of Blackberry development, and we also do Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) hosting, and it supports Groupwise and Lotus.
And yes, it happily supports POP3 access too. But dang, that BES is nice. Complete control over the phones, remote administration, just really, really nice.
Random Musings
- Some nasty Samsung phone back in the mid-90s
- A Nokia 5190 (for which I had a faceplate that matched my indigo iBook G3, the toilet seat edition)
- A Nokia 8290, still one of my favorite phones ever
- A Nokia 3390, which I never really liked (too big)
- Another 8290...
- An Ericsson T28 Worldphone (hands-down worst UI I've ever seen on a phone, but at least I could make calls from Italy on it)
- A 1st gen Danger Sidekick (actually, I had four of them... They kept dying on me)
- A Motorola Mpx200 running Smartphone 2002
- An Audiovox SMT 5600 (aka Typhoon) running Windows Mobile 2003
And I've never been happier with any phone than I am with the SMT 5600. It's fast, stable, and feature-rich. It's totally changed my perspective on how I interact with my phone, since I am now completely dependent on it for reading new emails and finding out where my next meeting is, instead of having to yank out my laptop and pop into Outlook. I think for a lot of users it's overkill, but in the corporate environment it literally changes the way you interact with business information. I love it, and it will only be replaced by another Windows Mobile phone someday.That said, I am pretty envious of the visual styling on the Moto Razr; those things are incredibly cool. But being able to sync to an Exchange server, and write C#-based managed applications in Visual Studio 2005 for my phone are totally killer features in my book.
I'm really looking forward to the day when I can just keep my music on my phone, or stream it over the network via gprs, instead of having to keep my iPod on me at all times.
And yes, I do work for Microsoft. And I do work on Visual Studio, so take my words with whatever grain (or grains) of salt you feel necessary. That said, I really do feel like the products we have in the marketplace today in this space are really cool, and well-worth looking into, especially since Cingular decided to keep carrying the SMT 5600 after their ATT merger.
No, but I used to work for Microsoft.
Based on my past experience with running PocketPC software, Mr Freeze might be a better codename.
Of course, that would mean switching to the Batman world. If we're staying with X-Men, then the Iceman could substitute.
(Not really trying to troll. I use my iPAQ every day. It's just the apps I use have a habit of leaking memory and needing a soft reset with the stylus fairly frequently.)