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Does Microsoft Finally Have a Phone Worth Buying?
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has finally shown 'Windows Phone 7 Series' and it's supposed to be a completely new smartphone OS. A phone from Microsoft to get excited about that is going to work properly and take on the iPhone's world domination? "
Until you can buy one at the store, it's another piece of vaporware from Microsoft.
Like the difference between a clean Windows installation and the darn installs vendors make with tons of software that will not work properly th his phone Os will be killed by crappy software from the hardware vendors.
Iphone world domination?
I don't know what world is being referred here, probably the marketing and fairy tale world. Last time I checked, Apple was a marginal player in the real world (i.e., not some particular geography or some fashionable pundits).
In the real world, Nokia might be the one to talk about, but even so, its share is far from "world domination"
There are still a lot of questions to be answered, before I can say if I like it or not... Does it support multitasking? How are notifications handled? How efficient is the down-scrolling action compared to the sideways swipe in a real world usage? How would apps look with this spill-over-the-side text philosophy? I agree that the fact that they have started completely from scratch is rather exciting, and also the minimalist design approach is rather bold, but until the above questions are answered it is hard to tell if this will end the "iPhone Domination"
Regards, Boyan
One reason why the iPhone is such a phenomenal phone is that the user interface permeates everything. Not just the immediate application screen or the app transitions, but at a fundamental level there is a symmetry and orthogonality of conceptualization that leads to a seamless user experience.
While that might sound like marketing gobbledygook, compare the Toshiba T-1 to the iPhone. Both have very cool initial user interfaces. In fact, the Toshiba (WinMo6.x) has a more interesting interface in that it changes to meet the user's needs without hardly any user input. However, once you dig past the first interface, it becomes clear that the WinMo phone is the same old WinMo crap underneath. There is no good widget set, there is no clear UI design guideline, and there is no good way to develop an app that doesn't end up feeling like a clunky mess. The iPhone, on the other hand, has a widget set that is reusable and has intuitive usage, there are very clear design guidelines, and most of all there are real artists who want to make apps for the platform.
If WinMo7 can break the Windows Mobile mold and really create something that provides a cohesive user interaction concept, then we may see a WinMo8. Otherwise, it may be the end of the road for this OS.
So 25% of the smartphone market, or about half of the Blackberry market share, is world domination?
Maybe if you got money to burn on a long shot.
Blackbery's storm kind of sucks (currently use) I would rather try google's phone before taking a chance with MS. Ever since that copy of Vista I bought when it first came out (which was the first MS product I had bought since I was a kid and bought their Force Feedback joystick..what a piece of crap). I won't by anything MS unless I test it first.
They mean a completely new skin on WinMo 6.0 again.
Gadgets and smart phones are still primarily a man's toy/device... this UI is very effeminate and reminds me of a magazine... maybe that's what they mean by code-naming it 'Metro' as in metro-sexual... It's not all bad but I wonder how well it scales to things like email inboxes, etc. ie: we're looking at comps of navigation screens but there's no screens of what form controls look like, preference dialogs, etc.
It's much improved from what we've seen in the past but there's a lot of room still for mistakes and bad UI decisions.
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Does Microsoft Finally Have a Phone Worth Buying?
*Looks at old POS Moto Q9C*
*Looks at current POS Palm Pro*
Combining the canard that "It isn't the OS, it's the hardware" with the admonition about fooling me twice, I'm gonna have to say... "No."
As a complete Apple fanboi, and one who owns 3 macs and swears by his iPod Touch (I don't like AT&T), I've got to say, that thing looks like it has a really nice interface. Kudos to MS, just from glancing at it (and not having played with it) it looks like the interface could be nicer than both the iPhone OS and Android. If this came out for my cell carrier I would have a tough time deciding between it and an Nexus One. I use Windows 7 at work and have enjoyed it (mostly because MS copied so many of things I prefer about the Mac interface onto Win7, it isn't OS X yet, but getting closer) and I'm willing to keep an open mind about this.
So, that's the catch. You MUST drop flash support to be competitive in this market.
A higher-up manager from my company was at Microsoft last week and saw a presentation about this device. The presentation must have been pretty impressive, because this manager immediately started firing off emails asking if had any plans to support it. Since no one back in the home office had even heard of it, the answer was a resounding No. "What is the installed user base? What is the sales growth rate? Both zero? We'll wait and see."
However, now that the manager is back, that whole uppity staff has been in meeting "strategizing" about how to convert our existing apps to run on this new device. Microsoft apparently did something right with that presentation. They either promised the world, a bunch of kickbacks, co-marketing opportunities, or something. Or, more likely, we just witnessed an overpowering of a manager's feeble defenses by the strong arm of Microsoft.
I cringe at the thought of what my job will be like in a few months.
Even if Windows Phone 7 (or whatever cute name marketing comes up with) is the best thing since sliced bread, Apple and Google will continue to release three software versions for Microsoft's one, ensuring that MS will once again be left in the dust.
You have to wonder why MS continues to try their hand in areas where has no advantage -- or clue, really. The best engineers on the planet can't win in the face of poor management and squabbling VPs.
Ballmer's arrogance knows no bounds.
It's Linux, damnit! Pay no attention to renaming attempts by self-aggrandizing blowhards.
This is a serious step 1 here. I have had several Windows Mobile phones in the past. What sold me on the iPhone was that I could hear the phone ring, and actually receive the call. With Windows Mobile, more often than not, I would get the call.. go to answer... phone locks up... reboot phone... call person back. FAIL on the basic UI of the phone. The other features would work well... just often found myself rebooting the phone when it came time to get a call.
iPhone is 'phenomenal' in the same way the hilariously worthless Apple iPad is 'phenomenal'.
So, bzzzzttt!!!, the iPhone isn't phenomenal. It's nothing more than the third place place in the smartphone niche of the gigantic worldwide cellphone market. And not only is the iPhone in third place, it's growth has flat-lined while Android has been doubling its marketshare quarter after quarter.
So, yeah, Apple fanboys and owners claim their Apple product is 'teh best thing ever!!!'
Whatever.
Has anyone posted this video of the interface yet?
http://www.windowsphone7series.com/multimedia/Media2
I hope they keep the UI design team that put this together. It's a refreshing change from the escalating UI-candy wars.
The fact they're dictating the exact hardware and layout makes me wonder whether (even though the software looks decent) this could crash and burn. Why should hardware manufacturers give up [what is effectively their creative control] for this OS, when they can make whatever they want and shove Android on it with no restrictions?
How do I write apps for it? Is iPhone SDK working on it?
This came up in the Dutch 'Volkskrant' (newspaper, literally "people's paper"). It purported to show some live video of the phone 'launch'. I did not get to see this video, instead I was told that my browser and platform were not supported so sorry this Silverlight video is not for you.
Funny, that. This browser and platform have no problems showing video. I guess this phone is just not for me...
Silly Microsoft. You can not even show a video without building walls around it and still you want me to believe you can build a phone to interact with the real world?
Ha. Good one. Pull the other one, it's got bells on it...
--frank[at]unternet.org
DRM = teh suck
No goofy shading and transitions? Simple design? No backgrounds?
This has promise. I'm a "black screen wallpaper" guy, and until Windows 7 I used the "classic" look in windows (I'm still considering switching back, as the whole translucent thing is more a distraction than anything else).
What I want is a finger-operable OS that allows quick access to all my programs (and easy program switching), is finger operable, makes scrolling and web browsing easy (I've yet to see a browser that can reliably determine the difference in a small swipe vs a click), is finger controllable, and allows customizable parameters for most actions (when to ring, when not to, when to wake, when to sleep, when to check email, etc.), and - most importantly - is finger controllable.
I know that there are lots of people who want a PDA instead of a phone, and prefer using a stylus. Really - it's a phenomenal annoyance to have to pull out a stylus for practically every operation because the icons are the size of a piece of glitter. It's nice to see that they might be moving into the 21st century with their UI.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Sorry, Microsoft, but you guys claim that every release is the best thing since sliced bread. Having just finally gotten rid of my Samsung BlackJack II, with Windows Mobile 6.1, I can say that it was simultaneously the most promising, and most disappointing phone I've ever owned. I won't ever buy another Windows Mobile phone.
For now, I've got a used Blackberry (even this old one is way better than the Blackjack) while I wait for my AT&T contract to expire, then it is hello, Android.
Necron69
Work properly? from Microsoft? the company that made "Microsoft Works" an oxymoron? I don't think so.
On the Desktop OS arena, one always has to have SOME degree of MSFT compatibility. On smartphones there's plenty of choice and Microsoft is but a small player. So why even bother? let's keep them relegated to a corner.
I don't want movies, music, games, or a camera on a phone. I have better devices for all of that stuff.
Then clearly an advanced "smartphone" is not for you. Well and good.
Since you have nothing useful to contribute, you can go on to the next discussion now.
No.
In two words, Hell no.
We don't need another fucking mobile platform, let alone one that Microsoft doesn't even have the balls to make a phone from. Google at least has the Nexus One.
AT&T has a 30 day return policy on phones.
Windows Mobile is a completely different experience from the crap known as Vista. I've been a Windows (on Desktop) hater for years, however I started using WM phones at around WM5.0, and still stick with WM.
(If a decent Android phone becomes available on AT&T I might jump over...)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
As WinFS was by the time it shipped.
"FAIL on the basic UI of the phone."
It's "Family Day" but I'm working, so I'm cranky and willing to burn the mod points (certainly off-topic for sure).
Using the word "fail" in broken english has now become classic douche-baggery. Don't just parrot the same tired crap you heard a couple of years back. Think up something new, please. I'm surprised you didn't find a way to work "Micro$oft" into the post.
Pissed off your idiotic karma whoring post got turned into something for everyone to laugh at?
Poor liddle troll...
The ZuneHD was supposed to be the savior of MS in the PMP market. It has been a dismal failure. Despite the relentless and sometimes suspicious hype surrounding it leading up to its release. You couldn't visit techcrunch, engadget, digg, slashdot, etc. without contentless comment after comment of crap like, "Hell yeah, can't wait to dump my ipod touch and get a ZuneHD!" Yeah. Sure. The ZuneHD went from number 2 on Amazon to number 13 in something like a few days. That's lower than many of the sansa models. Bear in mind, that the ipod had something like the first 5 slots. I think I'll check now... Yep, just as I suspected. The first 25 are mostly dominated by Apple products with the Zune not even being on the page. And you think this phone OS which is based very much on the same thing is going to do much better?
Want abuse with your phone? Buy Microsoft iVistaPhone.
My opinion, shared by many others who have been abused by Microsoft.
Did you see that for a manufacturer to get a license they have to dedicate a hardware button to the Bing-thing? I like my HTC with antiquated Windows Mobile, but with that condition I wouldn't upgrade even if it were feasible and free.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8515915.stm
Windows Phone 7 Series.
They might as well call it the Zunelephone.
Microsoft better hire the cool kids because the nerds lack the pizazz.
From another article I found on the web "Another shocking news for Windows lover is that Windows Mobile 7 also won’t support multi-tasking." (http://www.latestngadgets.com/flash-rejected-by-windows-mobile-7/2635.html)
It isn't an iPhone killer when most of the comments in the thread are about the iPhone itself.
no
To me, Microsoft may as well codename their mobile products Holocaust -- NEVER AGAIN! I've suffered through 6.x and will never buy another phone with a craptacular Microsoft OS on it.
That's only because he left out some words: "... at a fundamental level there is a symmetry and orthogonality of conceptualization that leads to a seamless user experience to empower the core business for enterprise synergy and a strong paradigm shift."
Now, instead of burning, you fell asleep, right?
I don't want movies, music, games, or a camera on a phone. I have better devices for all of that stuff.
Once you're carrying around a device which does movies, music, and games, it seems silly to have to carry an extra device just to make calls. Especially since the former device needs a SIM slot anyway to get on the Internet when not at home.
Sure, if you do a lot of outgoing phone calls, you need something better than a typical smartphone to do them on. The rest of us can live with somewhat limited phone ergonomics.
Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
If I had a choice between the free Google OS and the Microsoft OS which costs more $, why would I want to make a phone with a Windows tax?
I don't see many reasons unless Microsoft is heavily subsidizing me. Google's brand at least has some marketing cache.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
Those seem to be the big areas where MS is falling behind in this race.
Slick interface on a smartphone that syncs to the desktop and has a modern embedded browser? There are plenty of those on the market today.
Where is a MS phone going to fit in? Users are not going to pay for MS services as they do for Apple services. If MS was going to give away online service, they already would. Well, I guess they do but not with the popularity of Google, since such services are ties to the OS, which is counter to what the web is.
No matter how pretty MS makes the phone, it is unclear why anyone would buy it. It could be that MS leaves the corporate market to blackberry, and focuses on consumers. This might work if the sold the phone for significantly less than cost, as they did with the xBox. If they did, they would be the only cell phone provider who does so. If they teamed with cricket and the low end carriers they could demolish the competition. Other than that, I hardly see anyone leaving a phone so they can be locked back to the desktop.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Actually that would be if my app actually ran on this pig. I have to rewrite it all, and all my propriatary corporate integration apps, database backends and productivity apps. Oh and I cannot customise my own theme even? It's turning into a worse lock in than the iPhone.
If I have to rewrite eveny app I use then I may as well port it to Android!
Note that when Apple demos their new products -- even months before the product is ready for release -- the demo is always performed on actual hardware. Whatever Jobs (or whoever) does driving the actual device is then shown on the big screen, sometimes with glitches. It's the best proof that your product is close to release.
Maybe Microsoft will do that today, but the video of the Windows Phone 7 we've seen so far is just that -- video -- that was probably generated on a PC. As a rule, if a vendor shows only a video of their human interface, it means the product isn't close to release. Maybe it's complete vapor. Maybe it's buggy as hell. Maybe it's slow. Maybe key features don't work yet.
Can Microsoft really close the gap between what they have today to a shipping phone in six months? Maybe, but Microsoft's track record in this area is poor. This has the earmarks of a standard preemptive Microsoft announcement hoping to stem the flood of iPhone converts.
You are exactly right, and other manufactures, like HTC, also provide their own UI which serves as the primary first-layer (and often second-layer) interactiveness that the user experiences. Generally this interface is very good, but as you say, when you get into the nitty-gritty, it's just WM underneath, which is the child of Pocket PC, which is the child of Palm-Sized PC (windows CE 2.11), which is the child of Windows CE 1.0, which was an _exact_ copy of the Windows 95 user interface. And here's the real problem - Microsoft has managed backwards compatibility all this time. There's still a huge amount that can be done while maintaining backwards compatibility, like using those widgets only with older apps. One of my biggest problems with WM 6.5 is its messaging system (specifically the user interface). HTC, again, tried to provide a layer over this as well, but it doesn't go deep enough. But the fact of the matter is the messaging system is implemented by Microsoft, thus they can do anything they want with it without having to worry about backwards compatibility.
I just have a hard time believing MS could get WM7 wrong. Mainly because everyone and their brother is now producing a decent mobile shell (Apple, Google, Palm, and I've just heard Samsung is joining the fray as well). So MS doesn't even have to do anything groundbreaking or original - merely being on par and in the same paradigm as everyone else would be good enough.
Better known as 318230.
I'm really loving that interface. Stylish minimalism that should make it even easier to use than the iphone.
Best of all, solid, bold colours. None of that plasticy, shiny stuff that has been everywhere since the early days of 'Web 2.0'.
A real attempt to innovate mobile interfaces rather than cloning the iPhone is really surprising. I just hope they've really made an attempt to make it reliable unlike previous versions of WinMo.
OO OO ME TOO ME TOO!!
My Motorola Q on Verizon did something similar when placing calls.
The phone would indicate a call failure but the call would actually go through and I was able to talk to the remote party.
It would self-correct if the remote party answered and then hung up, but if you got a never-ending ring or some remote system that would stay active forever you had to power the phone off to disconnect. Placing another call would fail (even though the phone thought it was disconnected).
Verizon had no fix and Motorola didn't either and it was a once a week or more phenomenon. Not enough to cause me to toss the phone but enough to be super annoying. And it was a problem that followed to a replacement Q that I got mid-contract when my first bricked.
They can't optimize their code to be as fast as maemo or iphone-os while using the same eye candiness, that's why they have to go this minimalist bullshit way.
Wait till developers experience the WM 7 app approval process. $99 to join the developer program, then $99 for each app sent for approval. If your app is rejected, back to the end of the line and another $99. That evil overlord Apple does not charge for app approvals.
Even if this is something to get excited about, the Engadget demo made it seem like a piece of shit. The start screen was clunky and ugly, and it only had enough room for about 4-6 icons before you have to scroll to a new page. The touch recognition was sloppy, often engaging a function when the user was still trying to scroll around. Then they showed the keyboard interface which even further showed off the terrible touch recognition - the guy tried to touch one key and got registered and could barely navigate.
This thing needs some serious refinement. Until then, it looks like another Zune to me.
Down with the career politician! SUPPORT TERM LIMITS
Microsoft may have the right idea in their continued attempts to compete in the smartphone market. The main reason for this is that there is no clear dominant force in smartphone OS's at this time.
The Apple Iphone has been a favorite. But take into account it has only been on the market for a few years. The Iphone is expensive, and it is only offered through AT&T. All of this limits the market share possible for Apple.
Google's Android is gaining speed fast. But again, the first android phone to be released was only a little over a year ago.
As far as all the cheaper phones are concerned. I have no idea what OS they run. Some minimal smartphone tech is bound to enter the market.
I think Microsoft could still be a powerful player in the mobile phone market if they can release a quality platform. That may be their biggest hurdle yet, they tend to be their own worst enemy.
oldhack: "Security is a waste of money until shit hits the fan. 5 minutes later, it becomes waste of money again. "
For a so-called "marketing company" they sure suck at advertising. The Bing ads are the first decent ones they've produced in over a decade.
If Microsoft really did throw out everything and start from scratch, cool. They really needed to start over, (Windows Mobile was a mess) and assuming they didn't replicate the same mistakes, this could be a good thing.
What prevents me from stating this more positively are phrases scattered through TFA and TFA referenced by TFA. (Emphasis mine in the following.)
"Microsoft has done what would have been unthinkable for the company just a few years ago: started from scratch. At least, that's how things look (and feel) with Windows Phone 7 Series."
"You haven't used an interface like this before (well, okay, if you've used a Zune HD then you've kind of used an interface like this)."
"The phone operating system does away with pretty much every scrap [...]"
This could be either journalistic caution (which would be laudable) or prevarication. (IE, the article may report "It sure looks from my 30 seconds with the mock-up at some trade show that Microsoft rewrote the entire OS from the ground up", which gets reported as "Microsoft rewrote the entire OS from the ground up".) When I read this, considering Microsoft's past history of building on top of elderly code whenever possible, I'm thinking this could be anything from a complete rewrite, (least likely) to a general sprucing-up, (more likely) to a new GUI on top of the Windows Mobile 6 base code (most likely). I'm not saying this is the case -- I'd love to be wrong -- I'm saying one can't tell from the articles.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
The day Microsoft makes something that doesn't s u c k is probably the day they start making vacuum cleaners.
I heard there was a phone out there (don't know which even if this one at all) that you could actually install windows xp on it, and
have all the usefulness of a mini computer in your hand with an environment you already knew and could network with your home pc without a glitch. This would be so cool, although I am not sure if this phone does the same thing, I find my plam treo 700 limited in terms of windows functionality with its 5.0 mobile environment. I have a hard time trying to use the defacto windows way of thinking from the xp or before and using it to try and do stuff on mobile environment.
I would like to see what the 7 will be like, if closer to a real OS like xp, or just another limited version of the 5.0 OS?
http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/LauraFoy/First-Look-Windows-Phone-7-Series-Hands-on-Demo/
(Silverlight warning, at least it does work on Chrome on Mac)
According to this article, "Apps would also have to go through a "service based delivery" system such as Windows Marketplace to install, reversing a years-old ability to download apps through the browser or other sources.". If that's true, I don't care how much of an improvement the interface is - I want no part of it.
Among other things, that would require you buy a data plan. As if PDA cellphone's couldn't possibly be useful without one. Sure, sure, you could just buy a dedicated PDA, but those are becoming increasingly difficult to find (certainly Palm doesn't make them anymore) and something does have to be said for device consolidation. I'd rather have a single HTC Touch Pro2 in my pocket than trying to stuff a cellphone, a PDA, a camera and a GPS unit into my pockets.
Further, even if you do have a data plan, requiring all apps be sold through the Windows Marketplace will give Microsoft an unreasonable amount of control. Remember Google Voice for the iPhone? Apple denied Google the right to offer it through their App Store because it competed with their own product lineup. What's to stop Microsoft from doing the same thing?
And what about apps that are no longer maintained? There's an SNES emulator available for Windows Mobile and a TI-89 emulator available for Windows Mobile. Both, near as I can tell, haven't been maintained since Windows Mobile 5 or so. If those apps didn't work in Windows Mobile 7 because the API changed, that's one thing, but it would be unfortunate if the only thing preventing those apps from being installed was the fact that Microsoft wanted more direct control. It's like being rejected for a job interview not because you're skills were insufficient but because you didn't put the right buzzwords on your resume to get past the regex HR was using to filter out resumes. Because you said PHP on your resume instead of PHP5.
But then again, it seems unlikely Microsoft would let anyone offer an SNES emulator or TI-89 emulator through their app store, even if they were to be actively maintaining it, on the basis that it encourages piracy or some such.
This chart does not show much evidence that Microsoft is learning how to make successful products outside of its traditional franchises: desktop operating systems and desktop office applications.
They've failed at least twice with PDA/pocket type devices, at least once with mobile phones, at least once with portable music players (not quite sure whether PlaysForSure should be counted along with Zune).
Typically we see these stories when Microsoft is behind a competitor, but this time they are behind two: Apple, which has a solid phone success, and Google, which has all the buzz. They are behind these two companies despite having started before either of them, with Windows Mobile circa 2004... which in turn had the benefit of five major revisions of Windows CE, started in 1996 or something like that.
If Microsoft actually knew how to make a good telephone, they would have made one already.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
No flash and no multi-tasking. So... why should I buy this and not an Apple instead?
I knew when I started reading the thread that MS would screw it up. They always do, 7 versions (and really more since .5 are also major releases) and they still don't get it.
Nobody is going to buy MS because it looks cool, they can forget that market, cool people don't do windows. The only hope MS has is to be as PC like as they can. It works, not great or smooth but more or less as you expect so that you can use it as your are used to using windows, with all its faults.
There is a large enough market for Windows users, but for some reason, MS has got to screw it up. No flash, on windows... oh yeah, that is smart. MS, you are NOT Apple, they can get away with it, you can't. People, this is another Zune.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I miss the zune-phone tag FTW!
I see they are focusing on games, multimedia address book, web browsing and social networking. But a phone? well....maybe. It looks like an atomic powered Zune with a phone bolted on as an afterthought.
I went from a really old Nokia Communicator to an e71 a while back.
Maps load quickly, the GPS lock is quick too. I move around the map with the keys with no drawing issues at all.
One of the issues I have with touchscreen phones is the lack of tactile buttons. I can use real buttons faster with less error.
I still don't understand the collective disregard for Nokia's products in the States. I doubly don't understand why Nokia passively markets their phones in the States.
It's good product and a more open platform. Nokia has been good about moving towards Free software too. That should be enough for the slashdot GPL hippies to get on board.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
A couple of things: 1) your description of how you want the browser to behave while you're doing other things with the phone... that's exactly how Mobile Safari works. Read the web a while, then make/receive a call, read your e-mail, whatever, then go back to the browser - it's right where you left it. 2) Playing music while doing other things - works. The iPod application (and other Apple-provided apps) have multi-tasking enabled, so music keeps playing while you're doing other stuff. Similarly, e-mail and SMS messages keep coming in, incoming calls ring the phone... no matter what else you're doing with the device.
I used to be pretty up-in-arms about the multi-tasking thing too - but what I found was that in practice, I don't miss it much.
...that is going to work properly...
That's where I stopped reading. I just spent two days fixing panicked friends PCs after they installed Tuesday's updates and their systems wouldn't boot. Granted they were rooted... but the OS I run, I can click, surf - whatever and never be, how do they say it, pwned.
I don't want a phone that for the sake of walking on to a subway station platform is hacked by the kid standing next to me.
-[d]-
Actually despite the "love" for Microsoft here, their biggest problem is marketing more than anything. I personally have seen far fewer technology issues or gui issues over the last year or two than ever before. A lot of that has to do with the threat of Apple on the desktop and Linux on the server. However for what ever reason they have not fixed their other achilles heel, marketing.
It is one are they have never been good at and they have not realized that it, more than anything has hurt them.
Apple on the other hand is great at marketing and even better at targeting the MS customers base. Google has their own unique way of marketing, because they own the online search and understand how to get the word out with out commercials. Microsoft? they get more mention on the Apple vs Microsoft commercials than their own.
There's several ways to disable that
I use #3, as I don't see a need for any of the special effects, but don't mind the general appearance of the Windows 7 theme. Disabling dwm also seems to free up some memory.
I haven't tested #1 or #2, but assume they work.
CPU & RAM
N95: 332 MHz 90 Mb
iphone: 600MHz 256Mb
The iphone didn't even have GPS originally, never mind a mapping application. The N95 is 3 years old. You might want to compare against something current instead, like the N97 or N900, once they get Maps 3 ported to Linux. Though I suspect the battery life on that will suck almost as badly as the iphone's.
Nokia Maps has also gone from rev 1.0 (on the N95) to rev 3.0 in the last 3 years.
Jeez.
Deleted
I test WinMo phones with our client software extensively, on multiple platforms, and it is by far the most unstable. Basically, it's BB > iPhone > Symbian > WinMo 6 in terms of platform stability. If Redmond can deliver the same improvement in this that they did with Win 7 desktop, they have a chance. Possibly. Unlike in desktop, where they had an effective monopoly, the handset marketplace is very competitive. If they screw this up, they'll be baked for good.
This is seriously more astro-turfing than I have ever seen you do for any of your other products. Good going Marketing Dept.
"The ferrets, they're every where I tell you!"
Microsoft has always pushed a direct relationship between manufacturers and Operaters and continue to do so with the Windows Phone Series. Unfortunately this is detrimental to pretty much everyone. The usual value chain in the mobile phone industry is that an ODM manufactures the handset and does software integration. An OEM picks up the handset and adds branding, logistics, operator approval, distribution partners and possibly some novel software. The OEM then sells to retail or operators. They also take the monatary risk on forward ordering from the ODM and smooth out peaks and troughs in the device supply to simplify things for the ODM. With a unified UI and hardware specs what incentive is there for the OEM?
When you don't have an OEM in the middle then device approvals take much longer, and bugs slip through. HTC's Nexus One should never have gone to market in such a poor state. 3G is still not working properly. An OEM in the loop would have tested the device on AT&T and T-Mobile before launch. Google don't have the necessary experience to do that, HTC still don't (although after killing off their OEM partners two years ago they SHOULD have by now.
What worries me most is that Microsoft is closing the door on the whole OEM model. This means Operators become more wary of new phones, the money isn't forward loaded into the ODM from distributors to develop the phones in the first place. Who will be paying the NRE on a new handset? Microsoft, the operators, or the ODM? Without any incentive for the OEM to produce a differntated product the whole cycle will fail.
The OS looks compelling enough, and I have no doubt there will be quality handsets on the market - HTC can easily make those.
It's really all about how slick the pipe is between the developers and consumers now. MS hasn't announced an SDK yet, but I'll bet it'll be .NET based and be pretty workable for developers. If developers build the apps, the consumers will come.
These are a handful of examples I've run into recently with my wife's iPhone, none of which were a problem on my WM and Android phones. I'm sure there's many others.
It's selection bias - you probably can't think of any examples requiring multitasking because you've never been allowed to try. The few examples mentioned by the OP had to be specifically catered for by Apple, case-by-case. For those of us that have become used to any old app having these capabilities if they want them, a non-multitasking phone is really limiting.
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
And nothing else? Would be nice.
You just have to look at they're history or COFEE, would you really trust M$ to deliver anything respectful? I have uploaded the user document here http://www.constructiontalking.com/COFEE.pdf take a look at the user guide now will you ever trust M$ with a phone. I even have an official copy of COFEE legally. Is it trustworthy NO! Encase is better and any decent system admin knows how to recover data without spyware installed on a windows system, Linux, BSD, MAC OS X, SPARC, Solaris. Just do not buy this phone. Or maybe you would like to. But you have been warned.
All cows eat grass!
I've always enjoyed coding with MS build chains. Coding the XBOX360 is so straight forward as is making Win32 apps that use D3D. Same with the Windows Mobile devices. It's a breeze to write and debug apps with Visual Studio. However, hardware support is another story. They introduced Direct3D Mobile in Windows Mobile 5 but because WinMo up to now has been something of a wild west, some devices had D3D drivers while others didn't. And the ones that did weren't the best. Very few did OpenGL ES. You could however, quite easily get access to the linear frame buffer and just write your own rasterizers which worked quite well! I've talked with some WinMobile insiders and they told me that WinMo 7 would be way stricter when it came to hardware and device variance. OpenGL ES would be the norm and would replace Direct3D Mobile. If they can sort the hardware issues and force manufactures (HTC you listening, you ass clowns) to implement quality drivers, they could very much regain from 4th spot where they are now!