Well, that’s about it for Windows Mobile then
By Simon Bisson & Mary Branscombe in Editorial
Posted in Mobile, Microsoft on
There’s a new kind of spin out there. Make a big splash announcement in a blog entry, and then follow it up (after an appreciative pile-in of positive comments) with a comment full of caveats and gotchas. It manages the bad news, and keeps people from finding out what you’re really doing.
Microsoft recently made a big splash about the much-awaited release of IE6 for Windows Mobile, and then went and hid the bad news in a blog comment. You might still think that all recent WinMo devices will be upgraded with the new browser, but you’d be wrong. After all, that’s what Microsoft implied when it first announced the new browser project over 18 months ago at the last MEDC in Las Vegas, when it indicated that there’d finally be some respite from the much disliked browser that ships with its mobile operating system.
But what the blog promises, the comments taketh away.
It turns out that the new browser, which was Windows Mobile’s main hope in the battle with the latest WebKit-powered phones, will only run on new hardware.
As the comment said:
Regarding making IE Mobile available as a separate download or update, the rich media experiences that IE Mobile 6 enables require more powerful, advanced devices. That is why it will not be available as an upgrade or direct download for current phones, but rather will be made available on new phones.
It’s not that new phones are necessarily going to be more powerful than the phones already on the market. I suspect a Samsung Omina or HTC Touch Pro user is going to be quite offended by the thought that their top-of-the-range device with the latest processors will be consider inferior to a budget ARM-powered device that just happens to ship after Microsoft releases WinMo 6.1.4.
If you’ve got a current phone, then sorry, thanks for all the support, you’re going to be left behind. Sure, there’s the promise of Mozilla’s Fennec next year sometime, or the pay-for Opera Mobile today, but that’s not the same as a first class integral browser. Is it any wonder HTC are making Opera the default browser on their latest devices?
Why can’t Microsoft leave it up to the operators and the handset manufacturers as to whether they can ship updaters (or heaven forfend that Microsoft use the Windows Update tool in the latest Windows Mobile builds to actually ship an update). By all means profile devices to see if they’re able to run the new browser before opffering a download, but don’t leave users second class citizenson the web.
There is no mobile web. WebKit and the iPhone have given that concept the kick into touch that it so rightly needed. There is only one web, and millions of Windows Mobile users have been given a glimpse of it, before being told that it’s not for them. Is it any wonder they’re deserting the platform for iPhones and BlackBerrys? The next major release is now over a year away, and Microsoft’s main competitors are streaking ahead with new form factors, new devices, and better user interfaces. Windows Mobile 6.5 is a finger in the dyke, but it’s too obviously a stop gap.
Even companies that have built themselves on Windows Mobile are walking away. Why else has HTC started shipping Android-based devices? Microsoft appears to have no faith in its mobile OS, and the industry is responding to its inactions.
I’d like to be wrong, but I don’t think I am. I’ve been a Windows Mobile user for years, but I recently switched to the iPhone 3G. Everything I could do on my Windows Mobile device I can do on the iPhone - even administer my Windows Servers - and I can do it with a 21st century user experience, not something that still feels like a cut-down version of Windows 95. The only thing my HTC Kaiser is left doing is turn-by-turn GPS - and I have a feeling that the iPhone may well be doing that soon, too.
–Simon
Rated: 80% (4 votes)
Loading ...Comment by hi - November 22, 2008 on 10:14 pm
Simon -
Your overreaction and claim that you can duplicate WinMo functionality with iPhone 3G is all the evidence us readers need to know that you are just a hitman hired by el Jobso. Even if you are not getting paid, your lies are unbecoming.
For example, I record TV shows and movies on my DVR. Every night before bed I dock my Windows Mobile 6.1 device. The next morning on my way out the door, I grab my smartphone, and take the train into NY. I catch up on the recorded shows on the train thanks to Vista’s Media Center sync cabilities to my phone. Think about that…
I do not have to pay for “Heroes” or any show I record. With iPhone you have to pay for that via iTunes. It is free for me. For those who want to know how:
http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=reviews&id=1113
BTW -I am not connected to Microsoft in anyway, and would not want to be. I do not like its reactionary attitude. I love what Apple is contributing to the smartphone industry. Its UX is second to none, but please stop yodeling about its capabilities. You sound awfully desperate for someone who is not getting paid for every iPhone sold.
Comment by - November 24, 2008 on 11:17 am
“hi” - I can do exactly the same with a Mac, iPhone/iTunes and EyeTV. In fact, I suspect you could do the same on Windows, too, so I’m not sure what your point is.
Comment by - November 24, 2008 on 5:54 pm
What you *can’t* do on an iPhone is A copy and paste B flag messages in email for follow-up. That and the soft keyboard and the immersive interface (to use an iPhone you have to give it your full attention) keep me on WM; but that doesn’t mean that I don’t feel Microsoft is betraying its users by promising a real browser and then giving up. Let’s not start on how late Windows Mobile 7 is…
-Mary
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