I was on the train the other day and I two different Motorola Q9m's in the wild. It never ceases to amuse me that I still get a little excited whenever I see a Windows Mobile device in the wild.
I personally feel that Windows Mobile devices are the best on the market when it comes to PIM and email features, but I don't find that the device very usable for regular consumers. I judge how popular a product is going to be by two factors:
- Will it be intuitive enough for my mother to figure out?
- Will it be impressive enough to make my mother, a woman who is aware of technology but can go without it, actually want to use the device and make it a part of her life.
On both points, Microsoft failed us. The one time my mom did pick up my handset and try to play with it she was incredibly confused on how the interface worked and thought there was too much going on. Even after she heard about all the emailing and syncing capabilities it had, the device was still to complicated for her to even want to be bothered to try and figure it out.
On the other hand, that same trip she also swiped my Nintendo DS from me and has been playing Brain Age and an assortment of other games ever since...
