[choyboy]

1) If Walt had one wish, it would probably be that Microsoft as a company be destroyed by nuclear attack. Expecting him to be fair toward Microsoft is like asking a cat to not eat a plate of tuna. It's just not going to happen.

Not sure what your point is, Jason. I could replace the words "Walt" and "Microsoft" with "Jason Dunn" and "Apple"/"Palm"/"RIM" and that would also ring true. So the pot is calling the kettle black, eh?

"2) People understand single-device models. It's easy to talk about the iPhone vs. Pre vs. vs. G1 vs. Blackberry (people use it as a catch-all term for all Blackberry phones). It's much harder to talk about a single phone vs. an ecosystem of phones. Once there are more Android phones on the market Google will have a similar problem. It's cumbersome to try and weave the platform narrative together. With HTC releasing their new phones in Europe/Asia first, most North American press don't register the fact that there are legitimate competitors out there running Windows Mobile. There's also the reality that even though there have been some great-selling Windows Mobile phones (the million+ club) there isn't really a "hero" phone that stands out from the rest and is a poster-child for Windows Mobile. That needs to change. "

I agree, there is no real stand-out phone for microsoft, and that does need to change for windows mobile to be taken seriously from a consumer point of view. Lord knows HTC have tried (and failed) with the Diamond. It really does not help that so many windows mobile devices are rebranded under different carriers, effectively undermining their own collective marketing might as well as relegating any meaningful marketshare numbers useless (because they are classed as different phones). I for one am sick of every other week hearing about a "new windows mobile phone" only to find some dumb carrier like verizon has renamed the touch and called it the "propel" or something stupid.
Which leads on to my next point...

"4) Despite less-than-stellar sales, notice how the Zune has tremendous mindshare against the iPod? Other competitors rarely get mentioned, even though I'm sure Sandisk sells more MP3 players than Microsoft does. Windows Mobile has the same problem it's always had: selling an operating system or a platform is hard; selling a shiny piece of hardware is easy in comparison. It's easy to hold up a device and say "Here's our new thing". Holding up a platform and saying "Here are our 20 new things" - that's hard."

really??? "tremendous mindshare" - hardly. Even the guy who tattooed the zune on his shoulder wants it taken off. The zune is the laughingstock of the world's media. They feature in sitcoms prominently, only to be endlessly parodied and mocked (anybody remember the chuck episode about this?) That's not the kind of mindshare I want for my product, it's about as wanted as apple is often mocked for the one button mouse.

You are right, it is hard to sell a platform if you don't control it and it will always be the benefit and the achilles heel of any platform over a product. Diversity kills any unity (and press coverage) that one product can give, because when you get an iPhone you get that product, flaws and benefits. When you get a windows mobile phone, you could have either a lemon or the best phone ever.

"3) I thought it was hilarious that an app nuked Walt's Pre, took out all his data, and he just sort of shrugged it off as being not a big deal. This is the phone that's launching in a few days? And the applications aren't sandboxed in a way that prevents massive data loss? Imagine if a Windows Mobile phone did that to him - he'd have a fit."

And so he *should* have a fit if it was a windows mobile phone. there have been SIX versions of windows mobile , so if Microsoft haven't had this problem licked they don't deserve to have any users. Palm Pre is running webOS 1.0 - in fact probably 1.0RC in the case of Walt's phone - so he is right to reserve judgement on the stability of a pre-release product. Of course, should the reports come back week one of release that this is happening, Palm should be panned, and probably deserve to fail.

It's fine to write a piece as a proud Windows Mobile supporter, but please PocketPC thoughts should be the *last* site who have the right to accuse others of bias. You have some good points, but panning Walt achieves nothing but cement the image of this site as apologists for windows mobile hardware. THe irony here is that Mossberg has on quite a few previous articles *recommended* windows mobile phones in corporate environments - and rightly so given the support they receive in the form of the huge numbers of MCSE drones out there.