A couple of other reasons
I think the problems of WinMo run a little deeper than just a "lack of marketing". I have a Black Berry 8820, Touch Pro and an iPhone so I think I can draw a couple of conclusions.
1. MS only owns half of the equation (software). They do not own the whole platform and this uneasy alliance between hardware manufacturers and the OS provider creates some fairly significant gaps in usability and time to market.
2. The lack of a consistent, easy or even possible OS upgrade is a major turn off. Older users just get left in the dirt by their provider and/or MS and have to resort to hacked and buggy half backed “cooked” ROMs, if they are luck and brave enough. Providers are even worse; my Touch Pro from Vodafone came with a totally unworkable WM 6.1 and Vodafone still have not publically upgraded it.
3. When you do want to upgrade, it is a major pain requiring a total re-install of all apps and data. This is unacceptable and unnecessary.
4. HTC Touch Flo is a nice face on a pig. The underlying WM 6.x OS is slow, unresponsive and in several area downright obstructive (think connection profiles, Bluetooth connection, pairing and Sync Center to name but a few).
5. Customers in general do not care about the OS, just what the phone can do. WM fails badly in the flash dept (iPhone) or connectivity (BB).
6. One thing the WM did well was to cater to businesses. We use Lotus Notes at work with a BES and BB Connect is a viable solution for WM and of course BB. The iphone just doesn't work in this setup and so far there doesn't seem to be any solution for customers not on Exchange Server.
7. Battery life is a joke. I am lucky if I get a whole day of heavy use out of my TP. My BB will go for 3-4 days at the same usage and still have battery left. The iPhone is in the middle.
I do not think the issues (especially #1) are really solvable and thus in the long term WM will become increasing irreverent and within approx 3-5 years WM will be dead. MS could solve this if they were to start making handsets and the OS, aggressively market the PHONE (not the OS) but I do not think this will ever happen. Maybe MS needs to buy HTC?
- Tim
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