MDC 2004 Highlights

[Andy Sjostrom]

Mobile DevCon 2004 rocked! Unfortunately, I was unable to attend in person, but I have heard so many cool reports from the conference. Krishna Kumar submitted a conference report which covers the highlights! Let's get to it! Kudos to Krishna Kumar!<br /><br /><b>MDC 2004 Highlights</b><br />"Mobile Developer Conference 2004 provided the developers and mobile community in general with tons of insight into the direction Microsoft (and also its partners) is taking with respect to Mobile Computing. The 3 day l-o-n-g conference was filled with sessions that taught us what is available in the platform today, and what will be available to the users/developers down the road.<br /><br />So here is a bunch of highlights from the conference. I am emphasizing on the future direction. And most of it is in Developer Speak. I wish I could more justice to the information presented, right now I wanted to get the information out (and head back home). So if anyone has questions they can either post them on the discussion board or send me private mail, and I will try to answer them.<br /><!><br /><b>Bill Gates keynote</b><br />Well by now most of you must have read the keynote, if you haven’t, check it out over here.<br /><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2004/03-24-VSLive.asp">http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2004/03-24-VSLive.asp</a><br />- Future is all about Connected Applications (and products). Also seamless computing. <br />- Common set of development tools (Visual Studio 2005 aka Whidbey) for anything that is Windows<br />- Largest Market Share in Pocket PC space.<br />- Windows Mobile Smartphone is gaining strength, Market Leader in the enterprise smartphone market.<br />- Announced Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition.<br />- Proudly demoed the MPx. (He also mentioned the SPOT watch, that too right at the beginning of the talk, but I feel SPOT watches are over-rated in their current form. That’s my opinion :D I am not a watch person!!)<br />- Mobile2Market is going to make it easier for ISVs to take their applications to market. Registered ISVs can submit the app to the M2M developer portal and it will be made available (published) on partner sites like that of the carriers, Handango, CellMania etc. All in one click of a button.<br /><br /><b>Windows Mobile Future Stuff</b><br />- Lots of cool hardware/software improvements coming your way. Apart from performance enhancements, future releases will bring a lots of cool end user and developer features.<br />- Support for variety of screen sizes for both Smartphones and Pocket PCs.<br />- 1.8” to 2.9” screens 8O for Smartphones, Note current screen size is 2”.<br />- 2.7” to 4.1” screens for Pocket PCs (also 2.3” to 3.5” Square screens, they had slides showing screen shots of some prototypes/reference designs).<br />- Smartphones will have resolutions of QVGA 240x320 (current version supports 176x220)<br />- Pocket PCs will have VGA resolution 640x480 (current version supports 320x240). <br />- Pocket PCs will come in varying shapes, sizes and form factors – Clam shells, with (slideout) keyboards (yay!). They had screen shots of prototypes in the slides. (I will see if I can post them here later.)<br />- Support for peripherals – microdrives, camera, keyboards, secondary displays<br />- Home Screen implementation to be unified between Pocket PC and Smartphone. Next gen Home Screens will be XHTML based.<br />- Installer improvements, unified CAB files for Pocket PC and Smartphone.<br />- Configuration Manager to be extended to Pocket PCs. This will enable Enterprise or Carrier Provisioning.<br />- Future Windows Mobile release will be based on Windows CE ‘Macallan’, it will include CE .NET 2.0, SQL CE, Direct 3D/Direct Draw, MFC 8.0 and ATL 8.0 in the ROM.<br />- Future Windows Mobile will have support for Location, Camera, POOM, TAPI and SMS in .NET CF.<br />- Notifications Broker in the Future Windows Mobile release will enable developers to get notification regarding system state changes like battery strength, signal, wifi/gprs connection etc.<br />- New form controls in VS .NET 2005 - .NET CF 2.<br />- Pocket Watson for Window Mobile. This will handle application errors and exceptions. It will prompt the user if they wish to submit the error report to Microsoft.<br />- Changes to the Application/Code Signing, to enable more flexibility.<br />- And the future version will provide (standardize) an easy way to eject battery, for faster resets :D Just Kidding.<br /><br /><b>Third Party and Partners</b><br />- Motorola had a nice presentation that effectively demonstrated that they are committed to the Windows Mobile platform. They are committed to innovation and that you can expect more cool hardware/software from Moto. MPx line of products is aimed at the Enterprise market.<br />- I played with MPx (yes!) and MPx100. Both are cool but I am in love with MPx100. Moto will not talk about any other products or plans. No news on MPx220 or CDMA phones. But I was told that the best is still to come!! And yes CDMA market is not being ignored. <br />- Motorola has done a lot of in house research to identify what all features the phones must have (over and above Windows Mobile provided stuff). Things like Java, MMS, Digital Rights Management, Ringtones, Bluetooth profiles or ‘Dedicated Accessory’ for the MPx100 which will enable wifi/802.11 without taking up the SDIO slot !!<br />- Voice Over IP, Text to Speech, Push to Talk are all the stuff, Moto wants to bring to MPx line.<br />- Intel talked about Bulverde, the next gen mobile chip with SpeedStep and Wireless MMX. Most of the talk went over my head :-) but one thing I did gather was faster processor (software configurable speed for optimum power management), better power management, MMX instruction set which will enable superior audio/video/gaming experience.<br />- Checked out the Sierra Voq phone, surprisingly didn’t feel all that bulky in my hand. The keyboard is nice. But its styling is nothing compared to that of Moto’s MPx100.<br />- For whatever is worth, I would like to mention that I did talk to a Samsung Rep at the booth. Inquired about the 2003 update for i600. Answer is Samsung has the 2003 update working on the phone, it is up to the carrier (Verizon did not have a booth) to adopt it. I also inquired if it would be possible for them to open up the developer program a bit more so that developer can test/debug code on the phones (and access privileged APIs without the need for certificates etc). Also requested for more info on their developer web site. It is a work in progress, I have to initiate email conversation with the rep, after I get back home.<br /><br />Another interesting tidbit – 20 or more Mpx200 were given away by AT&amp;T to the participants, and I did not win one :( So I will be having a grumpy face during my entire 6 hour flight back home."

[Mike Temporale]

Here are some images from Microsoft's Windows Mobile Hardware Update presentation. Thanks to Kris, again. :D

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/MDCNewHardwareDesign1.png

[Mike Temporale]

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/MDCNewHardwareDesign2.png

[Mike Temporale]

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/MDCNewHardwareDesign3.png

[Mike Temporale]

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/MDCNewHardwareDesign5.png

[Mike Temporale]

http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/MDCNewHardwareDesign6.png

[brntcrsp]

*ahem* HOLY CROW! 8O

[cmorris]

Very cool - the new H/W coming out in the next year or so will definitely determine how important WM2003SE really is...

Here's hoping the Moto MPx is just the start.

[ShivShanks]

And yes CDMA market is not being ignored.


:clap: Thats really good news ... Any talk of expanding the CDMA carriers?


- For whatever is worth, I would like to mention that I did talk to a Samsung Rep at the booth. Inquired about the 2003 update for i600. Answer is Samsung has the 2003 update working on the phone, it is up to the carrier (Verizon did not have a booth) to adopt it. I also inquired if it would be possible for them to open up the developer program a bit more so that developer can test/debug code on the phones (and access privileged APIs without the need for certificates etc). Also requested for more info on their developer web site. It is a work in progress, I have to initiate email conversation with the rep, after I get back home.

:evil: Boo to Samsung for ignoring WM with no newer phone models and being a sissy and letting Motorola take the Design lead ... Shame on you Samsung for such a pathetic performance after being in the lead in mobile phone design for a while .. Boo ...

[Kris Kumar]

Thats really good news ... Any talk of expanding the CDMA carriers?

You mean CDMA carrier annoucements/speculations..nothing official..

But now I remember that in one of the sessions where a Sprint guy was talking about location services. He mentioned that Sprint will have Smartphones on their networks soon. But no dates, no model.

And Moto would not comment on anything other than what has already been made public.

[possmann]

Are these all from Moto?

WOW

:drool:

[Kris Kumar]

Are these all from Moto?

WOW

:drool:


No...

These are Mock up designs...concepts..that Microsoft is taking to the OEMs (and carriers) to convince them of the potential of the Windows Mobile platform.

Kris

[ShivShanks]

He mentioned that Sprint will have Smartphones on their networks soon. But no dates, no model.


Woo hoo! Thats at least some progress ... Finally WM Smartphones have a glimmer of hope of coming to the provider with the best data plans in the US ... Now I just need the CDMA version of the MPx and I would be all set ... Bliss :D ...

[Mike Temporale]

- Pocket PCs will come in varying shapes, sizes and form factors – Clam shells, with (slideout) keyboards (yay!).

- Home Screen implementation to be unified between Pocket PC and Smartphone. Next gen Home Screens will be XHTML based

So these 2 items combined with some of those concept designs.... What's the difference between a Smartphone and a PDA again? Because this line is getting very hard to see. :lol:

[ShivShanks]

- Pocket PCs will come in varying shapes, sizes and form factors – Clam shells, with (slideout) keyboards (yay!).

- Home Screen implementation to be unified between Pocket PC and Smartphone. Next gen Home Screens will be XHTML based

So these 2 items combined with some of those concept designs.... What's the difference between a Smartphone and a PDA again? Because this line is getting very hard to see. :lol:

In Microsoft's case: A touch screen. Too bad the WM Smartphone doesn't have one. I think eventually Microsoft will be forced to grow up the Smartphone version a bit and add even more phone friendly features to the WM PPC. Eventually it might make sense to the merge the two and have one OS in the future. This is certainly one big advantage the Palm camp has. They have one unified OS regardless of the shortcomings. They can always improve the core OS to support phones better and so still have one OS. Something thats going to be tough for Microsoft to match in the short term at least.

[Kevin Daly]

While most of this is exceedingly groovy (did I really use that word?), I'm a little nervous about Today screens being XHTML-based.

Haven't we been there with desktop Windows, and was it not one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time ("Cool! I can configure my desktop with HTML and script!") but turned out in practice to be more...well, um sort of a pain in the &lt;ahem> if you actually tried to do it?

XML configuration is great, but XHTML-based Today screens on the other hand are something I'm going to be observing with interest but healthy scepticism.

And it's not just because I'm a grumpy member of the 36-50 age group (apparently). Honest.

[Kris Kumar]

- Pocket PCs will come in varying shapes, sizes and form factors – Clam shells, with (slideout) keyboards (yay!).

- Home Screen implementation to be unified between Pocket PC and Smartphone. Next gen Home Screens will be XHTML based

So these 2 items combined with some of those concept designs.... What's the difference between a Smartphone and a PDA again? Because this line is getting very hard to see. :lol:

As ShivShanks said Touch Screen is one of the differences.

- Memory : SP uses Flash memory for user data. PPC uses SDRAM.
- Power Consumption : SP's are supposed to be more stingy.
- Also the screen size + resolution specs for both are different. This also lays down specs for the overall physicall size of the SP / PPC.

As the hardware tech evolves, I agree Microsoft will have to merge the two into one. Which should'nt be much of a problem, because they branches of the same WinCE.NET core.

Kris

[Kris Kumar]

I'm a little nervous about Today screens being XHTML-based.

Well I think I would be too...

But the benefits will far exceed the flaws. The one benefit I see is that (this is my take on why MS wants to do it XHTML way) it will reduce the overall OS code size. Currently the home screen has to be rendered using a special app/code. With XHTML I am guess they will be running another instance of pIE to render the home screen page. This way one code/app can do multiple tasks - regular browser and home screen engine.

And by getting rid of unwanted code, they can squeeze in more features :-)

Kris

[Kevin Daly]

But the benefits will far exceed the flaws. The one benefit I see is that (this is my take on why MS wants to do it XHTML way) it will reduce the overall OS code size. Currently the home screen has to be rendered using a special app/code. With XHTML I am guess they will be running another instance of pIE to render the home screen page. This way one code/app can do multiple tasks - regular browser and home screen engine.


Point taken.
Of course, doing it with a mini-XAML engine would be waaaaay cooler :P
(Sorry, I'm just having all these delusional thoughts at the moment about Longhorn/Windows Mobile convergence. It must be the pills I'm not taking 8O )

[Mike Temporale]

As ShivShanks said Touch Screen is one of the differences.

- Memory : SP uses Flash memory for user data. PPC uses SDRAM.
- Power Consumption : SP's are supposed to be more stingy.
- Also the screen size + resolution specs for both are different. This also lays down specs for the overall physicall size of the SP / PPC.

Touch screen aside, the rest of these are "small-ish" differences. There isn't much that seperates the two platforms. This is really going to make it difficult for the consumer to select which device and OS would best fit there needs.

[Mike Temporale]

Eventually it might make sense to the merge the two and have one OS in the future. This is certainly one big advantage the Palm camp has. They have one unified OS regardless of the shortcomings. They can always improve the core OS to support phones better and so still have one OS.

Didn't I read something about PalmOne splitting development into 2 camps? One for the device and one for the phone. Anyone else remember hearing this?

[David McNamee]

Didn't I read something about PalmOne splitting development into 2 camps? One for the device and one for the phone. Anyone else remember hearing this?

Yes. I can't remember if it was us or our big brother (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/) who posted on it.

[David McNamee]

Touch screen aside, the rest of these are "small-ish" differences. There isn't much that seperates the two platforms. This is really going to make it difficult for the consumer to select which device and OS would best fit there needs.

I get this all the time now when I do developer talks on Windows Mobile. It's a very, very thin line. The purchaser has to really stop and think about usage patterns and which device will fit them best. It is a tough choice that is about to become even more so.

[Kris Kumar]

Touch screen aside, the rest of these are "small-ish" differences. There isn't much that seperates the two platforms. This is really going to make it difficult for the consumer to select which device and OS would best fit there needs.

I get this all the time now when I do developer talks on Windows Mobile. It's a very, very thin line. The purchaser has to really stop and think about usage patterns and which device will fit them best. It is a tough choice that is about to become even more so.

I agree the decision has to be based on the usage patterns...

Regular phone users should stick with (or upgrade to) Smartphones.
Enterprise phones users (sales/field reps/heavy data users) should go for Pocket PC phones.

I feel right now there is not much confusion..in the future when the devices with varying screen sizes hit the market, thats when the real confusion would begin. Definitely for the geeky ones :D

What I would like is -
1. for every pocket pc phone edition and smartphone to have SIM card, regardless of whether it is CDMA or GSM. Wish Microsoft could use its influence in this area.
2. the SIM card should be like SD card slot, accessible without removing the battery. This way I can have two devices, different screen sizes, and use one depending on what I am doing, and have one phone number.
:D

[Malte]

I'm definately a phone-first type of guy, and I think that most people are. People in general are creatures of habit and the way we use a phone has been the same way for a hundred years now. Instead of focusing on stylus, on-screen keyboards, clip-on keyboards, all kinds of tap-technologies, why not focus on speech recognition, enabling people to send e-mails and make appointments with the phone to their head, like they're used to? Afterall technology should adapt to humans, not the other way around, right?

[David McNamee]

Afterall technology should adapt to humans, not the other way around, right?

The world would be a better place if every software developer took that to heart.

[ClayMJohnson]

Anyone have the link to the Motorola presentation?

Clay-