Microsoft Smart Phones Coming Soon

[Jason Dunn]

<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,89443,tk,dn031802X,00.asp">http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,89443,tk,dn031802X,00.asp</a><br /><br />I read a message in the forums yesterday from a user who was mocking the fact that only one carrier had signed up to use the Smartphone 2002. Today there are four, and I wouldn't count Verizon Wireless, Sprint, VoiceStream, and Cingular as insignificant players. Finally - the momentum is building.<br /><br />"Four U.S. mobile-phone operators will start selling smart phones and phone-PDAs running Microsoft software later this year. Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and VoiceStream Wireless will market combination PDA and phone devices running Microsoft's Pocket PC software, according to statements issued by Microsoft and each of the operators at the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association event in Orlando.<br /><br />Cingular Wireless will sell Sendo's Z100, a phone with some PDA functions based on Microsoft's Windows Powered Smartphone 2002 software, Sendo said Monday. Sendo, of Birmingham, England, last week said the Z100 would be hitting the streets this year. Verizon, of Bedminster, New Jersey, and Sprint, of Westwood, Kansas, will both sell the Thera from Audiovox Communications. Verizon plans to start selling the Thera in the second quarter, followed by Sprint sometime mid-2002, the operators said."

[Paragon]

Jason

Have you heard any reports on anyone in Canada carring any of these? To my knowledge Fido is the only carrier in Canada with GSM/GPRS service, and it is quite limited. So the choices for HP 928 and all the other GSM devices seems quite narrow at this point

Audiovox's Thera is CDMA... is it compatable with any of the other carriers. Telus, Bell Mobility, or Rogers. From what I have read it is going to be marketed as an enterpise solution and will not be available retail, narrowing the possiblities again.

Can you shed any light on this?

Thanks
Dave

[JMountford]

Hey Jason we have been discussing the Microsoft offerings for Wireless Phone service in several of the threads here on thoughts since yeaterday at least.

Paragon the Thera will be strictly CDMA from all of the information I gathered. It does include an SD slot but no CF. It is a standard 206 Strong Arm. And from all reports it will be exspensive.

I am on a corporate account with Sprint PCS so I should be able to get the phone. I have had experience with ordering new handsets from Sprint PCS before and it is always a gruling experience. The price point will probably be rediculous especially for old technology, as the Thera is not an X Scale, does not have increased Ram or Rom, Simply has a built in wireless modem that is available as astand alone now, may or may not have the official MS Win Pock Phone Ed software, and has no built in Bluetooth or WiFi, (at least not that I have seen reported).

Honestly my advice would be to wait. There will be better devices coming very soon. It is still neat to see something like this for CDMA, but a little disappointing because of what it could and should be.

[Kemas]

My guess is in six months to a year they will all stop selling these units because there will not be enough sales and the network time will be horribly expensive. This is just the wrong time. AGain I say, if they release the Pocket PC phones before the smaller Stinger phones, they will make a huge mistake. People don't want big and complicated with tons of features, they want small and easy with just the features they need. Stinger does this so well and will do it at a price point the average mobile phone user might be willing to spend. I will not spend $800 on a phone that I won't carry with me at night or to a bar. Like I said before, if I can't carry it into a bar and pull it out to write down the number of an attractive woman I meet; I sure as hell won't carry it and niether will most Americans. It isn't accepatble behavior. To carry a PDA/Phone is to be a geek. Nothing wrong with it, unless you want your brains bashed in by some drunk at the bar who could never afford such a "luxury" and hates that fact that some "Yuppie" (yes anyone reading this is probably a yuppie) can afford one. Not to say that I can...
I hear people complaining about carrying their PDA and their phone wherever they go.... I think a great vote would be (Who Carries their phone and PDA every place they go?) another good question would be who is willing to carry their PDA/Phone everywhere they go? I think you will find the numbers are low even among this group... so think of what it will be like across the country. Palm/Phone sales have been horrible. Only Samsung has made a dent and it hasn't been a very big dent. It is just a bad idea. At best it will be a semi-succesful niche market; but less we remember, the Pocket PC market is a niche market. Niche in a niche... not a good thing for business and sales.
Anyone remember WebTV.... great idea... didn't take off... too expensive, too limiting.... too niche. These are identical issue, but darn close.

[Jason Dunn]

Have you heard any reports on anyone in Canada carring any of these?


Some grim news on this front, at least as far as CDMA is concerned. I'll make it a front-page post.

[bblock]

Kemas, thanks for your obviously omiscient viewpoint on what people want and don't want.

As other users have said, it depends which device you use most, what type of wireless form factor you'd choose. I have seen many people say they wouldn't want their PDA to be their only mobile phone. However, I use my PDA far more often than my cellphone, and put my money where my mouth was by buying an iPAQ 3850, looking forward to the GSM/GPRS Sleeve.

My father doesn't know this (or any of the recent onslaught of PDA/phone news), but the other day, while looking at my iPAQ, he commented that he wanted one desperately, but that he wanted to wait until it had phone capability as well. This was not an idea I planted in his head; rather his vision of how he would use the device and what he wanted it for.

You may not want one, but don't tell me what I want or don't. The market will decide what products and technologies are successful - it's called capitalism.

[JMountford]

I have to back Kemas up here. I do not think either of us is saying what you should or do or will want, buy, need, etc. We are just predicting the market.

This isn't a fight.

We are just calling it how we see it. I don't know about Kemas, but I watch the markets and trends. I watch the posts. I pay attention to what other people like me are saying. I read the wireless news articles and the Reuters reports. I pay attention to the anylists.

Truth is as Kemas says Pocket PC Phone Edition is a novelty among novelties. Even most techy users will not want them.

I have stated in other posts that the people who buy them will fit into Either or both of two categories;

1) Impatient Consumer
2) Doesn't know any better

Why do I say these things? How can I back it up? Easy.

1) PDA Form factor compared to Smart phone Form Factor
2) Current Technology at the time of release to Outdated technology at the time.
3) Useability
4) Mass market Appeal
5) Pricepoint

Let me put things into perspective where the Pocket PC Phone Edition Devices are concerned.

The current Phone Ed PPCs are all running 206 Strong Arm CPUs. I don't think any of those devices are yet available for purchase any where, let alone the states or in Markets that determine Market Share. Further more; The Phone Ed devices represent the same old specs that we have seen in strong arm PPCs over the last six months. Same Screens, Same RAM, Same ROM, Same OS with a few tweeks. There is just nothing outstanding to them. THe OEMs slapped in some Wireless Chips and there you have it. A couple of the devices have even given up a few things like CF slots and I don't think any have Bluetooth.

Now most of us. Do not want to run out and waste money on a 206 PPC. I know I am waiting for the X Scale Devices before I buy a new one. So will most people. Most of us call ourselves Techies. We have sence. We want the best. There are always the few who will want something just because it is new or does something that another device might not. I rank those in the impatient and don't know better groups. Now if these PPC Phones had X Scale CPUs and some other hardware like Bluetooth, then they would have a chance, but the Pricepoint would be so rediculously far out of reach as to be pointless.

Things like this may not matter to some but they will matter to most.

[JMountford]

I want to go on record as saying I take My phone EVERYWHERE!!! My iPaq quite often sits at home.

I would much rather have 2 devices. I am looking forward to buying a smartphone if I ever See one for CDMA.

I just hope it has Bluetooth. :D

[Paragon]

I want to go on the record as saying I take both my devices EVERYWHERE. I would rather have one device. I am looking forward to buying a Pocket PC PHone addition device
:)

Dave

[entropy1980]

I don't think the power for PPC PE is with the phone capabilities so much as it's wireless connectivity, In fact the only mistake I see is the marketing of it as Phone Edition, The benefit is you can have PC functionality of web access and connectivity anywhere at anytime, I see it as If I want to go online why hook the damn thing up to my phone with a cable or even bluetooth why not just build it in? If they get the pricepoint to near normal PPC (50 to 100)they have a winner, as I said the name to me is misleading but the functionality is better than a smartphone in that try writing or typing on a smartphone not going to be much fun, don't get me wrong I will be buying both, but I think they both have their place.

[sdanaher]

"unless you want your brains bashed in by some drunk at the bar "

Or you could spend some time in the gym... hold your own a bit...

[Kre]

I just wish the Sendo phone had Bluetooth integrated. To me, that was an oversight on Sendo`s part.

And Im eager to see what kind of ppc phone Compaq will come out with.

[dochall]

I read a message in the forums yesterday from a user who was mocking the fact that only one carrier had signed up to use the Smartphone 2002.

I think that would be me, how kind :D , but you didn't actually get the jist. However from a later comment maybe we have North America/Europe (or more locally a UK divide.

Certainly in the UK you choose your phone and then you choose you're network. The UK is split into three kinds of user:

1) The techie - talking about network enhancements prior to them being known by the staff at your local store. 'Ahh yes, I'm going on a training course next month about GPRS'
2) The poser - phone as accessory, constantly updating to look cool.
3) The user - I just want a phone.

Now obviously the first is the main readship of this board. They will go for for functionality over content and probably have say an SE T68 or are looking at the 7650 and waiting. Ideal market for MS if they are prepared to stump up the extra cash for an expensive phone. I'd class myself in here and certainly most of sad geeky friends (we all paid US$600 when the 8810 came out for the modem).

The second two are harder nut to crack. Brand recognition of the big players is very well established over here and like anything else they follow. A poser get's out his new Sendo phone and all his mates say 'WHO'. The user goes by the advice of the salesman and isn't that interested in huge functionality particularly as it's expensive. This is the market that that MS has to crack and I believe that this is the awkard one.

The interest in GPRS/WAP has been phenomally disappointing in the UK. The average phone user just doesn't get it. Now if MS can persuade the sales assistants that they should sell a phone from a manufacturer that nobody (at least in these groups) has heard of then they may have a chance but I do believe that there is huge step to overcome prior to the acceptance of these phone by the average user which continues to make the vast majority of the phone buying public.

oh and another three:
Wooohee!
Wooohee!
Wooohee!
:lol:

[James Bond]

Who is the primary market for these units? You are all talking as if it is consumers, but let's bet it is business! For heaven's sake, would anybody in their right mind buy the Blackberry as a consumer device? Yet businesses are eating them up by the thousands because they provide instant connectivity to the office. These devices go even further than the BB in business usability. They are not PDAs, and they are not phones. They are a great business tool. So if MS can persuade big business to place large orders of these, the rest will be history.

In case you don't agree with the biz vs consumers idea, look at your PPC2002. Do you think it was aimed at consumers? With terminal services? Syncing multiple Outlook folders? C'mon. MS usually gets the big biz hooked up first, that is how it gets marketshare and mindshare.

Other than that, yes -- I believe this PDA-phone brick will be wildly unpopular with consumers, at first. If the product survives (and MS is known to be persistent, the CE devices history alone proves it) then a next version will surely be a consumer favorite as well, once size/battery/bugs have been ironed out.

My 007 cents...