Windows Phones Arriving on October 6

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsphone/archive/2009/09/01/windows-phones-are-coming-on-october-6th.aspx' target='_blank'>http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/wi...ctober-6th.aspx</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"In just five weeks, you'll have a bunch of new Windows phones to choose from. But before we show you some of the cool, new phones that will be coming out, I want to explain how we're trying to make phones even better with Windows. When we started work on Windows phones, we met with people all over the world who were likely to buy a smartphone and talked with them about what's important to them in their phone. Looking at the U.S. market, for example, we found that about 15 million people in the next year will buy a new smartphone. Of the people we talked to, 74% listed productivity as the top feature they value in their smartphone. We took this feedback to heart, making the user interface more touch friendly and improving notifications and updates from e-mail, text and calendar items."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/ppct/auto/1251885731.usr2.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>The <a href="http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowsphone/archive/2009/09/01/windows-phones-are-coming-on-october-6th.aspx" target="_blank">post</a> at The Windows Blog goes on to mention that <em>"most people who carry a Windows phone don't realize it's running Windows Mobile"</em>, which is interesting, yet not that all surprising. We're in a time now when the iPhone and Android handsets are dominating headlines, and device manufacturers such as HTC and Samsung work around the clock to develop UIs that mask many of Windows Mobile's less-than-desirable qualities. You would think that Microsoft would do anything to promote its brand, and urge its partners to do the same, so that quoted statement almost comes across as an admission that a lot more needs to be done to increase public awareness of Windows Mobile.</p><p>There's now the chance to do just that with Windows Mobile 6.5, starting with a new and improved look (honeycomb haters will disagree), a new name for its devices (all hail the "Windows phones"), and a host of partners (listed below) to kick off the show. Mark October 6 on your calendar, because that's when we'll be able to get our grubby hands on a wide range of Windows phones to suit our varied tastes, needs, price points, and geeky pleasures.</p><ul><li><strong>North America:</strong>&nbsp;(Mobile Operators)&nbsp;AT&amp;T, Bell Mobility, Sprint, TELUS and Verizon Wireless;&nbsp;(Phone Manufacturers) HP, HTC Corp., LG Electronics, Samsung and Toshiba Corp.</li><li><strong>Europe:</strong> (Mobile Operators) Orange, Deutsche Telekom AG and Vodafone Group Plc;&nbsp;(Phone Manufacturers) Acer, HTC, LG Electronics, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Toshiba</li><li><strong>Latin America:</strong> (Mobile Operators) TIM Brazil;&nbsp;(Phone Manufacturers) HTC, LG Electronics and Samsung</li><li><strong>Asia Pacific:</strong> (Mobile Operators) NTT DOCOMO Inc., SOFTBANK Mobile Corp., SK Telecom, Telstra and WILLCOM Inc.;&nbsp;(Phone Manufacturers) Acer Inc., HTC, LG Electronics, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and Toshiba</li></ul>

[Phillip Dyson]

I suppose those of us with existing devices will have to content ourselves with the old "will they, wont they" question as to whether we will get upgrades.
Nothing would please me more than to get the new browser on my Samsung Jack.

[frankenbike]

"Of the people we talked to, 74% listed productivity as the top feature they value in their smartphone."

Really? Who are they talking to? Certainly not iPhone users. Or Palm or Blackberry users. Maybe company IT people in companies that buy their phones for their employees so they can keep tabs on them at all times?

Certainly a tiny minority of the overall phone market, where people buy their own phones out of pocket.

My friends, coworkers and employers don't value productivity on their phones at all. It's not even a word that would occur to them to use. In fact, they'd use their iPhones and Blackberrys for all of the things they didn't want on company servers. Because if the company doesn't buy the phone and pay the bill, the primary purpose of the phone is for all the things in their lives that aren't work.

This is why, at a recent company dinner, nearly everyone had iPhones. Especially the bosses, who saw them as a status item.

[Darius Wey]

I suppose those of us with existing devices will have to content ourselves with the old "will they, wont they" question as to whether we will get upgrades.

Based on past experience, don't hold your breath. :(

[TimFountain]

Well two posters have said it already, but so what? Most WM devices out there will not be able to upgrade and take advantage of these new features due to the insane carrier/MS tug-of-war. The only possible alternate is to go through the pain and hassle of obtaining cooked ROMS and hacking/lashing something together that might work, kind of sort of.

MS lost any advantage they had years ago. I really have tried to stick with it, I have a touch pro on Vodafone, and the released ROM was unusable, requiring many iterations of WM 6.1 and 6.5 to find something that was vaguely useable. I also have an AT&T 8125 sitting the in cupboard, brand new, never used oh and an old IPAQ 3660 that runs some nav software.

My phone/PDA for the last two years has been a Blackberry 8820, which is a competant phone but lacks 3G and, to be honest, Blackberries are kind of boring. They do the job but there is not much glitz of glamour. So this week I went over to the darkside and got a 32G iPhone 3GS. I am happy; the phone works well as a phone, PDA and ipod. The OS is a joy to use and is very slick. The beauty is not just skin deep.

The war is over. 6.5 is just OK, the honeycomb icons are not easy or intuitive and options and settings are spread all over the place. Even on a decent machine like the HTC TP, it is sluggish and freezes for many seconds without explanation.

- Tim