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Originally Posted by txa1265
But Microsoft was very early in the smartphone game - they have been in the mobile OS game more than 15 years now. They have dealt with PDA / handset makers and the wrath of users over inconsistent / failed updates, and on and on and on ...
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Microsoft's legacy experience in this space is frankly what got them into this ugly position in the first place. Pocket PC 1.0 in October 2000 was seriously revolutionary - there was absolutely nothing else like it. By 2007, when the first iPhone was released, Pocket PC was no longer revolutionary - and while it was great for a certain type of user, it was never going to be the mass market product that everyone wanted. The game had changed, but Microsoft's legacy product was no longer what most people wanted. They spent years trying to re-work it, slap a fresh coat of paint on it (WM 6.5), etc. Starting over was the only option.
Quote:
Originally Posted by txa1265
I would say that the '1.0' mindset is like a woman with 5 kids getting married to a new person and getting pregnant and not knowing what to do and everyone saying 'hey, give her a break, this is her first pregnancy!'
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Knowing what to do is different from giving birth to a child and the in-laws getting mad that the kid can't walk, talk, and know the multiplication table by 12 months old. That's effectively what much of the criticism amounts to - that Microsoft isn't growing the operating system fast enough. If this were November and it had been a year and no updates had been shipped for WP7, that would be a valid criticism.
With NoDo out of the gate - a bumpy ride, yes, but it shipped - and Mango coming fairly soon, I don't think it's a valid criticism. Code takes time, no matter who writes it. What needs to get ironed out of course is what happens to the code once Microsoft ships it and how long it takes to get to customer phones - that absolutely has to improve.
Quote:
Originally Posted by txa1265
It is Windows Phone ***7*** for a reason, coming on the heels of 6.5, 6.1, 6.0 and so on. Sure it is somewhat of a reboot from a technical perspective...
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Calling it Windows Phone 7 was a pure marketing play, designed to get some positive "draft" off the excellent reception that Windows 7 was getting. "Somewhat" of a technical reboot isn't accurate based on my understanding of the OS. I'm not a developer, so there's only so much I can say on this topic, but it's based on Windows CE 7 instead of 6 and in every sense of the way was built from scratch.
It's a 1.0 OS. I mean, look at WP7: there's literally no trace of anything Windows Mobile 6.x in there. Every feature they're added is being done from scratch - I haven't seen of heard of any code porting from 6.x, etc. I mean, if they could port over features, don't you think they would have? WP7 is, in every sense of the word, a do-over, with every feature of the product being started from zero.
I'm not saying any of this to excuse the shortcomings and failings of Windows Phone 7 - there are many - but to pretend there aren't viable
reasons for it is naïve. Not everything can be laid at the feet of "bad management" - even the best developers and designers in the world take time to create their art.
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