I could not agree more with what has been said here and the observations. Yes, MS sucks (always has) and marketing to the personal (not business) users. MS also has a unique challenge here that Apple and RIM don;t have; MS only makes the operating system and then leaves the rest up to the hardware vendors while Apple and RIM control the entire process. You can't ignore this as contributing to the success of these devices as opposed to the winmo OS.
There is no argument that there are tons of great features of the WinMo OS but it always appears that the OS was designed for the "more than casual user". Another way of looking at these three OS's; WinMo appears to be made by someone saying "let's port the Windows OS on to a phone" while the other two are operating systems built for mobile phone use from the ground up. I am not saying that WinMo wasn't built in the same manner, but the appearance and user interface of the WinMo system is that of making the Windows Desktop OS work on a phone. Subtle, but very significant when it comes to User Experience and stability.
For many months I have been pleased and frustrated at the same time when I look at the great "overlay" that HTC created for the WinMo system. Pleased that someone took the initiative to make a user friendly way of navigating through the WinMo OS. Frustrated that it took a Third Party to do it when I think it shoud have been MS' responsiblity all along.
It's exciting to see the Zune HD OS - in fact I would go so far as to say just trash the WinMo OS and build out the Zune HD "OS" as the mobile phone OS. Something significant needs to happen to WinMo in order to get it back in to the marketplace and compete with these two (iPhone and BB) and I think the Zune HD "OS" is the revolution that needs to occur.
As for why, it seems fairly obvious that the two reasons already mentioned are fundamental; pricing and marketing, which in this case blend together somewhat. A good WM phone with a screen anywhere nearly as nice as that of the iPhone (size for ease of finger use and viewing pleasure, pixel count for the latter, colour saturation in any sort of ambient light) costs a small fortune. Any idiot with slightly better than minimum wage income can pick up an iPhone with a cellular contract. Bingo - market a shiny, pretty toy to everyone, make it affordable, then reap the rewards in data plan costs and long term contracts.
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But the iPhone presents a different challenge. An iPhone can do things this week which it couldn't do last week, and will do even more things next week, all thanks to the abundance of developers just leaping at this opportunity gone wild. So what if most of these new applications are pure garbage? It doesn't matter. Some of them are golden. I've been impressed more than a few times with the clever integration of finger-operability, beautifully rendered and cleverly designed graphics, and simple, does what it's supposed to do functionality of some of these apps. And they're cheap, or free, like the iPhone itself. People like cheap and free. People generally do not like $30 or more for a file explorer or a text editor or a media player... etc. Handango and PocketGear have long since encouraged inflationary pricing on apps for Windows Mobile devices, and even developers who sell independently tend too often to charge inordinate fees for simple functionality. Add the cost of a handful of WM apps ($100+) to the cost of an average iPhone-league device ($500+) and the $600 or more is going to put a lot of people off before they even get started.
I think these two paragraphs explain it best. Many here are fixated on the "touch" aspect of the device and the "simple interface" and those are factors. But when you compare the ownership cost of an iphone to WM, WM does not compete. Add in the aforementioned simplicity factor and it's not even close for many consumers. So on the consumer side of things Microsoft and their OEM partners have chosed NOT to compete. Windows Mobile devices are more expensive, the apps are often 3- 5 times as expensive, they have smaller screens, far less memory and aren't as user friendly. I know many power users say - but I can do XX on WM and can't on the iPhone. What you fail to realize is that power users can and will jailbreak the iPhone, significantly reducing that WM advantage. Regular old consumers would NEVER take advantage of that stuff on WM anyway.
On the corporate side, RIM has always offered the perception of an easier to use, easier to manage email eco-structure. I have to carry a blackberry for work and hate it. I don't find it all that usable, but I have to admit that it NEVER crashes, has great battery life and does well at retrieving email.
So, when I'm in airports or public places, I see many, many blackberrys and iPhones and a rare WM device. But I'm not surprised, since Microsoft has been running out the same OS for the last 7 years without any significant improvements. On the hardware side, WM devices, except in rare cicrmstances have NOT pushed the hardware envelope. How long have been running 400 - 600 Mhz Processors? It's still a rarity to see a phone with more than 256-512 ROM. What did they think was going to happen??
I have been a WM fanboy for many years. I don't want to admit what I've spent every time the next latest and greatest device has been released (usually HTC). I've enjoyed what the user community has brought to this platform by way of xda-developers, this website and others. However, with the release if the iphone 3GS, I had another look. I had said many times that I couldn't live without a phsyical keyboard, the ability to manage my device the way I want to manage it, etc. And then it happened. I bought it. There is very little I have missed about the WM experience except for complete Outlook synchronization and better alerting and alarming management as was provided by products such as PhoneAlarm. Otherwise, the Iphone just works. Love or hate how tightly Apple manages the app environment, it hardly every fails and I have once since getting the device have had to restart it.
Microsoft seems to have lost their way with the mobile platform. They have been exceedingly unprogressive in what they are producing. 6.5 is not a radically new product, offering radically new features or enabling new hardware abilities. The hardware vendors keep changing form factors and sometimes for the better, but where is it today compared to 5 years ago? Not very different. The OS is slow, the devices are prone to resetting or resetting to factory default. I guess this isn't much different from what we see on the Microsoft desktop. Windows 7 is going to make a difference. Do we have to wait for WM7 to be that for the mobile device? MS still won't acknowledge the existance of WM7 even under NDA discussion. They need to say something soon regarding their strategy before Apple and Google run away with the market.
The funny thing about Gerard's post is that many of the iPhone's strengths he mentioned WERE Palm's strengths too. Which makes the idea that Palm killed itself due to a stagnant OS and allow Windows Mobile to take over a little sad (for both parties).
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Baka. Soku. Zan. - The justice behind the dysORDer.
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?
Although I am not in airports often, I do use public transportation daily, and see the influx of iPhones, and Blackberrys. I realize people have stability problems with WM (as some do with mobile OS X), but WM has been extremely stable, and reliable for me since I switched from Palm OS about 8 years ago. Based on all the horror stories I had heard, I was reluctant to switch; however, I was pleasantly surprised by how stable WM is, and am glad I made the switch 8 years ago.
I like the bigger screen WM devices like the Toshiba e830, Dell X51v, and HP210. I rarely use the stylus since even the standard WM today screen is finger friendly on a 4" screen. Many of the problems with WM on smartphones are due to the small screens used. I currently have a Touch Pro, and like device a lot. I do wish the screen was bigger, and will upgrade to the Touch Pro 2 when I can.
I do not own an iPhone because it is too feature deficient for my needs. I did purchase an iPod touch to experience mobile OS X, mobile Safari, and multi-touch (all overrated IMO).
Apple's marketing deserves a lot of the credit for the iPhone's quick success. Watching network TV during prime time for a week, and you will be exposed to about 20 iPhone commercials vs. zero for WM, a couple for Blackberry, and a few for various feature phones. Non-tech consumers equate mobile internet access, and cool apps exclusively with the iPhone because the iPhone is the only device they see on the TV commercials demonstrating those abilities. Many shows have multiple iPhone commericials in a one hour episode. The non-tech consumer does not realize other platforms had similar abilities, and many more features for years before the iPhone was released.
Apple did the same marketing with the iPod. Multiple iPod commercials per night on network TV, subways stations plastered with iPod ads, subway trains plastered with iPod ads, and multiple outdoor advertisements. Also, Apple marketed "cool" with their very successful silouette ads. Many younger iPod buyers were buying cool not the clickwheel, iTunes etc. Great marketing job by Apple. Apple continued the great marketing with the iPhone, and rode the coattails of the iPods success.
I have been a WM fanboy for many years. I don't want to admit what I've spent every time the next latest and greatest device has been released (usually HTC). I've enjoyed what the user community has brought to this platform by way of xda-developers, this website and others. However, with the release if the iphone 3GS, I had another look. I had said many times that I couldn't live without a phsyical keyboard, the ability to manage my device the way I want to manage it, etc. And then it happened. I bought it. There is very little I have missed about the WM experience except for complete Outlook synchronization and better alerting and alarming management as was provided by products such as PhoneAlarm. Otherwise, the Iphone just works. Love or hate how tightly Apple manages the app environment, it hardly every fails and I have once since getting the device have had to restart it.
Microsoft seems to have lost their way with the mobile platform. They have been exceedingly unprogressive in what they are producing. 6.5 is not a radically new product, offering radically new features or enabling new hardware abilities. The hardware vendors keep changing form factors and sometimes for the better, but where is it today compared to 5 years ago? Not very different. The OS is slow, the devices are prone to resetting or resetting to factory default. I guess this isn't much different from what we see on the Microsoft desktop. Windows 7 is going to make a difference. Do we have to wait for WM7 to be that for the mobile device? MS still won't acknowledge the existance of WM7 even under NDA discussion. They need to say something soon regarding their strategy before Apple and Google run away with the market.
Sorry for quoting myself here, but what I should have added was that I was much happier with one device. While I had my WM device(s), I was able to get my corporate mail on the same device using Good Link. One device was a requirement I've had for a long time and was finally recognized in the last year or so (due to corporate constraints). However, now that I've bought the iPhone for personal use I was forced to make a conscious decision to move back to two devices - one for personal and a blackberry (data only) for work. Apple continues to make very small steps towards enterprise security compliance. As a matter of fact, with their security features in their OS 3.0 having been hacked a few weeks ago, our company folks are now completely disregarding any consideration for the iphone with this OS release. So the iPhone isn't perfect but quite I have found it to be quite a bit more reliable in its day to day use as compared to the WM based devices.
While a lot of the other factors discussed above have been important, a large part of the "cool/uncool" issue - and the very real usability issue - is because MS has allowed the physical platform to get away from it by not requiring screens at least as large as for the original non-telephone Pocket PCs for full WM phones.
In the absence of a "full-size screen" requirement, the phone companies have been able to limit the available devices to smaller screens. This has simultaneously reduced usability without a stylus, readability of text, and coolness.
I'm still using an HTC-designed Verizon XV-6600 running the six-year-old PPC 2003 2nd Edition, because I refuse to move to a smaller screen. Instead, I buy a new rebuilt XV-6600 online every so often (usually in pairs, out of fear that it may be my last chance to do so), since devices this small and complex seldom last even a year of use.
Just the same, I'm often asked "Is that an iPhone?" because it has a large screen. My stock response is, "No, it's an Old Phone - you can't get one like this any more except second-hand."
Still have a few stockpiled against this one's failure. I get a new battery every time I buy one - I'm up around six or so (plus the ones I've discarded because they wouldn't hold a charge any more).
If the Samsung Omnia II becomes available soon, I'll upgrade. I'll probably revert it to the standard Today screen, and then install spb Pocket Plus to make it the way I want it.
And I'll only have had to wait six or seven years to upgrade!
Tell it brother! I've longed, ached even, to have my old Toshiba e830 be a cellphone. The screen is just so gorgeous and the dual slots and USB enable so much versatility, along with infrared so I can still use it with my Stowaway folding keyboard. But without phone functions I just can't make myself use it day in, day out. I'm a one-device guy. Need it all in one place, if I'm to have it with me all the time. Putting part of my business life in one PDA and part in another just doesn't make a lot of sense, nor does keeping tabs on two battery charge levels. The CF card GSM solutions offered by several companies never did surmount the incoming call wakeup problem, so they were really only glorified walkie talkies with hefty price tags.
I'll suffer with the tiny screen of my Elfin a while longer, hating it, hating the lack of infrared which translates to only minimal PIM and phone use, hating the absolutely ridiculously slow browsing with IE or Netfront... until finally there's a large screened phone running WM6.5. Then it'll be upgrade time. Meanwhile my Asus netbook is seeing a lot of use where my PPC used to be just fine for most chores.
I love WM devices inspite of using Iphone now (I give grand rounds about PDAs in Medicine and was forced to buy Iphone to understand what it can do and what it can not).
As someone said here, You rarely see an ad from AT&T about HTc products with WM OS. AT&T is an extension of apple store. It is all about marketing and MS left it out for the OEMs and carriers to canvas for the WM devices. AT&T reps are not happy about WM devices as they are not given as much orientation as they are about Iphone.
WM devices come in lot of flavors, which is a boon and a bane, as each one can be so different as far as modifying/editing certain features, it needs a more than a casual user to figure out. The system changes are somewhat straightforward in Iphone but bit complex for a casual user on WM.
I can still vouch that WM devices have lot more functionalty and marketing has not yet exploited. I do not want MS to give up on these devices as I simply love them (I have seven of these and waiting for samsung OmniaII and Touch Pro2).
Yup, iPhones & Blackberrys have it...
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