[SPV]

The quality of the free apps is generally pretty dire and with the possibility of malicious code being written by anti-MS loners I think lockdown seems a pretty good idea. Bad publicity from bad software or hacking attempts will hurt the phone more than the availability of a trek game yet another list app. The core of owners will not be the ones who care if shareware is available but people who want solid well thought out and working apps. Sure people have the option to download or not, but a few articles in the press would get them all scared off even if they never downloaded anything in their life. Imagine the headline, "Hackers took over my smartphone". If an app is good then people will pay for it, a few dollars will be enough to recoup the price of the signing, and if they don't then it just means that people didn't think it was worth paying two bucks for in the first place.

[SPV]

The quality of the free apps is generally pretty dire and with the possibility of malicious code being written by anti-MS loners I think lockdown seems a pretty good idea. Bad publicity from bad software or hacking attempts will hurt the phone more than the availability of a trek game yet another list app. The core of owners will not be the ones who care if shareware is available but people who want solid well thought out and working apps. Sure people have the option to download or not, but a few articles in the press would get them all scared off even if they never downloaded anything in their life. Imagine the headline, "Hackers took over my smartphone". If an app is good then people will pay for it, a few dollars will be enough to recoup the price of the signing, and if they don't then it just means that people didn't think it was worth paying two bucks for in the first place.

[Master O'Mayhem]

Originally Posted by carphead

Changing the subject a bit!!!

I went to see the new James Bond film last weekend. 14 months ago one of the guys there has a P800!!! How come these terrist get a P800 14 months ago yet I have to wait this long!

well i have had mine close to two months :P

[Master O'Mayhem]

Wouldnt this locking seem to not allow hacker to write own code to unlock the sim lock? Is that what they are afraid of? hmm... or is the SIM lock totally separate?

[Jason Dunn]

Interesting thread - seems like it got all the pro-Symbian people out to mock... :roll:

Thankfully, the buying public is nothing like us, and OS bias will likely not play a factor in their purchasing decision. 8)

[Garry [WMA]]

I can see the point of protecting against malicious code but the one really worrying thing is that to get a certificate you have to pass the logo tests. Now if this had been implemented on the PocketPC a lot of very fine applications would never see the light of day and in particular anything which patches the OS. For example we are highly unlikely to get certification for SuperAlert for the SPV although we've had a number of requests to do so.

Also if they want to encourage the market certification should be free.

[Daniel]

Seems a bit scummy to me, I guess we're all PPC nerds though so claims about market share slipping might be a little premature.
I'd like to see the SP do well but I don't know if this is going to help. Hopefully MS will get more than one partner to ship a device so that we can see what the verdict is.

Daniel

[Shaun Stuart]

I have an SPV and it works fine - the lockdown problem is an issue but you can already get rebound, tennis addict, slurp, casino, codewallet listpro, interstellar flames, and more from http://www.handango.com/orange-cobrand - how many additional products were available in the first two weeks of the pocket pc platform release

(not many as I remember - I am also a pocket pc user (ipaq 3870) and remember way back when I purchased one of the fist Jornada 545 in the UK)

Reading the smartphone forums is like reading the pocket pc newgroups back in the early days of release - there are problems but I still think its a good product that will only improve with time.

[mookie123]

I can already say SPV is a flop. It's just a not-so-dumb-phones, but not a true smartphones.

I think people just have to live with PPC phones edition for a true smartphones functionality. (and bring extra battery)

[MaxH]

One of Microsoft's selling points for the smartphone is supposed to be that there's going to be a lot of software available for it. Not like this:

Neither Baltimore or Verisign is doing certificate testing yet. The only apps you can get are the ones that Orange chose for their CD. Nothing since then, and neither company will say when they're going to start testing.

$600US isn't that "nominal" for small developers, especially if you consider that fee for EACH version. Users can say goodby to quick updates.

Developers will only be able to test apps without certificates (any in developement) on emulators that aren't accurate enough for good testing.

Hello, Nokia.

[kennyg]

Originally Posted by carphead

There have been several issues with the SPV (not being able to dial contacts from the phone book being a major one) which had me a bit on edge about it.

You can indeed dial a contact from the phone book, where did you get the idea you couldn't? You can't from the Thera, but that was Toshiba's decision...