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Old 01-30-2007, 12:00 PM
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Default Next Version of Windows Mobile for Smartphone to be Called Windows Mobile 6 Standard

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/29/microsoft-switches-up-names-for-windows-mobile-6/

"Some of us are still trying to keep straight in our brains the difference between Windows Mobile Smartphone, Pocket PC, and Pocket PC Phone Edition devices, but with the impending arrival of Crossbow, that ship has apparently sailed. In the realm of new Windows releases, Vista has obviously been garnering the lion's share of the attention, but Windows Mobile 5 is about to ride off into the mobile platform sunset in favor of Windows Mobile 6 -- codenamed the aforementioned Crossbow -- and the naming convention to differentiate between its various flavors is riding with it. Smartphone (read: phones without touchscreens) is rumored to be replaced by the slightly less colorful "Standard," Pocket PC Phone Edition becomes "Professional," and the plain ol' Pocket PC becomes "Classic," perhaps to reflect the fact that phoneless Pocket PCs have been all but shunned to niche markets in recent years. With all due respect to Microsoft and its hardware partners, they could call it "The Stopgap Version To Hold Us Over Until Photon" for all we care; let's just get some product moving in the pipeline, eh?"

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According to the folks over at Pocketinfo.nl the next generation of Windows Mobile operating system software will dump the Pocket PC and Smartphone nomenclature in favour of a more simplified and main-stream naming convention. I love the new naming system, wish they had announced this when Windows Mobile 5.0 was launched. I am sure this will reduce the confusion around why Pocket PC Phone Edition is not a Smartphone and how the Smartphone with a capital 'S' is different from smartphone. :roll: Glad that Microsoft is sorting out some of confusion before Apple decides to come out with iPhone vs. Windows Mobile advertisements on the TV. ;-)

The new Windows Mobile product line up:
Windows Mobile 6 Standard: non-touch screen PDA + phone devices; currently called Smartphone
Windows Mobile 6 Professional: touch screen PDA + phone devices; currently called Pocket PC Phone Edition
Windows Mobile 6 Classic: touch screen PDA only devices; currently called Pocket PC
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Old 01-30-2007, 03:06 PM
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I agree, I think the new naming scheme is great. The confusion between Smartphones and smartphones was too great.

Does this news mean that this website will be renamed to Standard Thoughts?
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Old 01-30-2007, 03:49 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stinger
Does this news mean that this website will be renamed to Standard Thoughts?
Now that is a question for Jason. :lol:

I knew while writing the post that someone will bring this up, but didn't expect the first post to mention it.
 
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Old 01-30-2007, 04:49 PM
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I just have one question. What is wrong with a company that has the economy of a country that they can't come up with any names that make sense? :roll:
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Old 01-30-2007, 05:55 PM
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Yeah, that will clear up all of the confusion that existed over the different flavors of Windows Mobile. :lol:
 
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Old 01-30-2007, 06:12 PM
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It's lame, just lame.
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Old 01-30-2007, 06:20 PM
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Kris, I do hope you're being sarcastic, because this whole thing is an absolutely terrible idea. Can you imagine the confusion among new users?

"Well, this one is a Standard device, so it doesn't have a touchscreen."

"Wait, if a touchscreen isn't standard, why do those other ones have it?"

"Well, those are Professional devices."

"Okay, so only the professional devices have touchscreens?"

"No, the Classic ones do to."

"If they're classic, and the other ones are professional, how is it that the one that's supposedly standard doesn't have a touchscreen, and doesn't run the same software as the other two?"

"Well, that's just what they call it."

"Never mind. I'm going to go buy that Blackberry. At least then I know what I'm getting."

If they want to rename the versions to make things clearer, let them keep Windows Mobile Pocket PC and Windows Mobile Smartphone the way they are, and call the PPC phones Windows Mobile Communicators.
 
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Old 01-30-2007, 07:16 PM
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Yeah this is retarded... :roll:

What's so difficult about understanding:

Smartphone = No touch screen, built-in number pad and/or QWERTY
Pocket PC = Touch screen, may have built-in QWERTY
Pocket PC Phone = Touch screen, may have QWERTY, has a phone radio built-in

Compared to trying to remember the meanings of Standard/Professional/Classic, I have no idea what those mean off-hand, they could literally mean anything.
 
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Old 01-30-2007, 07:22 PM
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Why don't they just do this, consolidate the OS so Pocket PC and Smartphone run the same software (this may not be technically possible) then name them like this:

Windows Mobile Touch = PDA with touch screen
Windows Mobile Touch Communicator = PDA with touch screen and phone radio
Windows Mobile = PDA without touch screen
Windows Mobile Communicator = PDA without touch screen with phone radio

But then again, this might make it too clear for consumers...
 
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Old 01-30-2007, 07:48 PM
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Quote:
What's so difficult about understanding:

Smartphone = No touch screen, built-in number pad and/or QWERTY
The difficulty is that smartphone is also a generic term for any phone with an open operating system capable of supporting native 3rd party applications.

It confuses an incredibly amount of people.

It's akin to Micrsoft calling Windows just "Operating System (tm)". Yes, it's a family of operating systems, but it's not the only operating system.
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