11-19-2007, 10:00 AM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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Winners of the Best Software Awards 2007 Announced
"The Winners in Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine's Seventh Annual Best Software Awards for Windows Mobile software have been announced at www.Smartphonemag.com/Awards. One hundred members of the Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine Board of Experts judged 889 Windows Mobile products in 188 Pocket PC and Smartphone categories. Winners are also listed in the Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine 2008 Buyer's Guide first seen late November."
The winners of Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine's Best Software Awards 2007 have just been announced. A 25-page report containing the list of winners and finalists, GPS software reviews, and comments from members of the Board of Experts panel is available now and will also appear in the upcoming Buyer's Guide and February/March 2008 issue of the magazine.
Congratulations to all the winners and finalists. Your contributions make the Windows Mobile platform stronger every year.
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11-19-2007, 10:08 AM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,067
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Also, I would really like to know if anyone disagrees with the results - most importantly, for the why's.
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11-19-2007, 12:07 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 276
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The only thing missing from the list of winners and losers is "why". I certainly can understand why some programs are better than others but as an example when it comes to Pocket Informant and Agenda Fusion, what made the team decide that PI was better?
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11-19-2007, 01:28 PM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,067
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by buzzard
The only thing missing from the list of winners and losers is "why". I certainly can understand why some programs are better than others but as an example when it comes to Pocket Informant and Agenda Fusion, what made the team decide that PI was better?
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I haven't judged in that category because I still haven't written a PIM Bible; that is, I don't know all the secrets of all these PIM apps so I refused voting in the category. That is, I can't answer the "why" myself with this category (as opposed to the cats I've judged in - and several others where I haven't, but I've published a Bible on them too).
Judges that did judge in the PIM category, however, will surely publish their thoughts. Hope even in this very thread.
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11-19-2007, 01:41 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 276
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Just a note: I was only asking about the two PIM's as an example.
When I read which apps are winners and others are finalists I don't see a reason given as to why the winner is the winner. Maybe it's just personal preference or maybe the reviewer actually has a positive or negative reason that could be added so that the readers could understand why a program won or lost
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11-19-2007, 01:55 PM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,067
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by buzzard
Just a note: I was only asking about the two PIM's as an example.
When I read which apps are winners and others are finalists I don't see a reason given as to why the winner is the winner. Maybe it's just personal preference or maybe the reviewer actually has a positive or negative reason that could be added so that the readers could understand why a program won or lost
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Well, if you see a category I've published a Bible on (or at least separate reviews of all the nominated apps), you can find the answer there. While in not all the categories I've judged in / I know like the palm of my hand did the title that I consider the best win (for example, in the PPC racing game category, K-Rally wasn't even made a finalist, while I consider it without doubt the best 2D racing game for the PPC) , the vast majority of the results closely correspond to my opinions / judgement accessible to everyone thorugh my previously published reviews / roundups / Bibles.
Dunno if the other judges publish their opinions / chime into our discussion.
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11-19-2007, 04:35 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 237
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I've found this annual list to be quite helpful, generally 
One question though -- why was Microsoft's Pocket Streets even nominated? My understanding is that it is no longer available -- it certainly does not seem to be included with any of the recent Microsoft Streets products.
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11-19-2007, 10:31 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by buzzard
The only thing missing from the list of winners and losers is "why".
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As a past judge of several years, I can say that the "why" is quite often hard to nail down - the finalists are all going to be great products to even get that far...all the dysfunctional software is weeded out early. So when you're looking at a few finalists, it quite often comes down to which software product delivers the most bang for the buck, and how well the developer delivers a working solution. That can be hard to explain...it's rarely every one feature that sets the product above the rest.
That's my 2 cents (1.9 cents USD) on being a judge at any rate. ;-)
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11-21-2007, 07:32 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Sep 2003
Posts: 5
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no category for Navigation software? What's up with that??
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11-22-2007, 07:08 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 30
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I also find it puzzling why there is no category for GPS navigation software.
About the winners, the one that really surprised me was Contactbreeze over Inesoft Address Book. I use Address Book and have looked at Contactbreeze, there just is no comparison. I just don't see how an objective judge can make the decision in favour of Contactbreeze. I know price is not always a good guide, but this time I think the price difference of $25 vs $10 is a more reliable indicator of the difference in features between the two applications.
This is not a rant against Contactbreeze, which does what it's supposed to do, just that Address Book offers SO much more.
Maybe the organisers should tell us what the criteria are, and their weightings: eg,
features -10%
bugs -30%
interface -20%
price -20%
support -10%
ease of use -10%
Do the judges actually use a standard scorecard method like the one above or they just rank in order of 'preference' 1-2-3?
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