11-18-2008, 10:01 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 8,228
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Internet Explorer 6 For Windows Mobile Devices - No Upgrades or Updates - New Devices Only
Recently the Windows Mobile team blogged a few bits about the upcoming Internet Explorer engine on Windows Mobile devices that will give you close to the full desktop experience on your device, sort of like the iPhone users have had since mid-2007. Microsoft has decided to only make this available on new devices, a factoid only revealed way down in the comments. There will be no upgrades, direct from MS or an OEM, to put this on your fancy new Windows Mobile device. It apparently can't handle it.
"Regarding making IE Mobile available as a separate download or update, the rich media experiences that IE Mobile 6 enables require more powerful, advanced devices. That is why it will not be available as an upgrade or direct download for current phones, but rather will be made available on new phones."
On the one hand, this stinks. On the other, I figured it would be this way anyway. MS rarely ever provides updates to the user directly, instead relying on the OEM partner to dole them out, and the OEM partners tend to offer updates such as this as often as my son picks up his clothes off of the floor voluntarily. At least this way, the OEMs won't take the heat for not providing it, which is I suspect part of the motivation behind it. OEMs are likely to be sick and tired of us users wanting cool new things on the device and calling asking for the updates, either free or for a nominal fee. This way, the OEM can now say MS isn't offering it. Pure speculation on my part of course, but I suspect there is merit to it. Wouldn't have posted it if I didn't think so. 
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11-18-2008, 10:26 PM
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Banned
Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 38
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Sounds like an 'economic stimulus package' from M$. They are just doing thier best to motivate us to buy new hardware. On the other hand, where are we dumping all that old hardware? Maybe this is not a very 'green' move.
I get so confused on what is good and bad these days.
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11-18-2008, 10:46 PM
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Editorial Contributor
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 5,411
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed Hansberry
"Regarding making IE Mobile available as a separate download or update, the rich media experiences that IE Mobile 6 enables require more powerful, advanced devices. That is why it will not be available as an upgrade or direct download for current phones, but rather will be made available on new phones."
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Yea, right. We haven't seen any advancement in devices in years. We are running the same speeds and memory configurations we have been running since the last days of WM2003SE. So when are they releasing those .8-1GHz processors and coupling them with the 512M-1G RAM devices?...And if they do arrive, expect 30 min of battery life as we haven't gotten much better with that challenge either.
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11-18-2008, 11:26 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 518
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So, does this open the door a bit wider for Opera Mobile?
What about Google's browser - Chrome?
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11-19-2008, 12:00 AM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,202
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Not surprised, but what a line of BS. I'm sure we won't see any new devices running WM6 that have comparable hardware to today's devices. 
Since the devices we buy today have changed very little in terms of hardware (processor/memory) in the last 5 years, we are now led to believe that new devices will somehow be more powerful than old.
Then again, this just proves what a lousy strategy MS has in regards to mobile browsing. Opera has already delivered a decent browser that runs on today's devices, Apple has already delivered a decent browser that runs on a device with comparable hardware to today's devices. Heck, Nokia managed to get Firefox running on hardware with similar specs (N810). Yet, Microsoft gives us a 3 generation old browser that is still too demanding to run on today's devices. Hmmm, wonder why some of us question Microsoft's commitment to the mobile space, or if they even have a clue what they are doing in Redmond?
At this point Microsoft contineues to show that they just don't get it. I feel we are about to see a signficant shift away from Windows Mobile. Microsoft continues to show complete disregard for this market and the customers that have supported their software for the last decade.
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11-19-2008, 01:15 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 41
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well, most reports say that IE6 is a bit slow as is.
other than that, I read somewhere that some OS changes are needed. that does mean a new OS build is needed. that in turn means that you have to run through the whole quality assurance chain all over again with your ROM build...I am working in SW dev for a big company, and I can assure you, the smalles code change requires full regression testing, so I doubt many would want to do that.
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11-19-2008, 01:35 AM
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Pupil
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 32
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Internet Explorer
Well said, Ed (see, I do give credit where it's due)
Just another marketing ploy from MS and the OEM's.
Maybe it does need WM6.5, which upgrade will certainly not be supplied by the OEM's.
However, the various ROM development communities are full of talented people who hate marketing lies (with good reason). So within a month or so of release, there is hope
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11-19-2008, 02:30 AM
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Swami
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 4,396
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BS
Quote:
Originally Posted by Microsoft
"Regarding making IE Mobile available as a separate download or update, the rich media experiences that IE Mobile 6 enables require more powerful, advanced devices. That is why it will not be available as an upgrade or direct download for current phones, but rather will be made available on new phones."
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I'm calling BS on this. I can accept that it can't be a separate download due to OS changes, but why can't an OEM create a new build of WM 6.1 (or WM 6.5) that includes this? Is Microsoft claiming that WM 6.5 (which I presume will include the new browser) either won't run on existing hardware or builds for older hardware won't include the new browser?
And, while IE Mobile 6 may "enable" rich media (presumably Flash and maybe Silverlight) applications, which may require more powerful devices, why can't existing devices just not have Flash and/or Silverlight support? Is Microsoft claiming that rendering the same HTML pages we can view today now requires more power in IE Mobile 6?
Of course, given that Adobe has made versions of Flash for Pocket PCs available back in the WM 2003 days (or earlier), I'm not sure I even buy that line about rich applications. Maybe the new Flash 10 or Silverlight 2 are resource hogs, but how does that affect the rest of the browser?
And what about Windows Mobile Classic devices that typically have 500 MHz or faster processors? Phones tend to have slower processors to save battery life, but PDAs are usually faster.
BS, Microsoft, BS.
Steve
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11-19-2008, 03:12 AM
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Swami
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 4,396
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Device Advancement
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sven
Yea, right. We haven't seen any advancement in devices in years. We are running the same speeds and memory configurations we have been running since the last days of WM2003SE.
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That's not true. Memory configurations have improved markedly. Back in WM 2003 SE, memory was limited to maybe 96 MB ROM and 64 MB RAM (because of battery life) with rare exceptions (the iPAQ 5550 had 128 MB RAM, but that was split between storage and program memory). WM 5 changed that by using flash memory for storage and only using RAM for program execution, and we now have devices with 256 MB (or more) ROM and 128 MB RAM. And that doesn't include devices like the Touch Diamond that have 4 GB (probably mapped as a fixed storage card).
Even processors have changed. I don't remember what the fastest processor in WM 2003 SE days was, but I think it was 400 MHz (it certainly was in WM 2003). Now we have devices with 500+ MHZ processors and even 624 MHz (like my iPAQ hx2795).
Granted, most of those are PDAs, not phones, because phones tend to use slower processors to maximize battery life. However, the HTC Universal had a 500+ MHz processor, and the new ASUS P565 will have an 800 MHz processor.
So things have changed, just not as fast as we might have liked.
I agree that Microsoft's reasons seem wrong, but the truth doesn't need shading to prove that (see my rant above  ).
Steve
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11-19-2008, 04:44 AM
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Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 740
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I strongly believe that, thirty years from now, the way MS is killing its share in the mobile segment will be a case study for people attending Economic Courses in the Universities.
I am not sure if what we saw is a monument to ignorance, stupidity, arrogance or a mix of all of them.
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Linear Mode
