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  #1  
Old 02-09-2009, 07:00 PM
Ed Hansberry
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Default Goodbye Windows Mobile, Hello Windows Phone?

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20090206PD207.html

"Microsoft, which is planning to unveil its Windows Mobile 6.5 platform at the Mobile World Congress soon, has decided that, going forward, Windows Mobile-based handsets will be promoted simply as Windows phones without specifying an OS version number, according to market sources in Taiwan."

This certainly isn't the first time Microsoft has renamed their mobile device platform. Here is a list of names it has gone by over the years, and since I am doing this from memory, I may have missed a few. Feel free to add those I skip into the discussion thread. I am only including those based on Windows CE. I know MS had other efforts before that, but let's ignore those.

  • Handheld PC - first device based on Windows CE
  • Palm-sized PC - the first PDA style device. Actually called Palm PC until the real Palm sued that name out of existence.
  • Pocket PC - first successful device running Windows CE.
  • SmartPhone - non-touchscreen device
  • Windows Mobile added to the name.
  • Pocket PC and SmartPhone dropped. Now known as Windows Mobile Professional and Windows Mobile Standard. Windows Mobile Classic was the name for non-phone devices
  • Windows Phone (rumored)

If this rumor is true, something we may find out next week at Windows Mobile Congress, we'll see how long it lasts. I have never seen Microsoft rename a product so many times, much less in just twelve years.

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Old 02-09-2009, 07:28 PM
Jon Westfall
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I think MS should stay away from using "Windows" for anything other than the desktop / server operating system. Successful MS products other than OS'es have never used "Windows" in the title (e.g. Zune, Office, XBox). I kinda get the use of "Windows" for a mobile operating system, but I'm thinking MS just needs to come up with a brand new name. Even better if it has built-in coolness, such as "Microsoft Ice" or "Microsoft Gunslinger".
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  #3  
Old 02-09-2009, 08:10 PM
Rocco Augusto
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I wonder if this is an omen that Microsoft will be merging the Standard and Professional platforms into one single entity. It makes perfect sense with the trend the mobile market is shifting in. As with the recent Windows Mobile 6.5 series of leaked screenshots, I do not believe I have seen one come out for the Standard platform. Also take into account it feels like there has been a significant drop in released Windows Mobile Standard devices recently while everyone and their grandmothers are coming out with a Windows Mobile Pro device and all of that can mean sad times ahead.
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Old 02-09-2009, 08:16 PM
MadSci
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Default Windows IPhone

as in "I was here first!"

ok, Nokia might have something to say about that, but really, how relevant is Symbian anymore (at least in N. America)

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Old 02-09-2009, 08:23 PM
Brad Adrian
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I just think it's a mistake to keep changing how Microsoft refers to/ names its products, especially its Windows Mobile products. It is so easy to underestimate the value of a recognizable and consistent product name. How many times in the past eight years (or even eighty years) has Coca Cola changed the name of its cola?
 
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Old 02-09-2009, 08:45 PM
efjay
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rocco Augusto View Post
I wonder if this is an omen that Microsoft will be merging the Standard and Professional platforms into one single entity. It makes perfect sense with the trend the mobile market is shifting in. As with the recent Windows Mobile 6.5 series of leaked screenshots, I do not believe I have seen one come out for the Standard platform. Also take into account it feels like there has been a significant drop in released Windows Mobile Standard devices recently while everyone and their grandmothers are coming out with a Windows Mobile Pro device and all of that can mean sad times ahead.
How do you envision this merging will happen? Is it actually more of a case of doing away with the WM Standard version altogether? I'm not sure how the two platforms could be merged when they are so different in how they are used ie touchscreen vs non-touchscreen and if they keep the Standard version as it is and just call it something else that wouldnt really be a merger. WM Standard is definitely a good OS but it does seem like the most powerful apps are designed for the Professional version so I wonder where the need to keep the Standard version would arise.
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Old 02-09-2009, 09:01 PM
MadSci
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Default Yea, like WTF is Windows 'Live' anyway

Frankly I don't have the time anymore to ferret out the differences between all the similar versions of the same software/services MS offers.

For example, I've had MS Messenger on my boxes for years, desktop, laptop, WM Phones, all o them.

Then along comes Windows 'Live', like the New Messiah and I'm urged to switch. Why? What's the difference. Frankly, it was all so balled up in gobbledgook and BS MS AdverSpeak that I just couldn't be bothered.

Only now, when I find that MS Messenger has finally become a tad difficult to keep working across platforms, have I bothered, and my conclusion, Windows 'Live' Messenger is just a new 'half-version' of MS Messenger, but it does integrate better with a bunch of other bundled apps that I don't care about.

Oh, and I have to do a complicated Registration process, which confuses me beceause it recognises my MS NETWORK ID just fine, but won't let me keep it as they have altered the format of the UserID and Password again.

Honestly, these people don't have a clue!

If WLMessenger had been called MS Messenger, version x, I would have considered moving over ages ago. Instead, I am being FORCED to migrate, and nothing pis*#$ off a customer more than being forced to do what he/she doesn't want to.

Hello! Most people learned that in Kindergarten!

This kind of nonsence, along with my second forced migration to a half-baked, buggy unstable version of Windows (Win98 to Me, and now XP to Vista) is precisely the reasons I am going out and getting a Mac Book! If Apple were to get ahead of the mobile technology curve (decent screen - Local Outlook Sync, open OS) with their phone than it would be adios WinMo!

Wake Up Microsoft - your coffee is burning!
 
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  #8  
Old 02-09-2009, 09:38 PM
Rocco Augusto
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Quote:
Originally Posted by efjay View Post
How do you envision this merging will happen? Is it actually more of a case of doing away with the WM Standard version altogether? I'm not sure how the two platforms could be merged when they are so different in how they are used ie touchscreen vs non-touchscreen...
This is true but with the new screenshots that we saw you could easily create a non touch screen device that uses the Zune-like interface.
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Old 02-09-2009, 09:55 PM
j2inet
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Quote:
Originally Posted by efjay View Post
How do you envision this merging will happen? Is it actually more of a case of doing away with the WM Standard version altogether? I'm not sure how the two platforms could be merged when they are so different

Windows Mobile Standard has some nice features that Windows Mobile Professional doesn't have. One of these is an always-on power management scheme. There have been mentionings in the past on the Windows Embeded and Windows Mobile blogs that perhaps one perhaps some of the features in Windows Mobile Standard will be ported over to Windows Mobile Professional (which would result in improved battery life and potentially higher performance) but nothing definite.

There are other nice features that WM Standard has and Pro doesn't, but things like this are invisible to the user.
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  #10  
Old 02-10-2009, 12:02 AM
Ed Hansberry
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MS has been merging these platforms for years. PPC had Office, now Smartphone does. Smartphone had data saved to RAM, now PPC does. Smartphone had "soft keys" and now PPC does. And on and on.

I don't know if it is WM6.5, Wm7 or Wm.next but at some point, I suspect there will be one device and it will come in two flavors - touch and non-touch. Everything else will be identical.
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