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  #1  
Old 03-19-2009, 12:22 AM
Jason Dunn
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Default The Way Phone Upgrades Should Be Done

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,281...,2343326,00.asp

"Never mind the cut and paste. Never mind the picture messaging, or all the other stuff that should have been in iPhone 1.0. Never mind the new payment methods that will shake up the mobile shopping marketplace. The most radical thing Apple said at the iPhone 3.0 software release was: "The upgrade will be available for free, this summer, to all iPhone owners." Why can't any other smart phone vendors do this?"

My fellow Mobius alumni Sascha Segan nails Microsoft and RIM to the wall in his article, and he's 100% right. There are many reasons why I prefer Windows Mobile to the iPhone, but I'll give credit where credit is due: Apple's ability to easily upgrade the phones of its users is exactly the way things should work, and it makes the rest of the industry, especially Microsoft, look ridiculous in comparison.

Everyone has been harping on Microsoft to improve this since the very first Pocket PC operating system patch came out. Even if you were lucky enough as a user to be "blessed" with the official operating system upgrade, or even an AKU (think service pack), it would wipe out your device, forcing you to re-configure everything from scratch. Compound that problem with the complete lack of intelligent sync of settings - things like pushing down email account settings from Outlook - and you'd end up with an upgraded phone that would take a good hour or more to get back up to functioning status.

That problem is one of the main reasons why I hardly use any third party applications on my devices any more - it's just too frustrating and time consuming to get it back to the way it was before the upgrade. I often use the example when talking to Windows Mobile team members of desktop Windows: "What would you think if, when a Windows Service Pack came out, you had to re-format your hard drive to install it?". No one ever had a good answer for me because that would be sheer insanity to require that in the desktop world - yet in the mobile world, Microsoft deems it perfectly acceptable.

The upgrade story, in this era of software-focused smartphones, is perhaps the single worst thing about Windows Mobile. There are signs on the horizon that this is going to change, but I've been fed the Microsoft party line of "We're working on that..." so many times I refuse to believe it's going to get any better until it actually happens.

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  #2  
Old 03-19-2009, 01:04 AM
SassKwatch
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Don't you think Apple is able to accomplish this largely because they control the hardware *and* the software??

In general, I certainly agree with the overall gist of what you're saying and would LOVE to see the same functionality on WM, I just don't know how MS would do it with such varied h/w out there.(??)

What has puzzled me at times is why MS seems so reticent to the idea of developing their own hardware. And I've pretty much reached the conclusion it's out of fear of another MAJOR lawsuit.
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  #3  
Old 03-19-2009, 01:30 AM
Janak Parekh
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SassKwatch View Post
Don't you think Apple is able to accomplish this largely because they control the hardware *and* the software??
That's part of the reason. But it's clearly more than that -- why can't RIM do it? In fact, the author of the article points this exact comparison out and accepts the fact MS has a bigger challenge.

Quote:
In general, I certainly agree with the overall gist of what you're saying and would LOVE to see the same functionality on WM, I just don't know how MS would do it with such varied h/w out there.(??)
Abstraction. The 3 end-user updates (EUUs) released after Pocket PC 2002 were identical across devices, and they applied just fine. Why did they go backwards instead of forwards? Of course, they can't update hardware-related things or the phone stack, but pure software items like IE should be upgradeable.

I also love the fact that I have yet to wipe+reinstall my iPhone software and configuration, despite something like 6 updates across two different devices (the 2G and the 3G). I've never had a mobile device that upgraded and migrated so cleanly before.

--janak
 
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  #4  
Old 03-19-2009, 04:54 AM
kdarling
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Not a fair comparison.

WM started on tiny screens, serial port comms, very little memory, and certainly not much room to load updates.

Apple waited until there was broadband (phone and host computer), affordable memory, and has no legacy phones or hundreds of vendors to deal with.

If WM was written right now, instead of a decade ago, things might well be different. Which is a different set of comments.
 
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  #5  
Old 03-19-2009, 12:07 PM
emuelle1
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Once I heard the iPhone 3.0 update would be free, I was ready to jump platform. I like some of what Windows Mobile does better, but I'm getting fed up with the instability.

I've been through 5 or 6 updates on my iPod Touch in the last year, including the major upgrade to the 2.0 firmware, and not a single song or setting got lost. It still remembers hotel wireless networks.

I've come to the conclusion that the "Windows Update" feature that comes with WM 6/6.1 is for decoration purposes only. It's as useless as the HP update utility for my printer that has to run 3 times a week and NEVER finds an update.
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  #6  
Old 03-19-2009, 01:13 PM
Russ Smith
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Default Yeah, but...

I mostly agree with the commentary. Microsoft should "modularize" WM to the point where the base OS can upgrade across all platforms. Each OEM would have to think about updating what would essentially be the GUI and some support software. That still leaves the problem of having an upgrade reset the entire machine. Basically, the Registry is the issue. When you make major changes in the OS, the easiest way to deal with it is to restart the Registry. The "solution" to that problem is for Microsoft to go in reverse, abandon the Registry, and revert to the days when each application had it's own installation data file.

On the other hand, as always, Microsoft and Apple have gone in two very different directions. Microsoft provides the OS and base applications, while the OEMs provide the hardware, support software, and additional apps. It's aimed at selling the software. Apple provides the hardware, OS, basic apps, support software, etc. All the Service Provider provides is the bandwidth for the device to connect. It's aimed at selling the hardware.

The fact that Apple controls both software and hardware makes this kind of an update easy.

Still, I'll give Apple credit. It's not at all typical for an update from Apple to be free. It's not typical for Apple to update software without hardware driving it (and thus forcing the user to upgrade the hardware to get the software). It's also not at all typical for Apple to listen to it's users. (Apple usually tells you what you want rather than the other way around.)

I do hope that Microsoft and all the WM vendors take a serious look at this and try to emulate it. I'll probably never own an iPhone (no memory card support, etc.), but I would like to see WM get more update friendly as a result of the competition.
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  #7  
Old 03-19-2009, 02:58 PM
griph
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Janak Parekh View Post
I also love the fact that I have yet to wipe+reinstall my iPhone software and configuration, despite something like 6 updates across two different devices (the 2G and the 3G). I've never had a mobile device that upgraded and migrated so cleanly before.
100% agree with you Janak - after many years and many many WM devices, I have largely migrated over to iPhone 3G and very much looking forward to v3.0 in summer.

I think the answer is in the bewildering array of WM devices and widespread independent changes in hardware - with the various bolt on interfaces that hardware manufacturers are being forced to add in order to compete with the simple but effective iPhone interface.

This is all about compromise - keeping control of hardware and software may seem to some as a draconian measure, but I for one would have accepted it, if I could have had the iPhone 'model' developed by WM years ago witout the compromised design we now have!

I have had my iPhone since early december and am already on my 3rd ROM update (2.21) - and another significant one is on the way. WM manufacturers (including HTC) churn out so many 'disposable' models and variations so quickly now they have clearly decided that ROM upgrades will only ever be offered where unavoidable - if at all. It just isn't worth their while!!

Something needs to change as WM ad their hardware manufacturers appear to be building themselves into a blind branch of the evolutionary ladder - extinction could come quickly!
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  #8  
Old 03-19-2009, 04:40 PM
Marcel_Proust
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Default looking back

I visit sometimes out of nostalgia (just like I've kept my old 1st gen palm, my commodore vic20 etc.) and to see if I should have any regrets in having jumped to the iPhone.
There are still some ; the iPhone os is not quite as powerful and still missing some very capable programs that winmo developers had come to over many years.
But it's slick, stable, a pleasure to use, and catching up in capability. And Apple treats you well (or better than most at least), for example this upgrade.
 
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  #9  
Old 03-19-2009, 05:18 PM
Janak Parekh
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kdarling View Post
Not a fair comparison.

WM started on tiny screens, serial port comms, very little memory, and certainly not much room to load updates.
Then why has the update scenario for WM gotten worse over the years? Back in the 2000/2002 days, we could expect End-User Updates and firmware updates. I had several for my iPAQ 3650 and 3870, and despite the reinstallation hassle, I was glad this was the case. Since 2003, the upgrade scenarios have gotten much, much rarer.

--janak
 
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  #10  
Old 03-19-2009, 05:21 PM
Janak Parekh
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Russ Smith View Post
Still, I'll give Apple credit. It's not at all typical for an update from Apple to be free. It's not typical for Apple to update software without hardware driving it (and thus forcing the user to upgrade the hardware to get the software). It's also not at all typical for Apple to listen to it's users. (Apple usually tells you what you want rather than the other way around.)
In this case, I think they realize the value of a single platform. It encourages developer adoption of new APIs. In some sense, one could argue that the long-overdue features in iPhone 3.0 are more of an enticement for consumers to upgrade to ensure that all iPhones/iPod touches are running one API platform.

Re Apple listening to its users: it does, actually, quite frequently. The problem is it often ignores it too. Then of course, so does Microsoft. Are they ever going to fix WMP?

--janak
 
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