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  #1  
Old 11-10-2009, 07:09 PM
Jason Dunn
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Default Mini-Microsoft on the State of Windows Mobile

http://minimsft.blogspot.com/2009/1...rosoftness.html

"Holy. Crap. I don't think we have any unbruised skin left on our body to take any more lumps regarding our mobile strategy. The Microsoft Mismanagement theory is in full force as we throw any willing body into the Mobile effort...Look. Let's talk about device loyalty. I first started with owning PocketPCs. An HP Jornada. I loved it. When upgrade time came, HP had bought Compaq and abandoned the Jornada for the iPAQ (what, they had the iThing first?). So, unable to upgrade to the next CE, I cursed a little and bought one of those iPAQs. But HP decided not to allow it to be upgraded. So I switched to Dell to get their latest Axim PocketPC. Dell would be a safe bet, right? And Dell gave up on the line. My latest act of company loyalty: getting a powerful HTC WinMo 6 device. It was cut-off the 6.5 train, and soon, I'm going to be buying a new phone. And I'm going to buy an iPhone."

The blog run by Mini-Microsoft has always been a fascinating read, though I confess I haven't checked it out in quite a few months - I really wish there was an RSS to Email subscription form because I'm RSS-phobic now. But I digress...Mini-Microsoft is a Microsoft employee, likely in a fairly senior position, who uses anonymity to write some very poignant things about the state of Microsoft as a company. His (her?) take on the state of mobile at Microsoft is particularly accurate - Microsoft's decision years ago to completely cede authority to the carriers has resulted in a long string of bad decisions and poor treatment of customers. The carriers may want customers to think of their expensive smartphones are being disposable, but most customers don't think that way when they've spend $200+ (or much more unlocked) for a high-end smartphone. Mini-Microsoft correctly pegs this problem as one of leadership - and while I hear things are getting better, these new leaders have a lot of damage to undo.

I read recently that one of the reasons why Microsoft hasn't done better in the mobile space is because the revenues simply don't amount to much - Microsoft never took this space seriously in the past because it wasn't making enough money off it. They entered this business because they felt they should be in the space rather than let their competitors completely control it - just look at the Zune for another example of this - but ultimately, they didn't really care about it. Given what we've heard from Steve Ballmer over the past 12 months about Windows Mobile, I think that the leadership finally does care about the mobile space. The question is, what are they going to do about it?

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  #2  
Old 11-10-2009, 08:09 PM
alex_kac
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Quote:
Given what we've heard from Steve Ballmer over the past 12 months about Windows Mobile, I think that the leadership finally does care about the mobile space.
I just can't agree with this. Ballmer has said things 5 years ago, 4 years ago, and so on about how WM was so great and how they care and how they are the leader and yet nothing has shown them doing anything about it.

I really dislike Ballmer. Gates was good.
 
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  #3  
Old 11-10-2009, 08:26 PM
frankenbike
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I think the corporate justification for WM/PPC was always to use it as an extension for selling Microsoft Office, with the main selling point being the synchronization with Office.

Now they're caught in a battle for market share, in an environment where the market is to sell Microsoft's corporate image as being in touch with the technical marketplace, while there's really no money to be made in the market itself. And MS is losing, because it doesn't make sense to invest heavily in a market where you aren't going to make money...

So every iPhone sold sells more people on Apple. The iPhone is its own complex form of advertising.

And now Android, what appears to be the very first open architecture phone OS, is making headway into the market. Superficially, it beats Windows Phone, but WP has a depth that gives it a serious edge to anyone who knows it well. And it would be doing better if some cloud service providers weren't being petulant (hear me Pandora and Google?). It would also be better in the long run, if Microsoft weren't so insistent on putting it's own solutions before the potential users.

There should be a chat program included that has AIM/Yahoo/Google/MS all in one IM ap. It might even include mail functionality like Digsby does. The Web Browsers are notoriously unfun for this stuff. And why does the phone still not have full flash functionality? It's better than it was, but I can still only get Justin.tv through Skyfire, which drains your battery like nothing else? (But it is still an amazing browser).

Still, Windows Phone does kick ass if you need what it has. And it kicks the crap out of my wife's Env Touch, though I couldn't convince her to like any smartphone for some reason.
 
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  #4  
Old 11-10-2009, 09:12 PM
Jason Dunn
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Quote:
Originally Posted by alex_kac View Post
I just can't agree with this. Ballmer has said things 5 years ago, 4 years ago, and so on about how WM was so great and how they care and how they are the leader and yet nothing has shown them doing anything about it.
That's a good point, though I don't recall Gates or Ballmer ever talking so openly about how Windows Mobile is slow to market with a new version, how they wish Windows Mobile 7 was already out, etc. In previous years it was "We're competitive! Check us out!" and this year it's been "Yeah, we know we're behind...".
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  #5  
Old 11-10-2009, 09:32 PM
ucfgrad93
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I think Windows Mobile is in a world of hurt right now. In my opinion, they have repeated the mistakes of Palm in that they got stagnant. Microsoft really hasn't done much to catch the eye of the average consumer like Apple and Android OS have done. In addition, most people aren't going to shell out big bucks to buy a new phone just to get a new version of WM. They see the upgrades by Apple, Palm, & Google and wonder why their phone doesn't get a new OS. For the last year or two Apple and Android have been getting all of the press and attention. It is going to be very difficult for Microsoft to reclaim that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by minimsft
I hate that I've been so loyal to the PocketPC platform and Windows Mobile but I've finally had my chain yanked for the last time. I'm not buying a 6.5 device only to have it abandoned when 7 comes out.

In this case, Microsoft is going to have to earn me back and convince that not only do they have a better experience and better quality phone but that they also won't kick me off to the side of the road when a new release comes along, spinning a sad tale that the carriers make all the decisions.
I love these, and minimsft hit this one out of the park!
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Last edited by ucfgrad93; 11-10-2009 at 09:45 PM.. Reason: added quotes
 
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  #6  
Old 11-10-2009, 10:38 PM
Xentrax
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Mini is correct. The reality of Windows Mobile is that the device lives only about a year; then vendor stops supporting it. Even major bugs left unfixed. Rarely we can expect to get official OS version update. The latter I'm afraid is caused by Microsoft itself. Microsoft should have offered uprade for existing devices for free to vendors.


Another thing is the same as for OEM vendors of desktop Windows: crapware. But it's much worse on Windows Mobile because you can't uninstall it. Preinstalled crap takes precious Storage space. After average user installs a couple of apps and downloads a month's worth of email and opens a couple of web pages, typical year 2008 WM6.1 device will have only 2-3MB of Storage memory left. Compare that to 8GB iPhone.


Adding to the mix are idiotic limitations like system default Open File Dialog which is complete garbage and every application vendor has to recode it on its own. That includes MS's own apps like Pocket Word.
 
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  #7  
Old 11-10-2009, 10:52 PM
whydidnt
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It is sad that even Microsoft executives feel the same many of us long time Windows Mobile users do, yet nothing seems to change. We have been hearing for years and years that updates were restricted by carriers, that they were too hard and expensive. Yet, we are seeing both Apple and Google deliver regular updates to their devices, seemingly without significant issue. What is the real story?

How could a company that built itself on technology become so ignorant to the migration from desktop to mobile, and so greedy that it seemed to ignore the movement to continue racking profits on the desktop.

What's scary is how close Google is becoming to owning the cloud because they had the vision to see how computing was going to change, rather than trying to muscle every last cent out of the primary desktop search business. In many ways Microsoft's decisions mirror the same sort of short-sightedness that we've seen Wall Street severely pay for over the past 24 months; where every decision seems to be made based upon this quarters numbers, instead of what is best for the long term good of the company.
 
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  #8  
Old 11-10-2009, 11:38 PM
leslietroyer
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I have to agree with him.. I was a very very long time WinCE supporter, both on the PPC and Phone fronts. I still have and use my Dell X5, my first windows phone was a audiovox Thera, and I've been thru ~5-6 other winmobile phones since ending with a Moto-Q9. I'm now sporting a iPhone & Loving IT. I felt bad at first, but no longer. MS needs to get it upgrade stuff togeather, it alway frustrated me that I had to switch phones to get the features of the new OS...

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  #9  
Old 11-11-2009, 01:51 AM
Jason Dunn
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While I agree with most of your points, I don't with this one:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Xentrax View Post
The latter I'm afraid is caused by Microsoft itself. Microsoft should have offered uprade for existing devices for free to vendors.
I think it's fair to blame Microsoft for having such a FUBAR'd system in the first place, but I think the real blame for us not getting the updates belongs to the carriers and the OEMs. Microsoft released WM 6.1 for free if memory serves, yet how many phones actually got it? My Samsung Blackjack II on Rogers did, but my wife's HTC S640 didn't - because Telus decided to cancel the 6.1 release and now this phone, about a year old, is "forgotten" already. HTC takes a lot of the blame here too - they're using software as a differentiator in their phones, so when they come up with a new version of TouchFlo 3D/HTC Sense they only provide it on the new phones - even though the Touch Diamond and Touch Pro2 have the specs to run it perfectly fine. Rather than relying on hardware innovation, HTC is using artificial limits like only releasing new software for new phones and leaving users of "old" phones (like, six months old) high and dry.
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  #10  
Old 11-11-2009, 02:27 AM
Fritzly
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Dunn View Post
While I agree with most of your points, I don't with this one:



I think it's fair to blame Microsoft for having such a FUBAR'd system in the first place, but I think the real blame for us not getting the updates belongs to the carriers and the OEMs.
Well. yes and not; of course carriers and hardware manifacturers would prefer you to buy new equipment but so would do Dell, HP etc.
The updates for my OSes are handled by MS not Dell and this makes the difference.
 
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