How Unified is Windows Mobile 5.0?

[Peter Foot]

Prior to the release of Windows Mobile 5.0 there were many rumours that there would no longer be two separate platforms (Pocket PC and Smartphone) but a single platform supporting both touchscreen and keypad based devices. In reality the two platforms are still very much separate in this release. There are a number of advances that have been introduced to bring the two platforms closer in line but there are still fundamental differences and two separate SDKs.Functionality has been added to Smartphone to add features previously missing such as support for installing the SQL Mobile 2005 database engine. Also Smartphone gains application support previously only available on Pocket PC such as the Pictures application.On the Pocket PC, some changes have been made to the UI to allow it to support softkeys. For new applications if only 2 top level menu items are present these are rendered as large softkeys at the bottom of the screen which will be familiar to Smartphone users. New devices built specifically for Windows Mobile 5.0 will have physical hardware keys to map to these items. The shell itself has improved support for navigating using hardware keys and the direction pad. Visual cues are added to controls to indicate where the current keyboard focus is.These are interesting changes which will allow hardware manufacturers to produce more innovative device form-factors however the user will still need to be aware of which platform the device uses as software will be specifically built for one or the other. An exception here is that is is possible to write a single application in managed (.NET Compact Framework) code which will run on both platforms if it uses a lowest-common-denominator approach.

[Mike Temporale]

Functionality has been added to Smartphone to add features previously missing such as support for installing the SQL Mobile 2005 database engine. Also Smartphone gains application support previously only available on Pocket PC such as the Pictures application.

:clap:

It's hard to make out who the real winner is with all these new features. It looks to me like the Pocket PC side is seeing the biggest changes. However, it appears that most of these are aimed at bringing it closer to the Smartphone side. So it's really the Pocket PC merging into the Smartphone platform. :mrgreen:

[MS Mobiles]

And I naively hoped that at least MS Reader will be now available also for MS Smartphone platform.

Of course porting Office Mobile programs and Terminal Client wouldn't be very difficult too.

What a waste of opportunity. Squandering...

[me]

And I naively hoped that at least MS Reader will be now available also for MS Smartphone platform.

Of course porting Office Mobile programs and Terminal Client wouldn't be very difficult too.

What a waste of opportunity. Squandering...

I agree. Having been a Pocket PC user for years, and hving just got a MS Smartphone, one is struck by what the SM platform is missing--including none of the Mobile Office apps. Not even a simple text editor! And even to view office files one has to purchase separately a viewer program! Even to have Notes in the PIM one has to purchase Smartphone Notes separately! There aren't even versions of Microsoft's own Reader or Adobe Reader for the Smartphone.

WIth the advent of Bluetooth foldable keyboards, it would be quite possible to compose Office documents on a Smartphone. But the software isn't there.

None of the software I bought for the PPC works on the SM! Etc., etc., etc. Yet they call both "Windowsmobile", although they are actually totally different OSs.

Furthermore--the backup function of ActiveSync, that works fine on my PPC, is grayed out when the AS connection is to a Smartphone! Why? To give Sprite more business? ;-) (BTW, that built-in AS backup works fine on my PPC. The only difference with Sprite is that the AS bkup only backs up and restores from PC, not from storage card.)

I thought it was a very good idea that they would be unified into one platform. I find it very unfortunate that now it looks like that won't be happening.

I guess some of the third party developers that have created apps (like Smartphone Notes), or Westek (Clearvue Suite) that attempt to fill some of the holes in the Smartphone OS will be happy if those holes are still there to fill, but not so good for the rest of us! :cry: