Where I went, and what I saw!

[Pete Paxton]

I just took a trip to Little Rock, AR and whenever I go somewhere I always take a visual inventory of the devices people are carrying in the airports and the conferences I go to. So I went to the Portland airport, Denver airport, and Little Rock airport as well as my conference in Little Rock which consisted of about 200 educators. I have to admit that the device I saw the most is the Blackberry, especially the Curve and the 8800. I also saw quite a few Treos though not as many as I used to. The device I am seeing more and more is of course the iPhone, but the good news is that I saw many more Windows devices than I did on my trip last summer. Most of these were Windows Mobile Professional devices like the Tilt and the Wing. I didn't see as many standard smartphones (non touch screen) as I thought I would. Last summer I took my Dash to St. Louis but I hardly saw any devices other than Blackberries and Treos. I wonder why BB's are still so popular? Windows Mobile has Exchange with push email and in my opinion, more powerful business like apps. What do you think it will take to make Windows Mobile devices the business man's or woman's device of choice? Now I know that many of you travel way more than I do, so what devices do you mostly see out there?

[WyattEarp]

Although I am nolonger a WM user I do agree that it offersa lot to business people. But it is highly unrealistic to think everyone wants or needs a WM device. On the same note BB from what I have seen are just better email and texting devices along with a better OS/device setup. WM will never be able to compete entirely with BB because of many reasons:
1. WM devices are made by many manufacturers. This means while the core OS is the same; all the hardware and added software is different. IT must support multiple hardware and software features or lock them down entirely.

2. WM OS is setup like the Windows desktop which is not user friendly on small screens. We may like the Windows desktop but expecting anyone to navigate through that quickly on a device with a 2.8" screen for example with a stylus is rediculous IMO These screen sizes are not meant for speedy input which is contrary to what people want. I can also add that some of us who came from using the PPC with 3.5" screens or better before the smartphone editions were introduced have more trouble using those because we are accustomed to a touchscreen interface which is IMO far more superior for WM. The UI has remained the same for a decade. It needs to evolve into a more user friendly and speedier interface for convereged and non-converged devices.

3. Some converged WM devices have too much carrier crap put into them. This is very prevalent with the major carriers here in the U.S. Businesses don't need all that extra consumer oriented software sucking up airtime they are paying for.

4. WM is too much of a catch all device. I can't honestly say that WM excels in any particular area. Which is why third party software is great but unforunately in this case it's used too often to make up for too many short comings in the OS. Third party software should enhance your experience not not make up for missing core functionality.

5. Many WM devices are to much headache in not only setting them up but just getting them to run correctly. I love to tweak out my devices but that's just to increase their functionality or customize it to my liking. No one should have to use registry hacks just for their device to work properly.

I'm sure many will argue my points but I'm just being realistic in listing some of the things that need to be changed or improved. There is no perfect device just devices that are perfect to the individual using it. Which is why we have many devices from different companies besides MS to choose from.

[Mike Temporale]

From what I've seen, the Windows Mobile market base is growing at an incredible pace. There's a lot more phones running WinMO available than RIM. So that has to tell you something. SE has announced a WinMo device, so they are starting to see the benefits that WinMo offers as well.

Carriers are offering more and more choices in the WinMo space - Does anyone recall the olden days when no North American carrier offered WinMo? And then things changed and we saw a couple carriers but they both had 1 device. So the select was horrible. Now, carriers have a number of WinMo handsets and they're usually varrying styles and features.

In regards to useability, I have to disagree with WyattEarp. At one point, that may have been the case, but I recently played with a BB and I have to say the experience was horrible in comparison to the current crop of WinMo devices. But hey, to each their own.

[onlydarksets]

There's a lot more phones running WinMO available than RIM. So that has to tell you something. SE has announced a WinMo device, so they are starting to see the benefits that WinMo offers as well.

RIM makes their own hardware, so that's to be expected. A better comparison would be WM and Symbian.

[Rocco Augusto]

I was on the train the other day and I two different Motorola Q9m's in the wild. It never ceases to amuse me that I still get a little excited whenever I see a Windows Mobile device in the wild.

I personally feel that Windows Mobile devices are the best on the market when it comes to PIM and email features, but I don't find that the device very usable for regular consumers. I judge how popular a product is going to be by two factors:

Will it be intuitive enough for my mother to figure out?
Will it be impressive enough to make my mother, a woman who is aware of technology but can go without it, actually want to use the device and make it a part of her life.On both points, Microsoft failed us. The one time my mom did pick up my handset and try to play with it she was incredibly confused on how the interface worked and thought there was too much going on. Even after she heard about all the emailing and syncing capabilities it had, the device was still to complicated for her to even want to be bothered to try and figure it out.

On the other hand, that same trip she also swiped my Nintendo DS from me and has been playing Brain Age and an assortment of other games ever since... :D

[bobmay]

Consider this. At my company the only mobile devices supported are Blackberry devices, PERIOD. I carry a Blackberry by my companie's choice, not my own. I will bet a great majority of the users you see in the world are using company provided Blackberry devices. They have no choice of their own.

[Stinger]

In London there's a firm divide between business and multimedia smartphones.

Almost every business person in the city carries a Blackberry of some sort. It's a status symbol and you're obviously not an important person if you don't carry one.

In the personal market, the Nokia N95 rules supreme. They're as common as muck. The iPhone has taken some time to appear in large quantities but I'm seeing them more and more these days. Apple are continuing to market the iPhone heavily on TV and in print.

I see the occasional WinMo Pro device (usually one of the HTC models with a slide-out keyboard) but I rarely see any Standard devices. I'm lucky if I see one a month. Orange have been the biggest promoters of Standard devices in the UK and sadly they've fallen out of favour with their target audience. Orange's insistence that 30MB equates to 'unlimited' data is a joke.

Palm devices have never been popular in the UK and the last time I saw one was at Heathrow airport. It's an easy way to tell that someone is over from America. :)