Windows Media Player 10 Mobile: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/wmp10_mobile.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews...mp10_mobile.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Microsoft's end-to-end vision for digital media encompasses a number of important usage scenarios, and sets apart the company's goals from that of less far-reaching initiatives from Apple Computer and other companies. In the center of the Microsoft vision is a PC running Windows Media Player 10 (see my review) and, preferably, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (see my review). This digital hub connects with content from online services like MSN Music (see my preview), Napster, Wal-Mart, MusicMatch, Virgin Digital, Movielink, CinemaNow, and others, and then extends out to a wide range of complementary products and devices, including portable digital audio and media devices like the Portable Media Center (see my review), car stereos, Media Center Extender devices (see my review), digital media receivers, and Windows-Powered Smartphones and Pocket PCs. For those latter devices, Microsoft has created a major new version of Windows Media Player, called Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, which turns your cell phone or PDA (personal digital assistant) into a multimedia powerhouse. In this review, we'll examine that product."</i><br /><br />This was the big news from last week, and I had such a week from hell that I never got a chance to write about it. Check out the article - in short, Windows Media Player 10 Mobile is damn cool. It supports the full Janus DRM, which means you can download your Napster-bought or Napster-subscription songs and it will work...even on a memory card. :D The reason question though is "How do I get it?" - and the answer isn't a good one<!>. Here's what Paul says about that:<br /><br /><i>"Stupidly, Windows Media Player 10 Mobile will only be made available to consumers who purchase new Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition-based portable devices, such as the stunning Dell Axim X50v on which I tested the product. Microsoft will not be making WMP 10 Mobile available to other users as a free or paid download."</i><br /><br />He's half right - WMP 10 Mobile will be available on new devices coming out, but some devices will get the update. Microsoft releases the code to the OEMs, and it's up to the OEMs to release it to their users. Myself and my fellow MVPs have fought and fought to get Microsoft to release a RAM/Flash ROM version directly to end users, but that has yet to happen. The best thing you can do is to call your OEM and tell them that you want this software to be released. HP has indicated they have plans to released WMP 10 Mobile for some of their Pocket PCs, but not all, and they declined to give actual model numbers to me. I'd venture to say that all 2003 SE devices will get it, and possibly some 2003 devices, but beyond that, probably nothing else.<br /><br />It's a grim situation, and a frustrating one for the vast majority of Pocket PC owners with older devices. This is yet more proof that Microsoft allows the OEMs to have too much power - it's their platform, they should treat it like one and allow updates to the core OS and applications. Microsoft has betrayed their heritage as a platform company by allowing the OEMs to stick it to their customers again and again. :?

[Darius Wey]

He's half right - WMP 10 Mobile will be available on new devices coming out, but some devices will get the update. Microsoft releases the code to the OEMs, and it's up to the OEMs to release it to their users. Myself and my fellow MVPs have fought and fought to get Microsoft to release a RAM/Flash ROM version directly to end users, but that has yet to happen. The best thing you can do is to call your OEM and tell them that you want this software to be released. HP has indicated they have plans to released WMP 10 Mobile for some of their Pocket PCs, but not all, and they declined to give actual model numbers to me. I'd venture to say that all 2003 SE devices will get it, and possibly some 2003 devices, but beyond that, probably nothing else.

It's a grim situation, and a frustrating one for the vast majority of Pocket PC owners with older devices. This is yet more proof that Microsoft allows the OEMs to have too much power - it's their platform, they should treat it like one and allow updates to the core OS and applications. Microsoft has betrayed their heritage as a platform company by allowing the OEMs to stick it to their customers again and again. :?

Jason, I'm really appreciating your (and your fellow MVP's) efforts to squeezing everything you can out of Microsoft. I, for one, would really love to have WMP10 Mobile on my h1940, because quite frankly, WMP9 just doesn't deliver the performance and features I would like it to.

You're right. Microsoft does give the OEMs the power drive, and as such, only places the consumers in unfortunate situations and it is us who suffers. I'm honestly loving the fact that Microsoft are proud of the fact that WMP10 allows for tight integration between the PC and mobile devices, yet it can't even release the mobile version of the program for the vast majority of today's existing Pocket PC market.

And funnily enough, as much as we pushed to get WM2003SE updates for the previous generation of iPAQs and Axims, I'm not entirely positive about a WMP10 Mobile release on WM2003 devices either. *Sigh* :roll:

[rzanology]

hey jason....if microsoft take the power away from the OEMs....then we'd be dealing with another apple! It sucks....but i guess we as the user just have to chose which oem we go for and deal with the short commings of each. I'd rather have 6 diffrent companies to chose from when i want a product than one that forces everything down the throat.

[Kati Compton]

hey jason....if microsoft take the power away from the OEMs....then we'd be dealing with another apple! It sucks....but i guess we as the user just have to chose which oem we go for and deal with the short commings of each. I'd rather have 6 diffrent companies to chose from when i want a product than one that forces everything down the throat.

Um... But right now what happens is the one company to choose from sends things to the 6 companies, who may or may not pass it on to us. We're already *in* a monopoly OS-wise. When the MVPs are trying to get Microsoft to release directly to the consumer, it means they're trying to cut out the middlemen. This could either be good, by allowing as many people as possible the opportunity to upgrade, or bad, if the program really does require per-device configuration on the part of the OEMs.

[denivan]

Seems like a good idea to create an article that lists per manufacturer which upgrades they provided in the past and which upgrades they haven't or will not provide per device (made a small example below to explain what I mean ;) ). This way future purchase decisions can be made by looking at this article. And if we mail the manufacturers a link to this page, maybe it'll get them thinking :?

I for one am happy to see that Dell provides a WMP10 upgrade to a device which is only actually an 'interim' device that covered the gap between PPC 2003 and VGA devices, by offering not much more except for the 2003 SE OS compared to the X3i.

|iPaq 3660|Dell X30| Dell X5 |
-------------------------------------------------------------
PPC 2002 upgrade | Yes | - | -
PPC 2003 upgrade | No | - | Yes
2003 SE upgrade | No | - | No
WMP 10 upgrade | No | Yes | No

[Felix Torres]

Anybody remember the MS Anti-trust trial?
A centerpiece of the trial was a lot of score-settling by the OEMs who felt MS was undercutting their strategies for account-control or bullying them.

Those days are over.
MS has a lot less leverage on OEMs, now.
Which means that they can't afford to tick them off right now.
(Once they fend of the LINUX threat, maybe, but not now.)

So, for now, MS makes the upgraded-technology available to the OEMs and they choose how (and if) to distribute it.
The emerging consensus among vendors seems to be that updates will be made available to products still in production but not discontinued ones.
After all, why let users extend the life of old hardware by providing new software when you can use the new software as leverage to get them to buy new hardware? :-(

If MS were to release the software updates themselves, they would be reducing sales of new hardware, hurting their OEM partners, "just" to provide customer value and increase the value of the platform.
This is obviously not something some OEMs (HP in particular, which is in bed with Apple, remember) want to see.

Want a simple conspiracy theory? :twisted:
Try this:
A case can be made that WMP10 on PocketPCs (with support for WMA music sales and the subscription services that Mr Job swears nobody wants) is a threat to the Apple pods that HP is committed to peddling.
So it is not out of the question that a WMP10 update for the 47xx will *never* be released. After all, with a high-quality video-screen and accelerated video, the 47xx is just a micro-drive away from being a PMC. The 3XXX series, of course, doesn't support micro-drives so it is less of a threat to the Pods and it gets the update right away. ;-)

Realistically, HP wants to sell boxes.
Once they get your money, they would rather you bought a new box than extend the life of an older model.
We've been this way recently with the 2003SE updates and they have shown no interest in changing their policy, have they?
Well, they won't.
Not until they have irrefutable evidence that it is costing them sales.
And that won't happen for at least another year.

[dean_shan]

I want it, but not enough to go out and buy a new device. That video transcoding is really cool. Do you need a Media Center PC to do it or can you have any video file transfer to your PPC?

[Darius Wey]

Want a simple conspiracy theory? :twisted:
Try this:
A case can be made that WMP10 on PocketPCs (with support for WMA music sales and the subscription services that Mr Job swears nobody wants) is a threat to the Apple pods that HP is committed to peddling.
So it is not out of the question that a WMP10 update for the 47xx will *never* be released. After all, with a high-quality video-screen and accelerated video, the 47xx is just a micro-drive away from being a PMC. The 3XXX series, of course, doesn't support micro-drives so it is less of a threat to the Pods and it gets the update right away. ;-)

You're a thinker! I never thought of that, and it's now become the self-realisation that my device really won't be getting that WMP10 update anymore. Well...I've strayed away from HP as my preferential Pocket PC manufacturer now anyway. :roll:

[Janak Parekh]

So, for now, MS makes the upgraded-technology available to the OEMs and they choose how (and if) to distribute it.
You're mixing the desktop and handheld markets. I can't say all that I know as an MVP, but I can tell you that the two are extremely different in how they're handled.

--janak

[jeffmd]

I dont like how he makes it sound like wmp is a one of a kind thing, as if wmp10 is like steping out of he dark ages.

first... out of what formats wmp 10 supports... what DIDNT previouse wmp support? dosnt sound like much increase there. When people asked for more formats.. they ment "RM,Divx, quicktime"... not mp3 or wmv which was allreayd supported (And I can bet you record low numbers asked for drm support). and what the heck was that smartphone format? I see that really gets used alot. ;)

betaplayer owns wmp10 up and down and not even a hare mention. The article is useless fluff. If it had any saving grace.. it said the lack of downloadable wmp10 was "stupidly"... I wouldn't have been quite so nice. ;)

Do I think ms missed the boat? they didnt even buy a ticket! Do I think we need wmp? nope. My ppc does everything that article said without the need of wmp10. I have everything consildated into my ppc allready.

[Felix Torres]

So, for now, MS makes the upgraded-technology available to the OEMs and they choose how (and if) to distribute it.
You're mixing the desktop and handheld markets. I can't say all that I know as an MVP, but I can tell you that the two are extremely different in how they're handled.

--janak

They are different markets, yes, but MS has even less leverage in the handheld market than in the desktop market.
My point is, MS can lead the horse to water but they can't make them drink.

And even if MS *could* bypass the manufacturer, technology-wise, they won't because of the legal/competitive restraints.
Right now the manufacturers are in the driver's seat; they have both us and MS at their mercy.

Or are you saying MS *could* force HP to provide WMP10 when they don't want to? I doubt it, in light of what is going on in Europe, but I could be wrong...

[huangzhinong]

Those people who are excited by WMP10 really should go to use it. Trust me, it doesn't deserve any excitement.

The reviewer may not even use WMP10 well at all. Too many errors in the review. For example, the guy said WMP10 can create playlist on the device. Totally clueless. WMP7~9 can do it, but WMP10 removed the function.

[hamishmacdonald]

Important point that's been mentioned, but not highlighted: just because you have a WM2003SE device doesn't mean you're going to be able to get WMP10 Mobile.

I just bought a Fujitsu-Siemens LOOX 720, and am sorely ticked that the update probably won't be released for my machine. Bad enough to not get OS updates, but now software, too? This is just getting too annoying for me as a customer.

[jasondearyou]

ever since i downloaded the beta for wm10, i kinda liked it, even though it had some bugs, an when i downloaded the final realease, I thought it was really cool, i think i'll want that on my ppc.

[Janak Parekh]

ever since i downloaded the beta for wm10, i kinda liked it, even though it had some bugs, an when i downloaded the final realease, I thought it was really cool, i think i'll want that on my ppc.
Perhaps, but do realize WMP10 on the desktop and Pocket PC aren't the same. ;) They are indeed designed to talk to each other, though.

--janak

[jfreiman]

Well, this is one more reason people are expected to bail the PPC and move over to Windows Smartphones.

At least when you buy a Smartphone your contract allows you a new phone every year or two with heavy rebates.

At least this way, if a vendor doesn't release software/firmware updates you can buy a new (discounted) phone with the latest and greatest.

Good by iPaq 4150 (and previous), hello ATT/ SMT 5600 (and future Smartphones)

[AhuhX]

For example, the guy said WMP10 can create playlist on the device. Totally clueless. WMP7~9 can do it, but WMP10 removed the function.

Ugh, and I was hoping that WMP10 would fix that annoying habit of generating a new playlist in reverse order.

I guess it does fix it, just not in the way I was expecting! :)

[ctmagnus]

I don't bother with WMP for playlist creation. I use CEPlaylist (http://www.ceng.com/CEPlaylist/description.asp) for that.

[jpjehu]

I didn't catch the answer to a personal need in the write-up - will it stretch the videos I have encoded to 320*240 to full screen for the VGA PPCs? Right now I'm limited to Pocket TV to do it, and it only works with mpegs which tend to be much larger in file size.

[Darius Wey]

Well, this is one more reason people are expected to bail the PPC and move over to Windows Smartphones.

Yet funnily enough, it is expected that in a few years time, the Smartphone market will be dormant and the Pocket PC market will flourish. ;)

[huangzhinong]

I don't bother with WMP for playlist creation. I use CEPlaylist (http://www.ceng.com/CEPlaylist/description.asp) for that.

Maybe only you, since it cost $9.95.

[huangzhinong]

Well, this is one more reason people are expected to bail the PPC and move over to Windows Smartphones.

Yet funnily enough, it is expected that in a few years time, the Smartphone market will be dormant and the Pocket PC market will flourish. ;)

You are right, esp if you are talking about WMP10.

In wmp10, you can't map hardware buttons anymore (only direction pad) because this wmp10 is completely designed for smartphone. The "Mute" has been defaultly mapped to "*", and "Full screen" to "#".

I always map a button to toggle screen off, now I have to map it to a direction key, which I used for previous, next, up volumn and down volumn before.

[ctmagnus]

8O for years, I've had button 1 mapped to play/pause, button 2 to stop and buttons 3/5 to screen toggle. WMP10 for Pocket PC is certainly a step backwards in this regard.

[DonnyEMU]

I bought an H2215 Ipaq last year with the solumn word from the department manager at Best Buy that the unit was upgradeable to Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, I had seen video on a website of the upgrade running on the 2215, yet HP has not came through with an upgrade even with 9000 people signing a petition asking them to..

Now I find out Microsoft isn't releasing Media Player 10. Yet another big blow to me purchasing anything from HP ever again. I had a non-upgradeable Journada and I thought the merger with Compaq would change minds.

I wish Microsoft would do what they do with the desktop OS and just provide upgrades to owners of the device and bypass the OEMs.. I am sick of the lame support and non upgradeable features after paying close to $500 for a mostly upgradeable and modern unit. It's a scam to keep us buying a new unit every year, though the upgrades that provided usually don't turn out to be worth the minimal upgrade at maximum cost.

I am considering moving to a palm device and away from this non-upgradeable stuff. I am tired of making a $500-$700 yearly investment in a new device.

[Kati Compton]

I am considering moving to a palm device and away from this non-upgradeable stuff. I am tired of making a $500-$700 yearly investment in a new device.
This isn't a taunt or sarcastic or anything bad - I'm asking an honest question.

Are Palms with relatively comparable features (and please, everyone but DonnyEMU, let's not digress into a discussion about whether or not features are comparable) upgradable? Which Palm device are you thinking of? I was under the impression that at this point, the Palm prices and Pocket PC prices for "similar" units weren't that different.

Anyway, I got the X5 400Mhz when it came out (~$365) and that's lasted me nearly 2 years. No, I didn't upgrade... but there really wasn't anything that 2003 got me that I needed... This time I'm going to the X50v for ~600 (with extended battery). I figure if I can keep it to $500-600 every 1.75-2 years I'll have some sort of balance between the latest features and fiscal semi-responsibility.