The MSFP Status Check

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/feb06/02-12GlobalPartnerSupportPR.mspx' target='_blank'>http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/...rSupportPR.mspx</a><br /><br /></div><i>"<b>Cingular Wireless, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone</b> today announced free upgrades to the Messaging and Security Feature Pack (MSFP) for all their Windows Mobile 5.0 customers, enabling Direct Push functionality and providing enhanced device management and security for messaging applications. <b>Palm Inc. and i-Mate</b> also reaffirmed their commitment to free MSFP upgrades. In addition, new Windows Mobile-based devices were unveiled today, all of which will ship with Direct Push technology: the <b>HP iPAQ hw6900 Mobile Messenger</b>, the <b>Gigabyte Communications g-Smart</b> (offered by Chunghwa Telecom Co. Ltd. in Taiwan), the <b>ASUS P305 3G-enabled smartphone</b>, and the <b>Fujitsu Siemens FS Pocket Loox</b>. In addition, HTC Corp. has unveiled a new product portfolio of Windows Mobile-based devices that are Direct Push-enabled and will be made available globally to T-Mobile and other operators beginning in the second quarter of this year."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20051126-MSFP.jpg" /><br /><br />A number of operators and manufacturers have just announced free upgrades to the MSFP. T-Mobile Netherlands is expected to release it in the second quarter of 2006. Vodafone will unveil a range of MSFP-enabled devices from March. Cingular will roll out the MSFP for the newly-announced 2125 Smartphone and 8100 Pocket PCs this half year. Devices such as the HP iPAQ hw6900 series, the Gigabyte g-Smart, the <a href="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10352">Asus P305 Smartphone</a>, and Fujitsu-Siemens' Pocket LOOX T800 series will all ship with the MSFP.<br /><br />The MSFP, combined with Exchange Server 2003 SP2, will enable Microsoft's direct push e-mail solution. You can learn more about it <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/features/mobility/e2k3sp2.mspx">here</a>.

[freitasm]

..." second quarter of 2006"
..." this half year"
..." devices from March"

This has been a long wait. The 3GSM Congress would have been the perfect spot to say "Look, it's out now".

Back to the cave of eternal wait...

:roll:

[exchguy]

This release is really saying nothing new that we haven't heard already. Other than some carriers saying they will provide the upgrades sometime this year and some new devices out later this year with it.
I remember hearing and seeing MSFP at TechEd in June of 2005. Its nearly March of 2006 and other than a leaked beta rom of MSFP for the Wizard on XDA Developers, we are still just talking about it. Not to mention, this is only supposed to be a feature pack not a whole release of Windows Mobile.

[bnycastro]

I see that dopod has yet to make an announcement... :roll: I'm really wondering if I made the right choice in getting a dopod...

[ikesler]

Hey Sprint..... me and my 6700 are waiting! :!:

[Philip Colmer]

I'm currently trying to get confirmation from our Vodafone account manager as to when they are going to start introducing these new devices.

It could be argued that it has been better for Vodafone to wait until they could offer the complete deal, than for them to start selling WM05 devices without the update and then figure out how to get the update to the users.

The release is timely, though. I think I stand a pretty good chance of getting managers, etc, to look at these devices while the future of RIM is so publicly debated.

--Philip

[Philip Colmer]

I'm currently trying to get confirmation from our Vodafone account manager as to when they are going to start introducing these new devices.

It could be argued that it has been better for Vodafone to wait until they could offer the complete deal, than for them to start selling WM05 devices without the update and then figure out how to get the update to the users.

The release is timely, though. I think I stand a pretty good chance of getting managers, etc, to look at these devices while the future of RIM is so publicly debated.
Just goes to show what a bad job our account manager is doing of keeping me informed ... they've already got the device out there - it is the Qtek v1640.

Still trying to find out about the MSFP availability.

Anyone know how the v1640 compares to other versions of the HTC Universal?

--Philip

[Paragon]

So most of the OEMs still aren't commiting to any kind of date for the release of MSFP. Those that have mentioned a timeline, it appears to be mid year. MID YEAR FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!! I think this speaks huge volumes for the commitment that MS and their partners have to the Windows Mobile platform. It's going to be dangerously close to a year from the date that WM5.0 devices first started shipping before some see this feature pack...one that we all thought was included with the purchase price of our new WM5.0 devices.

Many people with Wizards are now using a beta version of AKU2 on their devices. It does not appear to have any major problems that would cause long delays. Pretty much everyone is happy with it. It was dated Dec. 5th, yet here we are almost half way through February and no mention of it from the OEMs till now and they are saying it will still be weeks or even months down the road before it gets to us, the consumer....the consumer who thought it was part of what he was paying for when we bought our WM5.0 devices back in the fall. Delays like this are just killing the platform.

This is a perfect example of the typical delays we see in this platform. I know someone is going to speak up and say it's not Microsoft's fault. They hand it over to the OEMs and they handle it from there. What an over used pile of crud, for an excuse that is. It is Microsoft's platform. It is their OS. It is their licensing ageement. They DO have influence over the platform.

Personally I've had it. This coming from a guy who has thousands of posts in Windows Mobile forums promoting it, and was an MVP for a year. Imagine how the average user, or the newly recruited Palm, Symbian, or Blackberry user must feel. They see long delays to receive fundamental changes an updates, that for some they had already and had to give up to become a Windows Mobile user.

The unfortunate thing with this delay, is that it is nothing new. We have become accustom to long delays in bug fixes, and feature upgrades. In fact, with WM5.0 we have become used to loosing features, and see a reversal in any ground that was gained in stability. With Activesync we lost the ability to sync over Wifi. A feature that many lived by. We lost the ability to do backups. So, for months we had to go with no backup insurance until third party developers could play catch up. Activesync was becoming fairly reliable in 3.8, but now with 4.X there are problems galore. I can't tell you how many posts I have read where people simply can not sync. They either can't connect at all, or if they do it just sits forever on "connecting" and goes no further. Again, imagine how the new user feels when this happens.

It's the final straw Microsoft and Windows Mobile. Get your act together. You've lost my support.

Dave

[possmann]

Well written Dave!

I had always hoped that sometime in the near future, MS will start creating a relationship with the HARDWARE vendors and not the carriers. I am a big advocate for using the carriers just like we use ISP's in the desktop world.

I do have to argue the point that there is another level (and pretty major and political one at that) in between the OS and what we see on the street. Becuase of how things have traditionally operated in the carrier world MS needs the carriers and that adds a huge range of complexity to the marketing world - I would argue that MS realizes that it is only now starting to come up the pack against other, more established (and cheaper) OS products. MS could not throw their weight around like they can on the HArdware side with PC vendors. They OWN that market - they are just starting to play in this one. I know they have been trying to penetrate this for a while - you might say several years - but only until recently have they started to make an impact (look at the sales).

Now your argument against quality is spot on. What in the blazing he## happened with activesync? Such a small program but such a huge impact. We can both point to other areas and those items are in now way carrier specific - those are 100% in MS' lap. something changed over the past couple of years that effected the release quality of their MS Mobile products which I was very disspaointed in seeing. I can only hope they get their act together post-haste as what they do has a prfound effect for their ablity to sway the carriers to get on their bandwagon.

What carrier wants to spend a ton of extra cash supporting a platform full of bugs or over complex for the average user (refer to comments from many people saying that the OS often got in the way of it - the device - being a phone).

Ah - enough... I'm not going to give up the ship, but I will agree with you that I am dissapointed that MS hasn't hit this hard enough (in quality) that it certainly should have. I will also beat the carriers up for delaying releases and limiting features to no end. I can't wait until we get them out of the middle.

[Paragon]

I do have to argue the point that there is another level (and pretty major and political one at that) in between the OS and what we see on the street. Becuase of how things have traditionally operated in the carrier world MS needs the carriers and that adds a huge range of complexity to the marketing world - I would argue that MS realizes that it is only now starting to come up the pack against other, more established (and cheaper) OS products. MS could not throw their weight around like they can on the HArdware side with PC vendors. They OWN that market - they are just starting to play in this one. I know they have been trying to penetrate this for a while - you might say several years - but only until recently have they started to make an impact (look at the sales).


I do understand your argument here, possmann. I have made the same argument in the past. I can give MS some room on this point....to a point. The problem really lies in how this whole push email thing has gone down. Microsoft has been very misleading with this whole issue from the beginning. First we were told that Push email and A2DP would be part of WM5.0 devices. We waited. Then just as the new devices were about to come out we found out that Exchange servers would have to be updated to SP2. We waited. Then just as that was released to users we found out that we would also need to have the MSFP update applied to our devices before it would work. We still wait. What's really annoying is the fact that most of that news came from places such as Jason Landridges blog. Imagine...the world has to find out important information like this from one of MS's employee's personal blogs. Microsoft couldn't be straight about the issue from the beginning.

A2DP which is part of AKU2, I have running on my old 4150 Ipaq by installing a patch downloaded from HPs site. A three year old device has an important feature like that and almost every WM5.0 Phone Edition device on the market is still waiting for this update....Geez Microsoft......get with it!! We are all tired of waiting for updates like this, and I don't take kindly to having the wool pulled over my eyes.

I said this in my prior post, and I'll say it again...if someone like myself who has been a staunch supporter of the platform from it's inception feels this way, imagine how the newly converted, Palm, Symbian, and Blackberry users must feel. I doubt they would exhibit the patiences that some of us long time users have, especially when many gave up features such as push email to come over to Windows Mobile

I'm tired of the long delays, and the lack of attention that is paid to long standing bugs, and problem issues. And I only need to say two words to bring that point home...alarms and Activesync.

Dave

[Phillip Dyson]

I'm tired of the long delays, and the lack of attention that is paid to long standing bugs, and problem issues. And I only need to say two words to bring that point home...alarms and Activesync.

Dave

I have to agree with you. The long wait between updates/upgrades makes it all the more frustrating when the things you really want go missing time after time.

Each time we get a few "cool" features while the bugs or missing features that we continuously beg for remain.

I'm sure Photon has a few great items in it, but what I would Bill to start his WM6.0 release to start with is "Here's the stuff you've all been asking for ..."

[Paragon]

Each time we get a few "cool" features while the bugs or missing features that we continuously beg for remain.



Exactly, Phillip. This has always bothered me. When we were told that WM5.0 was going to include Mobile Powerpoint I and a few others agrued against it, because there were already several third party applications on the market, and they were full featured as well. The arguement was that there was no gain to the community since those third party apps were already available, and the resources and budget could be put to much better use fixing existing problems. It fell on deaf ears. It wasn't long after that when Microsoft announced that Wifi syncing would be removed from WM5.0 because they didn't have the resources to fix the problem, so it was a choice of removing the feature or delaying the release of WM5.0. With that single statement they proved that we were right, that there needed to be a better use of resources......and they still haven't changed....They continue to bang out the flaky new features. Thinking, so what if we sacrifice stability and solid performance to add features.

I have a feeling that there are a rather large and growing number of users becoming dissatisfied with Windows Mobile and it's issues. This may seem overshadowed at the moment because of the large number of new users coming on board, but I also have a feeling that many of them will not stay with the platform long in Microsoft doesn't get back to basics and fix problems, instead of creating new ones, or taking forever to get important features out such as push email and A2DP that have been available elsewhere for ages. It all points to a very poorly managed platform, in my humble opinion.

Dave

[barky81]

They only made the announcement out of desperation: They are finally bringing hundreds of thousands of NEW units to market (as in Cingular's 2125 and 8100 series) and they have had poor corporate uptake of the 700w.

They can't really afford for the market to wait another 6 months and stiff them with all that inventory.

The real backlash will come this fall, once the next-gen WM5 devices with MSFP pre-installed come out. Wait till hundreds of thousands of customers figure out that they are stuck with 2-year contracts on outdated equipment that only offered Direct Push for a month or two sooner than all the next-gen devices will.

Worse, they have missed their window in competition with Symbian.

[exchguy]

We must keep in mind that Microsoft had to "sell their souls to the devil" when they started signing on mobile carriers to sell devices running Windows Mobile, in that they promised carriers and OEMs complete control over the devices software and customizations in order to help the carriers increase their own revenues.

In turn, end users end up waiting and waiting and waiting for new 'features' like MSFP while the carriers and OEMs muck and muck with these updates to the point where by the time they are avaliable, the carriers and OEMs are ready to release a new device so they'd rather sell a new device rather than provide an upgrade for the old one.

Case in point, MSFP was 'released' to carriers and OEMs Nov of 2005. It is nearly March and we've seen nothing of it other than a test bootleg rom. Everything else has just been talk of it coming out "soon".

There needs to be a better model for providing feature updates for Windows Mobile, like what BB has done. Until Microsoft comes up with a better working model for this, users will continue to wait a 6-9 month or longer cycle and likely have to end up buying the next device just to get a feature update. So basically these devices end up becoming basically disposable after a 6-9 month period because upgrades are rarely avaliable.