Is Android Killing Windows Mobile?

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://gigaom.com/2009/07/30/is-googles-android-killing-windows-mobile/' target='_blank'>http://gigaom.com/2009/07/30/is-goo...windows-mobile/</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Like upstart HTC, a long-time Windows Mobile loyalist, Motorola is focusing its development resources behind Google's Android OS. Both HTC and Motorola are developing their own user interfaces for Android, which indicates their seriousness about Google's mobile platform. I wonder if this is going to be a trend that's going to spread. From what I've heard, everyone from Lenovo and Huawei to Dell to Samsung are betting on Android. These companies would have been partners of Microsoft in the past."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/ppct/auto/1249317220.usr7.jpg" style="border: 0px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>I have a confession to make: I own two Android devices. Yes, it's true I still own more Windows Mobile devices than Android, but my daily drivers as of late have been a G1 and a MyTouch 3G. While I'd like to say my sole reason for doing this is to think of ways to help Windows Mobile developers, users, and enthusiasts get more from their devices (a.k.a. from snooping on the competition), that's not my sole reason. I also think they generally are more fun to use, and have a pretty interesting user community growing up around them. I'm not jumping ship, but from my perspective, I can see why articles like the one quoted above are published. Android, something I think many of us dismissed as a toy about a year ago, seems to be fast growing as a force in the mobile handset community. How bad is this for Windows Mobile?</p>

[Master Loon]

I lived with WM since the HP on Tmobile. Had the MDA, WIng now G1. I like it. I like it alot, but I am looking now back to getting a WM phone ( touch Pro 2) G1 will remain with me of might give to my son. Again I like it, But there is a lot of catching up to do. I miss some of the business side, like commontime's mnotes for work email. My company has Lotus notes databases. Powerpoint and a few other things.....
WM is not dead yet...They have a lot of work to do in order to stay fresh and relivant. They are indeed playing catch up. And thanks to Samsung and HTC, I think they are just hanging on. Android is stepping it's game up fast, and I think I will be gone from it for a min.....but will come back.

[j2inet]

I ,make a living off of developing solutions with Microsoft technologies. I'm not jumping ship either, but I am planning on diversifying and have been examning the Android emulator. Despite my preferences and Microsoft specialization I'm not incline to turn a blind eye to wat looks to be a platform of great potential. I'll be happy when Android is avaliabe on hardware other that T-mobile phones though. From past to present Android has only been used by a subset of T-mobile customers.

[Stinger]

I'm not a great fan of Android but I can see why it makes sense for manufacturers. Who wants to pay $15 per license when you can pay $0? Google are allegedly giving free support to OEMs too.

What does WinMo provide that Android doesn't? There's certainly a few things at the moment but Microsoft needs to add a lot value to make that $15 license seem worthwhile to the manufacturers.

[benjimen]

They're not dead, just hibernating. They'll come back to life with WM7 (which will probably be buggy until 7.1, then you'll need to buy a new device to get it).

Microsoft left a mighty big gap in the amount of time since the iPhone came to market and something relevant to compete against it. 2 entirely new phone OS's, 3 if you count Apple, have launched and all we're seeing from Redmond is 'spy-shots' of what may or may not be WM7. They're sure giving everyone of lot of time to get entrenched...

There's enough market share to keep everyone afloat, but Microsoft has lost out on the chance to be any sort of standard.

[whydidnt]

I think a better question would be "Is Microsoft Killing Windows Mobile?" Microsoft's complacency has opened the market to Android, Palm, Apple, RIM etc.

Microsoft needs to start treating the mobile device division like an actual mobile device division, not just another software division in a monolithic software company. They simply are not evolving the operating system fast enough to keep up with the rest of the mobile world. We've been hearing about WM7 for years. When you consider the size of the OS is less than 128 MB in size, what the heck could they be coding? They don't write the hardware drivers, leaving that to the OEMs...how the heck can 128 MB of code take years and years to write, especially considering they weren't starting from scratch?

Even with stiff competition from Apple and RIM over the last 2 years, Microsoft has continued to plod along at snails pace, announcing and pre-announcing OS upgrades years before we actually see devices running said OS. I almost have to laugh everytime I see another person say "wait until WM7". By the time we can buy a WM7 device, Apple will probably be on the 4th version of their device, Google will most likely have released 2-3 significant upgrades, etc. Lord knows how long we'll have to wait after WM7 to see any significant upgrades, based upon MS previous history, it will probably be about 2018!!

[RogueSpear]

Indeed, the "Microsoft is killing Windows Mobile" argument may hold more water than initially thought. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but isn't Microsoft bringing in a fair amount of revenue from both Apple and Google from ActiveSync licensing? Perhaps if they can get the others to do the same, then this will be their new model.

[Sven Johannsen]

Never had much business savvy, but also never understood how you ran a business at a loss. Google isn't charging for Android. To me that is operating at a loss, since they must be investing money in its development. MS did that for many years with Windows Mobile (or PocketPC), until they finally started getting a return for their investment. Granted both companies have the wherewithall to operate a section at a loss for a period of time, but neither can do that indefinately. The difference appears to me that MS intended to make the division profitable and continually worked to make that happen. If Google continues to operate on a zero income model, it seems that this is a hobby for them, or they intend to throw this into the 'public' domain and let it self sustain itself like Linux. That is working real well. :rolleyes: Sure there are great builds out there, but there are also marginal ones and scads of them. Overall, it is a niche OS. I can see Android ending up that way as well, with Google eventually tiring of it and OEMs maintaining independent 'proprietary' flavors. Or maybe they will start licensing newer releases. Yea verily, MS needs to get off its duff and do something compelling with WinMo, but Android isn't going to kill it, any more than Linux is killing Windows or OSX.

[whydidnt]

Never had much business savvy, but also never understood how you ran a business at a loss. Google isn't charging for Android. To me that is operating at a loss, since they must be investing money in its development.

Google's has built a billion+ dollar business by NOT charging for their products. They don't care how or why you use their search engine, just that you use their engine so they can earn ad dollars. Google sees that internet usage is evolving from the desktop to the mobile space and they do not want to be dependent on Apple, At&T Verizon, Microsoft, RIM, etc in making sure they are the defacto mobile search standard. The only way they can do that is to provide the whole OS where possible.

There are a lot of internet companies that don't seem to have a business plan (think Twitter, Facebook, etc.), but in this case I think Google has a plan, and it doesn't involve abandoning Android.

[superrrguy]

It seams Microsoft is feeling out the market to see who to copy. I wish they would stick to d-pads and one handed operation.

As an end user and a WinMo user since the days of the Velo I can say I've given up on WinMo and my next phone may be an iPhone, the 1st Apple product I will ever buy. I've played with my friends G1 and wasn't impressed. I was thinking the whole time my hacked WinMo is better than this.

I currently have an AT&T Tilt with a custom ROM because the default ROM from AT&T is abysmal. Even the dialer is useless. The Tilt is my favorite phone to date. I like the 2 buttons on the side and the jog wheel. I have been eying the Touch Pro 2 but @ $300 + memory I feel like I'm getting a better value with the iPhone. Also, Microsoft is already talking up WinMo 7 and from their track record over the years will abandon all hardware so my new Touch Pro 2 will be obsolete a few months later or won't take advantage of some totally new concept of licking your phone to make calls or something.

Also the apps just suck from an end user point of view. The reason I have stuck around with WinMo so long is because of Sling Player and Remote Desktop but those are available on other platforms now and are designed better. Evernote is a joke on WinMo but glorious on the iPhone.

Between headaches trying to sync music to the phone and weak apps and high pricing, I will be jumping ship for my next phone. Maybe Android will bring something compelling to the table but right now the iPhone is the one to beat.

[virain]

I've been using G1 for the last 10 months. Now I can barely wait 10 days to get my hands on TP2. Android is fine platform, but it has a log way to go before it catch up with WM, no matter how much negative press it gets. And I do miss ease of stylus use, transcriber, Office Mobile and other goodies that come with MS PPC.

[Kacey Green]

I've been using G1 for the last 10 months. Now I can barely wait 10 days to get my hands on TP2. Android is fine platform, but it has a log way to go before it catch up with WM, no matter how much negative press it gets. And I do miss ease of stylus use, transcriber, Office Mobile and other goodies that come with MS PPC.

I lived with WM since the HP on Tmobile. Had the MDA, WIng now G1. I like it. I like it alot, but I am looking now back to getting a WM phone ( touch Pro 2) G1 will remain with me of might give to my son. Again I like it, But there is a lot of catching up to do. I miss some of the business side, like commontime's mnotes for work email. My company has Lotus notes databases. Powerpoint and a few other things.....
WM is not dead yet...They have a lot of work to do in order to stay fresh and relivant. They are indeed playing catch up. And thanks to Samsung and HTC, I think they are just hanging on. Android is stepping it's game up fast, and I think I will be gone from it for a min.....but will come back.

I too am fed up with the G1, it can't do the stuff I fell in love with WM for and the apps aren't all up to the quality I've become accustomed to, Pocket Informant anyone?

Don't get me started on the battery life. My phone should be able to make two 5 min phone calls maybe 10 txts read an email or two and stay on standby from the time I unplug to go to the car and last until I get home at night, this phone can't standby for a workday :mad:

The only reason I got this phone is because my Wing was having issues and in February 09 I was not paying $299 for that relic. I can hardly wait the 8 days to get my TP2.

[badersk]

I too believe that Microsoft will be responsible if WM dies. Their snails-pace reaction to current trends by Apple and Android is sending a 'I don't care' message to all of us. 6.5 should have been released last year and we should be drooling over WM7 already. By the time we see it everthing will have passed it up already.

[gdoerr56]

Microsoft clearly does not have focus on Windows Mobile at this point. The implementation of WM6 is bloated and slow and it does not adapt to new form factors well. Don't even get me started on the implementation of .Net CF...

Microsoft is stuck serving two masters here. On one hand they're trying to have a reasonable consistent user experience across a wide range of form factors so they end up getting stuck with a least common denominator UI which doesn't please anybody. On the other hand, they have to give enough flexibility to their OEMs to allow them to innovate which makes the first goal nearly impossible to do well.

I see Android having a problem with 3rd party applications once the form-factors start diverging. It's incredibly difficult to develop applications for a device with an unknown form-factor and have the application be of any value.

What Apple understands better than anybody is the need to be consistent. If the iPhone came in more than one form-factor, it would not be nearly as successful as it has been. Of course the very thing that makes the Apple/iPhone experience so compelling is also the thing that frustrates me the most...their iron grip over the platform and what applications are allowed.


I think Microsofts best option is to extend the already tightly controled Zune platform into the phone market. They clearly need more control over the user experience and over the form-factor to be successful.

That also brings up an interesting point. If Google is giving Android away for free, what is in it for them? Can we expect to see advertising on our handhelds at some point or is Google's intention to eliminate the other platforms. If it's the latter, I expect the Justice Department will be spending more time on Google/Apple in the future.

[virain]

I too believe that Microsoft will be responsible if WM dies. Their snails-pace reaction to current trends by Apple and Android is sending a 'I don't care' message to all of us. 6.5 should have been released last year and we should be drooling over WM7 already. By the time we see it everthing will have passed it up already.

I agree, MS moves slowly, I wish it can be more in line with the WM market, altough I don't believe it should follow every trend that shows up in the mobile market. WM first of all is a serious business platform, not fly by night Mobile Buterfly. Just remember those stupid Verizon commercials for Samsung Instinct after iPhone came out - "Touch it and it does [stuff]! Wow!!!" Quiet revolting, indeed. MS should concentrate on building core functions, as far as UI and performance. Leave all those "trendy stuff" to developers, BTW they do a very good job!

[BBF]

I think a better question would be "Is Microsoft Killing Windows Mobile?" Microsoft's complacency has opened the market to Android, Palm, Apple, RIM etc.


Hear hear. I agree, Microsoft was doing a great job killing windows mobile before Google or Apple invaded their space on the consumer side. Plus their response has been slower than a slug. Blackberry had MS nailed in the corporate side long before Apple hit the consumer side with the iPhone.

Being second or third to the game means that you must come with better "weapons" than the people already playing. Apple's iPhone has done that... MS' responses IMHO seem to fall short of what is supplied by the iPhone from the average consumer's point of view... (MS have you not learned your lesson from the Wii vs. Xbox360 battle, iPod vs. Zune?)

[Damion Chaplin]

Is Android killing Windows Mobile? Not for me. Neither is the iPhone.

The plain simple fact of the matter is that Android doesn't do everything I need it to do. Neither does the iPhone. Or the Blackberry for that matter.

Yes, MS is being very slow bringing updates to the platform, but in my opinion they've earned a little rest. iPhone OS, Android and RIM still, after all this time, have yet to actually implement features that Windows Mobile has had for a very long time. (Really, it never occured to Apple that people might need cut-and-paste? And these are the updates that iPhone fans use as fodder against WM?)

In my opinion, WM has some ways to go interface-wise, but all those other mobile OSs are the ones still playing catch-up features-wise. Until I can do everything I can do with WM on any other phone, it's WinMo all the way for me, no matter how clunky the interface may be.

[Master Loon]

Thank goodned for HTC and touch flo. That ease of use was hard to duplicate on the wing. The android is nice. But the masses prefer ease of use.....Why Iphone is so easy to use.

Android is getting there and WM should have been there.

Again thanks to the Phone suppliers for stepping up to the bar and trying to make a pina colada from on cherry and a bite of a pinapple.


I am kind of ready to clunk down $300 for a wm phone..In this case TP2...Side track to tmo taking out the second camera...that sucks.

WM I will give anothe shot...and might get shot by my wife in the process.

[superrrguy]

In my previous post I said I'm giving the iPhone a serious look over and it will most likely be my 1st Apple purchase ever but this is only because Android and WinMo and even BB and Palm are trying to copy the iPhone with full touch screen devices with all sorts of swipes and swishes that aren't always intuitive or necessary.

I don't think the iPhone is setting any trends. There are whole bunch of people that will buy anything that has an half eaten Apple on the back of it and no look-a-like with WinMo or Android will make them switch over. I'm not saying the iPhone is a bad device. I just wish WinMo would stick with hardware buttons like a d-pad, get a decent browser built in, and give some sort of software upgrade path.

[petvas]

What I don't get is why Microsoft offers both Windows Mobile and the Zune OS. I don't get it. Shouldn't it be one platform? Are they competing with each other internally?
Microsoft had for many years a good Mobile OS that did the job fairly well. Internet browsing was bad, but for calendaring and general PIM functions it was very good.
I personally own an HTC Touch HD and I also sold my iPhone for it!
I know I am not currently representative of the average consumer...I am a Microsoft specialist and work with their products.

I believe that if someone needs a phone that can go to the Internet (fairly well), do emailing, and calendaring, then Windows Mobile is a good choice. I haven't used an Android phone yet, so I cannot comment on that, but from what I have seen it is really very competitive and more open to customizations than Windows Mobile.
I believe that Microsoft will eventually get it..It is never too late. They are still in the game but need to move fast, faster than the others...

[Sven Johannsen]

That also brings up an interesting point. If Google is giving Android away for free, what is in it for them? Can we expect to see advertising on our handhelds at some point or is Google's intention to eliminate the other platforms. If it's the latter, I expect the Justice Department will be spending more time on Google/Apple in the future.
That was clarified in an earlier post. Google wants a mobile OS to ensure that people use the Google search engine from thier mobile devices. Apparently they make a penny or something every time someone does. Not sure who is paying them. And apparently they feel the general populace is too ignorant to go to Google with their mobile browser once, and bookmark it. Cornering the mobile OS market so they can ensure their search engine's market share, would be the only way to go. Much like MS has done with IE. They likely haven't been watching the press or they would have discovered that in Europe they will be required to provide Bing and Yahoo Search on Android as well.

[whydidnt]

Google wants a mobile OS to ensure that people use the Google search engine from thier mobile devices. Apparently they make a penny or something every time someone does. I'm not sure what the amount is but if you do a mobile search, there is a relevant ad at the bottom of every search. Google gets paid for that ad, and earns additional $ if you click that link.

And apparently they feel the general populace is too ignorant to go to Google with their mobile browser once, and bookmark it. Microsoft has pretty well proven this point. Up until very recently how many people bothered to change web browsers from IE, or even their home page from MSN, the default on most Windows installs.

They likely haven't been watching the press or they would have discovered that in Europe they will be required to provide Bing and Yahoo Search on Android as well. I'm sure Google will gladly do this as soon as they have a 80% market share in the mobile phone market. ;)

[caywen]

WinMo developers are still jumping ship to iPhone and Android in droves. I see this happening for 2 reasons:

- Developing an app that runs on most WinMo devices is Hell. Supporting how many different screen resolutions, supporting both touch and non-touch, D-pad, trackball/pad, and huge variance in CPU/Memory speeds all equate to an immense amount of extra work for many developers.

- Win32 on WinMo is ass. .NET on WinMo just isn't functional enough, yet. The tools are OK but the emulator is incredibly slow compared to the iPhone and Android simulators.

[kzemach]

I think a better question would be "Is Microsoft Killing Windows Mobile?" Microsoft's complacency has opened the market to Android, Palm, Apple, RIM etc.




Yep, that pretty much sums it up. It's not murder, it's suicide.

[brijgdh]

Microsoft is making business sense by migrating or licensing products to other platforms ( just read MSOffice for Nokia) .. but what about WinMo OS ? Is it a accepted fact that few OEMs will keep manufacturing for WinMo lovers (a small segment) or devices like Omnia (samsung) who have already invested in WinMo makeover continue to support it. Microsoft doesn't look interested in WinMo license sales any more. I think sooner or later they will need to provide it for free & charge for office etc.

I don't know the figures .. but I wonder what WinMo enterprise sales team (with OEM partners) is doing with respect to Blackberry.

Well all this questions ask us to 'reconfigure' our Winmo development plans in align with Microsoft plans .. but .. is there a plan ? or May WinMo soul rest in peace.

[epdm2be]

WinMo developers are still jumping ship to iPhone and Android in droves. I see this happening for 2 reasons:

- Developing an app that runs on most WinMo devices is Hell. Supporting how many different screen resolutions, supporting both touch and non-touch, D-pad, trackball/pad, and huge variance in CPU/Memory speeds all equate to an immense amount of extra work for many developers.

- Win32 on WinMo is ass. .NET on WinMo just isn't functional enough, yet. The tools are OK but the emulator is incredibly slow compared to the iPhone and Android simulators.

Why is everyone bugging M$ for yet another WM? What must an OS basicly do? Let 3rd party apps run as good as possible. In that respect WM6 is good enough (I'd prefer it to be a bit faster but I'm not waiting for "better look" or more features). The rest is upto the App-developpers. THEY must create the killer-app, the OS is only the base. In fact I couldn't care less which OS my smartphone runs, as long as it does what I want.

In my own case I like it to have a choice of navigation software on my smartphone since I use it regularly for that purpose. It doesn't matter which OS runs beneath it or at least I don't care about it. As long as I find that particular program that I like. In this case the APP is important NOT the OS beneath it. The same is true for browsing, email or playing music. If iTunes was ported to WM6 then it wouldn't matter whether you'd use an iphone or a WM-player.


Also what's with these developpers these days? If it isn't easy enough then THEY consider the OS not good. For instance most o/t the OS takes care of the resolution, cpu or UI. If you're program properly writ ten then it shouldn't matter if you use VGA or WVGA or QVGA or whatever. In fact WinMo isn't optimised at all for the current crop of ARM-cpu's to provide the most marketpenetration. And why would care about "memory speed"... doh?! The API for touch and non-touch is provided by M$ so what's up? Too lazy perhaps? You can't read the provided documentation? Can you read at all?

From an end-user perspective I'm glad that M$ tones itself a bit down with regards to OS-releases. This way the platform can mature, the bugs could get ironed out. That some Apps stink, that's not M$ fault.

The only reason why iPhone get this (initial) success is because it's an overhyped product. By the time the end-users experience the disadvantages of iPhone they will revert back to their blackberry/Nokia/WM-phone.

There's only one point of concern for me. M$ must make work to get more performance out of the OS. I toyed with an android-phone a while back and found it a bit less sluggish than WM. The same is true for iPhone (iPhone GS feels really snappy compared to anything else).

So for me. I don't want WM7 if it's slower then WM6. I want WM6.1 turbo-edition :-)

Just my ramblings

Cheers

EPDM

[TKETZ196]

Here is the problem with WM: Microsoft dropped the ball on the mobile market b/c of its ailing desktop sector (Vista anyone!?). People should be looking at its platform flexibility more than anything else. WM i think is a really good platform and i applaud MS efforts to do what it can to get by. That is a problem in itself, it's only doing what it can to get by. I have only been a user of WM for a couple of yrs now. My friend got an iPhone and it made me want to get a smartphone. I have a device running WM 5.0 AKU 2.2. With the induction of 6.5, i do not find anything compelling enough to want to upgrade. What i do appreciate about the platform is how a user can pretty much customize it for anything and the platform isn't restrictive in that you don't have to use its services. That is the one thing i am very critical of the other mobile operating systems.

What MS needs to realize is that most people are idiots when it comes to a computer. Many people think just because they can turn on a computer they are qualified to actually know how the systems work and what component does what. I love the iPhone and its OS is one of the best i have seen on a smartphone. It is simple to use, but it is too restrictive in using their services, their products, their hardware, etc. With my WM device, i find it easy to be able to sync with my PC, access files over the network, stream music and such over the network, receive e-mails, surf the web (i use Skyfire instead of horrible IE). It funny b/c WM is just like its desktop cousin: you don't have to use their services to do what you want at all. How many people on here actually use IE as their primary browser? I am sure most people use Firefox or Chrome.

My device when compared to my friend's iPhone (he has the 1st gen model), my device had more features overall, such as GPS, FM transmitter w/ RDS & TMC, a web browser that is user installed that can view any web page natively without the use of installing extensions. Everything else is pretty much the same minus the multi touch (which is cool but i dont find it practical for one hand use). I like drawing pics on my device w/ stylus when i am bored, and i like writing on the screen, which i think is fairly accurate especially for a mobile device.

Personally, i am waiting for Windows Mobile 7 to come out. WM 6.5 i think is a really good demo of what is to come and a good foundation, but i equate the current version to Windows Vista (not compelling enough to get but nice to look at). Don't forget, MS did put more of their energy toward W7 since Vista was a bit of a train wreck. In some ways, they did drop the ball, but to be honest it was needed b/c desktop OS is their primary money maker. There is a lot that WM can do, and MS has a lot of thing they can do to forge a better OS. I love android, and i really like iPhone, and i despise blackberry. WM is my choice for its familiarity and it made me appreciate the power a small device has. I customized the interface, and i really made my device my own personal computer. It really is my Pocket PC away from my laptop. I think in some respect MS is killing its own OS but i think their energy is focus on the next gen platform, which is WM 7. I hope the rumors are true in that it is a new OS built from scratch.