Windows Mobile 7 Will Be Social-Network Friendly, and Probably Later than Ever

[Jason Dunn]

<p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/ppct/auto/1254263076.usr1.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/24/ballmer-windows-mobile-7-should-have-been-out-like-yesterday/" target="_blank"><em>Photo courtesy of Engadget</em></a></p><p>Oh Windows Mobile 7...what a rough time you've had, and you're not even here yet. We first heard about you years ago under the code-name "Photon", and <a href="http://pocketpccentral.net/windows_mobile_7_brief.htm" target="_blank">early peeks looked promising</a>. Years went by, and you never managed to make an appearance. Things have changed in the market - that iPhone thing turned out to be a <a href="http://www.electronista.com/articles/07/04/30/ballmer.on.iphone/" target="_blank">pretty big deal after all</a> - and Windows Mobile isn't exactly on sure footing at the moment. Windows Mobile 6.5 looks like an improvement, but we're really waiting for you Windows Mobile 7 - you're the version that's supposed to really change things up. Looks like the Big Boss Man is telling people that <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/24/ballmer-windows-mobile-7-should-have-been-out-like-yesterday/" target="_blank">you haven't exactly been handled properly</a>, and they've brought on some new talent to ensure you're properly fed and cared for. The question is, if your creators are <a href="http://www.theunwired.net/?item=unveiled-microsoft-windows-mobile-7-is-expected-to-feature-deep-social-network-integration" target="_blank">just now hiring people</a> to create some of your core features - in this case social networking - when exactly will you make your debut? It feels like we've been waiting forever for you Windows Mobile 7...</p>

[Sven Johannsen]

If social networking is what we are waiting on, I can do without. If I want social networking on my phone, I'll install it. Be nice to see this before iPhone 4.

[V-iPAQ]

well seeing how horrible the fb app for wm6 is, I really can wait for it in WM7. Just give us WM7 w/o it for all I care.

[racerx_]

seriously.. i just can't understand why people aren't more vocal about how much the WM facebook app TOTALLY STINKS..

i've loved my WM phones, but i can see that things aren't going in a very good direction right now... if microsoft doesn't pull out all the stops on wm7 we're all gonna end up with google phones in the next couple years..

[DFurey]

I hate to say it, but WM7 will probably be late to the party. I hope not, but nothing I've read or heard so far makes me think it will.

As for WM 6.5, nothing ground breaking really and way to late. I could live without it and I bet I wouldn't notice not having it. The strength of WM is the apps, without them WM would suck (mostly).

It has fallen on developers outside Microsoft to fix problems with WM that should have been addressed by Microsoft (ability to close apps (X) etc.). Suprisingly, it is this strength (developers) that has made WM much better for business than the iPhone. Microsoft didn't decide to make a poor mobile OS just to get someone else to fix it. Microsoft got lucky, in that the third-party developers saved WM.

Without the custom front-ends that HTC, Samsung and others have built for WM there would not be any comparison between WM and iPhone. The iPhone is way ahead of WM at this level, it is so much easier using the iPhone than WM without a front-end. Microsoft needs to not just catch-up, but get ahead and unfortunetly so far it looks like WM7 is going to be to little to late.

[Damion Chaplin]

Yeah, I'm pretty close to giving up waiting for an awesome mobile OS from Microsoft. Don't get me wrong, I still really dig WM on my phone, but by the time MS comes up with something that can truly compete with what the average Joe wants (read: the iphone), I'll have already coded my own OS for a Google Phone.

And I'd have to learn how to code first... ;)

[Jason Dunn]

well seeing how horrible the fb app for wm6 is, I really can wait for it in WM7. Just give us WM7 w/o it for all I care.

Agreed. The Facebook app is "teh suck". It's really, really slow. Not impressive at all. :(

[David Tucker]

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face...I feel like MS has completely lost touch of why things are popular. Did the Pre take off because of its social networking? No. Did the iPhone have social networking when it became popular? No. Android is doing pretty well and it doesn't care about built in social networking either.

I gave up waiting for the mythical new Windows Mobile OS a while ago now. I've been happily using Android for almost a year and it just gets better all the time.

[jdmichal]

I gave up waiting for the mythical new Windows Mobile OS a while ago now. I've been happily using Android for almost a year and it just gets better all the time.

Me too. That's why I just said, "forget it", and bought my Touch Pro2. And to tell you the truth, with how good TouchFlo3D is, I don't even care about WM6.5. Except for the Marketplace, which I can just install standalone.

Which I suppose just plays into DFurey's comment that the strong developer base is the only reason WM is still alive today. And I think I would have to agree with that. If I were MS, I would have long ago contracted either HTC or SPB to redo the GUI front-end. That would fix 80% of their relevance problems, and all the developer time they've burned in recreating something that these other teams have done already anyway could have been spent fixing the other 20%.

[Sven Johannsen]

fix problems with WM .... (ability to close apps (X) etc.). .
Get over the close button already....sheesh ;) (been beating that one since 2000)
Coulda used Apple's solution. Just close everything. That actually doesn't solve the memory problem either. :)

[David Tucker]

Android doesn't even pretend to let you close aps and it doesn't really matter. I don't really see it as a big concern in any OS.

[virain]

seriously.. i just can't understand why people aren't more vocal about how much the WM facebook app TOTALLY STINKS..



If it makes you feel any better, FB for Android is not any better, actually exactly the same! :)

[Gerard]

Anyone else remember how AOL was (sort of, in part) part of the OS installed suite when the Pocket PC first came available? It was pathetic, and just about everyone wanted it gone... so a lot of forum posts were devoted to pleas for assistance in just that, with a lot more answers coming to 'just delete the shortcut and try to forget it's in there.'

So now we're holding our collective breath, so that WM can host what... a Twitter client, and/or Facebook, and/or Windows Live nonsense? No thanks. If it comes out like that, I'll be hopping over to xda-dev for a custom image without that garbage included. Social Networking(tm) is not in the least bit interesting to me. Sure, it's popular with many. Awesome, go get an app if you need it. It's not like there aren't a host of programs available for that stuff already.

Don't build an OS around trivia, build it around stable functionality and the ability to run well when myriad third party programs are installed. Give us better multi-threading, such that, for example, I can jump through various emails and read them in my email client of choice (nPOPuk) while the client is polling a server for fresh mail. As it stands, too many application functions all over the device are capable of locking up functionality for seconds, or even minutes, while we wait to be allowed back in. Multi-tasking has always been there in WM. Take it further, make the newer devices with 1GHz processors mean something deeper in terms of that multi-tasking. Make devices work better... and let the users decide if they want social networking junk or not as part of that.

[TimFountain]

I hate to say it, but WM7 will probably be late to the party. I hope not, but nothing I've read or heard so far makes me think it will.

----snip----. Microsoft needs to not just catch-up, but get ahead and unfortunetly so far it looks like WM7 is going to be to little to late.

Late to the party? That's an understatement if I ever heard one! The party has moved on, it's in a different town called Appleland. As I have mentioned in other threads, I was a loyal WM used, I still have a Fuze and and ATT 8125, both sitting in a dark cupboard, unused and uncharged. From ther horrible way that MS handles OS upgrades (or doesn't) to the slow and clunky interface with interminable delays on 600MHz processors, to the battery guzzling WM devices, there is, IMHO, just too much that is broken to get users back onboard. Who would go back to a WM device after the iPhone, or even an N85?
It just isn't going to happen and it would be a realistic move if MS just canned the whole idea that they are a serious played in the mobile handset arena.

Oh and who except for 12 year olds cares about FB orr other social media sites? I sure as h3ll don't If I want to interact with someone I'll call them or, gasp, even meet with them for a drink, now that's a novel idea....

- Tim

[Sven Johannsen]

Who would go back to a WM device after the iPhone, or even an N85?
I would. In fact I expect to. Yes, I'm using an IPhone as primary phone right now, but have a functioning provisioned Epix as a backup and for when I need to get something done. My iPhone is every bit as battery hungry as any WM phone I've had. As much as folks gripe about the stylus, it isn't half as irritating as the horrible single option entry method you get on the iPhone. On WM I at least have choices, both soft and hard for entry. Multitasking is a foreign word to Apple, and you don't know what you've got till it's gone. Even the much ballyhood Cut and Paste we just got is maddening. Yea I can copy something, but to get it somewhere else, I need to close back to the home screen, restart the other app, get back to the place I need to paste, and then paste. The iPhone is a very well designed piece of hardware, but the OS is functionally simplistic, targetted at those that really don't have that much to do, but talk on the phone, and listen to tunes. There isn't even a way to mark all e-mails as read for pete's sake.

Right now I am having fun with the iPhone, and really like the form factor, and screen real estate though that should have been 640x480 like my JasJar, iPaq211 and N810 (800x480), but as soon as WM 6.5 is out on platform similar to the iphone, thin, large screen, the iPhone goes in a drawer. As a fellow MVP likes to say, WM is the worst mobile OS out there, except for all the others.

Gotta agree with you on the social networking crap though. Maybe we can have a drink sometime.

[Gerard]

I be diggin' the Toshiba TG01 (http://www.gsmarena.com/toshiba_unleashes_the_tg01__the_ubersmartphone_to_rule_them_all-news-768.php) for the iPhone-thin body and big screen, and am mildly interested in trying Toshiba's finger-friendly UI for at least a little while. WM6.5 (as provided by dsixda on xdadevelopers) makes my HTC Elfin a breeze to operate without a stylus in many respects, though input on the tiny screen is still stylus dependent. So something even more deeply finger oriented is likely to be fun. After that, the TG01 offers so, so much more than any iPhone will offer for the next few years (Apple likes to take bites out of the market, same as does Microsoft, never offering too many earth-shattering upgrades in the same year... sell more hardware that way) that it's an obvious choice for someone wanting serious depth of functionality with a bigger screen. I think it's the better of maybe three such options, the Samsung Omnia and the Touch Pro2 being pretty fair in their own rights. WM6.5 or WM7 aren't likely to be all that different it seems in actual functionality (unless one is a one-liner communication junkie), so I think the OEM's customizations are going to be the biggest factor in user experience being solid. Unfortunately the Toshiba seems to run WM6.1 so far, which is a bit of question mark for me... but no doubt by the time the thing is actually easy to buy here it'll be up to 6.5, at least unofficially.

[Phillip Dyson]

I agree with some of the others that the "social" integration is a complete waste to integrate into the OS. What about when Facebook and Twitter loose their momentum to something else? Suddently we're on the hook for WM8 to integrate with those?

Just pay someone to right a great Facebook app and those that want it can install it.

[maxnix]

If social networking is what we are waiting on, I can do without. If I want social networking on my phone, I'll install it. Be nice to see this before iPhone 4.
+1

It's for business! Helllooooo!

[Perry Reed]

Agreed. The Facebook app is "teh suck". It's really, really slow. Not impressive at all. :(

I is indeed slow and buggy, but that's not why I hate. It seems clear to me that the designers really didn't "get" social networking when they built it. I can't see everything my friends post, only some of it. I can post videos, but not edit them. I can post photos, but not tag them. I can see status updates, but only the most recent comment to them, not the chain of comments that usually are made up of fun conversations by my friends. I can't search for or add new friends. Nor are my FB contacts connected to my Outlook contacts.

I do think the social networking in general is important and Microsoft should incorporate it into WM 7, but that's not the most major change they need to make.

It's clear that the iPhone has changed the game in terms of how users interact with their phones, or more accurately, how the phones react to the users. The finger-friendly capacitive screen and the accelerometer let the iPhones react much more naturally to the user than the old stylus and resistive screen. This is the primary game changer and Microsoft has been painfully slow to recognize it.

The good news is, that it needn't take that long to adjust to it. Palm and Google have both produced modern, usable, good operating systems for their phones. I don't know why it is taking Microsoft so long. I know that Palm and Google weren't worried about any backwards compatibility, but frankly Microsoft could have avoided that problem, too, by branding the new OS with the Zune name rather than Windows Mobile. Yes, it would have annoyed some people, including me, but they'd still be in the game now rather than asking customers to wait another year or more.

I like WM6.5 well enough, but without HTC and others, it'd be pretty dismal for WM at this point. I'm glag Ballmer is starting to see this and maybe he'll kick the right butts into gear and we'll see WM7 sooner rather than later.