04-06-2003, 03:45 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,177
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Passionate Phone People
I just got back from Mobius 2003. Microsoft had invited about twenty passionate PDA and mobile phone people to listen to and talk about what's going on with Microsoft products and in the market in general. The participants were all involved in running sites related to everything from Symbian, cell phones, PDAs, to Pocket PCs. (No particular order!)
Pocket PC Thoughts was represented by myself and Jason Dunn. The conference was held just outside Disneyland, Paris, at Disney's Newport Bay Club Hotel. The event was non-NDA, so there was no information given regarding future Pocket PCs or Smartphones. From my perspective, the real value was meeting with everyone and the discussions we had. It's really interesting to see the faces "behind the web sites" and interact in real life. We got a bag of goodies which contained an Orange SPV Smartphone, keyboard and camera to the Orange SPV, an empty 128 MB SD card, a 64 MB SD card with Smartphone software and a few more smaller items. I hadn't planned on getting a Smartphone 2002 since I am waiting for the next version which will come with .NET Compact Framework in ROM. But now I feel it is great having one now so I can get up to speed faster on the next Smartphone. I have actually retired my Pocket PC Phone Edition!
I know Jason has an extensive (!) trip report cooking, so I will let him talk more about the contents of the conference. At times like this, it is easy to sum up things. So, here are two lists that I feel talks about what Microsoft has done well as well as needs to do.
Done well:
1. Began its entrance into the mobile phone market
2. Aligned mobile device software across PDA style, hybrid and mobile phone devices
3. Attracted a large number of mobile network operators
Needs to do:
1. Increase speed of hardware design and innovation (fund projects, if nescessary)
2. Get either Motorola (likely), Nokia (fat chance) or Sony Ericsson (if they were smart) to adopt their software
3. Make sure they are in the 3G spotlights that are being rigged as we speak
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04-06-2003, 04:37 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 11
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Andy, hope you like your SPV. I've had mine since December and love it. If MS continue their development push, Smartphone 2003 should be stunning.
One thing the SPV has made me realise is I'll never buy a portable device without wireless internet again.
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04-06-2003, 04:45 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 309
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Re: Passionate Phone People
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Originally Posted by Andy Sjostrom
Needs to do:
2. Get either Motorola (likely), Nokia (fat chance) or Sony Ericsson (if they were smart) to adopt their software
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Well, the OS used by motorola is not good anyway. But SonyEricsson? No thanks, they are fine with symbian. Do you want a SE P800 with the pocket pc OS? Get a thera or something like that. Symbian is pretty good, and differents OS allow people to make choices, and the OS makers compete with each other. Innovation stops when there is no competition anymore.
0X
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04-06-2003, 05:15 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 354
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Re: Passionate Phone People
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Originally Posted by Andy Sjostrom
We got a bag of goodies which contained an Orange SPV Smartphone, keyboard and camera to the Orange SPV, an empty 128 MB SD card, a 64 MB SD card with Smartphone software and a few more smaller items.
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Is that the squashy roll up keyboard?, I was surprised how easy it was to type on. The problem with smart phone is that you can get too carried away trying to tap the screen if you are used to the pocket pc!
Orange had a big presence at MDC too, they are really expecting the SPV to take off! and at last have set up a developer program, something sadly lacking at the beginning...
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04-06-2003, 06:51 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 105
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Hmm, good luck with yours.
Unfortunately, my experience is a device with all the bad features of MS operating system trying to be a mobile phone, it's now in the top drawer and my trusty T68i is being used again, it's a dream to use compared to the SPV.
This is an area where MS is actually up against an operating system they just can't squash by bruteforce, this could be the undoing of them.
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04-06-2003, 06:53 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 90
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Quote:
Andy Sjostrom wrote:
Needs to do:
2. Get either Motorola (likely), Nokia (fat chance) or Sony Ericsson (if they were smart) to adopt their software
Well, the OS used by motorola is not good anyway. But SonyEricsson? No thanks, they are fine with symbian. Do you want a SE P800 with the pocket pc OS? Get a thera or something like that. Symbian is pretty good, and differents OS allow people to make choices, and the OS makers compete with each other. Innovation stops when there is no competition anymore.
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Completely agree there, I think the only one of those three Phone manufactures who may just possibly adopt smartphone is Motorola since their current choice of phones that cater for that area of the market is negligible (non-existant?). Both Nokia and SE have developed there own software based on Symbian and IMHO both Series 60 (Nokia) and UIQ (SE) do an extremely good job. The Symbian 'backbone' has also had far more development time put into than smartphone (since it was originally based on EPOC). Purely from experimenting with the phones in a shop both the SE P800 and Nokia 7650/3650 seem to run much faster than an SPV and are much more capable.
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04-06-2003, 06:55 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,177
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by srider
Andy, hope you like your SPV. I've had mine since December and love it. If MS continue their development push, Smartphone 2003 should be stunning.
One thing the SPV has made me realise is I'll never buy a portable device without wireless internet again.
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Yes, I like it very much so far. The user interface is great and the color screen stunning. My only concern so far is that it feels somewhat sluggish. I would like to see performance improve in the next version!
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04-06-2003, 06:56 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,177
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Re: Passionate Phone People
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Originally Posted by Peter Foot
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Andy Sjostrom
We got a bag of goodies which contained an Orange SPV Smartphone, keyboard and camera to the Orange SPV, an empty 128 MB SD card, a 64 MB SD card with Smartphone software and a few more smaller items.
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Is that the squashy roll up keyboard?, I was surprised how easy it was to type on. The problem with smart phone is that you can get too carried away trying to tap the screen if you are used to the pocket pc!
Orange had a big presence at MDC too, they are really expecting the SPV to take off! and at last have set up a developer program, something sadly lacking at the beginning... |
Yes it is. The keyboard really works well!
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04-06-2003, 07:17 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 354
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Andy Sjostrom
Quote:
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Originally Posted by srider
Andy, hope you like your SPV. I've had mine since December and love it. If MS continue their development push, Smartphone 2003 should be stunning.
One thing the SPV has made me realise is I'll never buy a portable device without wireless internet again.
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Yes, I like it very much so far. The user interface is great and the color screen stunning. My only concern so far is that it feels somewhat sluggish. I would like to see performance improve in the next version! |
Based on what I read at http://www.robertlevy.net there should be noticable performance increases with XScale powered Smartphone devices over the current Texas OMAP powered devices. Presumably we will see these with Smartphone 2003 devices.
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04-06-2003, 08:24 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 11
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Andy Sjostrom
Quote:
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Originally Posted by srider
Andy, hope you like your SPV. I've had mine since December and love it. If MS continue their development push, Smartphone 2003 should be stunning.
One thing the SPV has made me realise is I'll never buy a portable device without wireless internet again.
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Yes, I like it very much so far. The user interface is great and the color screen stunning. My only concern so far is that it feels somewhat sluggish. I would like to see performance improve in the next version! |
The recent UK update improved performance hugely. Might be worth checking yours is up to date.
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