Comments on: Hey Microsoft, forget MIX, focus on Mobiles

By: Jesse Kopelman

Jesse Kopelman — Wed, 02 May 2007 22:05:47 +0000

I have a XV6700 too. Trust me, OS is a contributer to battery life. Designing for hardware efficiency has never been Microsoft’s strong suit. Given that WM has potential to be a much bigger deal than XBox and possibly even desktop OS, I think Microsoft’s efforts have been quite underwhelming. WM5 is about as good Windows 3.1. Even if WM6 gets us up to Windows 95 level, and I don’t think it does, they really need the mobile equivalent of Windows XP. Maybe iPhone will give them the kick in the ass they need. I’m not optimistic, considering how long the Mac predated a useful version of Windows.

By: Shannon Clark

Shannon Clark — Wed, 02 May 2007 21:59:28 +0000

I have a windows mobile phone from Cingular (the Cingular 2125 - it's an HTC rebranded).

Great phone - for reception & signal strength.

Data - okay.

Web - good BUT there are sites which totally halt the phone. Halt to the point that the POWER OFF button does not work - the only resort is to unplug the battery.

Furthermore I have never been able to get the phone to update the time from the network - have to set it manually (first phone I've had in many, many years that doesn't do this)

And don't get me started on the "autosync" software used to sync the phone - beyond useless - to the point that I actively avoid trying try sync the phone.

Plus this version of Windows Mobile I have does not allow for the use of the miniSD card to store applications (such as Java apps I download) or to store things like the browser cache etc. Instead I'm restricted to relatively small <64mb of memory built into the phone - meaning that trying to have more than one app running is annoying (as is the UI to close/halt apps)

Windows Mobile is okay - but needs a LOT of work to clean up the many still rough edges - and the serious reliability problems.

Shannon

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Wed, 02 May 2007 19:23:13 +0000

The reboot problem is a recurring problem in most of these new devices. My E61 is acting like a bitch ever since I upgraded the software (OS). I think Windows Mobile 6.0 is going to improve the stability issues.

By: JAMG

JAMG — Wed, 02 May 2007 18:45:46 +0000

I had the T-Mobile Dash (WM device manufactured by HTC) for several months before my company standardized us on Blackberry. I liked the WM device, but it does not compare to the BB in terms of stability (i.e. very few reboots on the BB). Also, I wonder about the effect of the OS on battery life. I’m getting much better performance now than with the Dash.

By: N.Cauldwell

N.Cauldwell — Wed, 02 May 2007 18:43:19 +0000

My experience with the N70 & Symbian has been nothing short of shocking. Slow, confused file management, glitchy and reboot-alicious. I won’t be sticking with Symbian for my next phone. I’ve looked at several new smartphones, and WM seems to reside on my preferred models – it’s a shame to hear I might have to expect another poor mobile OS experience.

Let’s hope that MS start taking more care over promoting WM – they might find it’s more important than Silverlight.

By: najeeb

najeeb — Wed, 02 May 2007 17:30:40 +0000

Sadly, reboots have become sort of a constant phenomena on many of the smartphones. The good thing about Palm is that reboot is so fast that you hardly notice it. But on the UI front though, i think WM is easy to get around than Symbian/Nokia UI. It drives me crazy looking for settings on symbian, it is just too obscure..

By: Ravneet

Ravneet — Wed, 02 May 2007 17:27:05 +0000

I think MS has a good initiative in Windows Live which can work good in Mobile domain. It could offer one stop shop for IM/Search/Local etc on mobile devices. If only they could up the Live hooplah on devices too (as they are doing on web and desktop). As for the OS itself, I agree with the reboot, but mostly the reboots that I do are only due to some softwares I install on the device. Same goes for the battery, some softwares tend to drain the device out, but that aint MS fault. Actually I consider myself a crossover from Symbian to WM, and it is working good for me in terms of usabiulity, standardization (I dont want to follow multiple UI standards on desktop and device.).

By: RandomThoughts

RandomThoughts — Wed, 02 May 2007 17:22:54 +0000

I use a XV6700 and the Windows Mobile works well for me. I think the big advantage it has over other types of platforms is the easy integration with the Exchange Server. For the business consumer, that is pretty important.

Still, not sure if I like having to reboot my phone every once in a while. I also have more of a problem with the battery of the devise than I do with the operating system.

By: Jeffrey McManus

Jeffrey McManus — Wed, 02 May 2007 16:31:36 +0000

Amen, brother.

My last two phones have been Windows Mobile but when my contract is up in November I'm going to look for something else. I'm really sick of having to reboot the stupid thing, and the innovation I had expected from the fact that WM is an open platform just isn't happening -- in all likelihood because Microsoft isn't doing squat to foster a WM developer community.