A year in review - why I came back to Windows Mobile

[bydandie]

"Hi Honey I'm home!" Well it's good to be back into the WM fold after straying away over the past year, first to the Nokia E71 with Symbian and then the iPhone 3Gs before coming back to WM with a bang via the HD2. My mobile device experiences over the past year have been an eye-opener for me in terms of what is out regarding choice and functionality, in a way that simply wouldn't have been experienced had I stayed in the WM fold. I thought it might be interesting to share my experiences, the reasons for moving to different platforms and thoughts about the future of the Smartphone industry

So, where do I start? I think that I'll start with the device that really piqued my interest prior to temporarily moving away from WM, the XDA Ignito (Diamond Platform). This is a device that was perfect in size, with a great VGA screen, GPS and battery life of a couple of days. It really made me think that I didn’t need an iPhone at all, and was very usable with the current o2 ROMs. The one problem was that Opera ran like a dog on it and PIE was OK but not the feature-rich experience I expected, although it still remains my GPS (for now). I still think that there is a niche for this size of device with a VGA screen, which currently isn’t being sated in the drive to be like the iPhone.

Next came the E71, which was a Symbian device with a wide range of software installed as standard and a bullet-proof case. The keyboard, form factor, battery life and build quality are hard to match. The issue for me was that it lacked the ability to view emails and interact with the email addresses and phone numbers within them (unless you count Nokia for Exchange which didn’t support folders). Another minus for me was that you couldn’t just call from within an email like you can within WM.

So I moved onto the iPhone, mainly for the music and internet browsing experience. This meant that I could leave my netbook at home and enjoy the same functionality. The iPhone has been kept for personal use, but whilst it is very good it isn’t in the business class of devices due to a lack of being able to present appointments easily and having too much storage. The one thing I will say about the iPhone though is that I know I can give it to anyone and they will get on with it. It’s the little things that make the difference for me like dialling the voicemail and having the keypad presented, and the integration with the iPod application. One major gripe with the iPhone is the lack of universal multi-tasking; it can do it, but only when Apple want you to be able to.

For business purposes I moved back to the Touch Plus (Touch Dual Platform) as I could get more functionality. Things like being able to use real phone keys and dial/text/email from typing in the contact names (something the E71 doesn’t do as well) were really useful! I also missed calling a contact from within an email just by pressing the off-hook key which only appears to be in the “limited” Windows Mobile platform! Browsing the web was a chore though and the device was starting to show its age, and it’s only 19 months old!

So, I came back to today where I have an HD2 for my business needs. And I have to say that Windows Mobile as a operating system has evolved, and the HD2 as the platform makes it a powerful tool for business, browsing the internet and viewing documents with ease. The HD2 is fast, responsive and has all the goodness that I like about Windows Mobile. Is it perfect? No, but most of that is in the integration of the different functions and the fact that HTC are resting on their laurels with Sense. If I do a Google search on the iPhone, it searches google.co.uk, but the HD2 searches google.com! It can certainly be customised to be as useful as the iPhone, but that’s beyond most people’s abilities. The HD2’s certainly not as bad as the recent PC Pro review states. Most of the issues are with size and that’s the same for their A-List device the iPhone! The iPhone simply isn’t as powerful as the HD2 (it can’t do Draft-N wireless for a start!), but it is more fun.

Whilst we’re on the topic of the HD2 experience though, the Microsoft marketplace is an amusing place to look. People complained about the price of the TomTom navigation app, whilst almost all of the SPB apps are over £20! If Apple have got one thing right, it’s the pricing of their apps. The iPhone is only partly more useful due to the O/S, most of the usefulness comes from the apps and you rarely pay more than £5 for a powerful app.

I’m looking forward to 2010 as I have two upgrades to happen. One of which will be used on an Android device as that excites me as we move towards v2.x of the Android O/S. I’d like the other to be a Windows 7 device, but please let there be some real competition in the form factor and provide an equivalent of the Diamond with a slide-out keypad. I’ve been a really good boy this year!
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[windows]

Tis good to have you back in the fold Des, as you know I've got an iPhone here, a Hero, and a HD2. 99% of the time the HD2 performs perfectly and my only lack on the WM platform is no sync with the Toodledo task management web based system which I now use.

[fowljr]

Great editorial Des, a really good insight into your view on the smartphone market and the sound reasoning behind it.

[waveydavey]

A god editorial indeed Des. What was it that pushed you towards the Nokia in the first place?

[bydandie]

Originally Posted by waveydavey

A god editorial indeed Des. What was it that pushed you towards the Nokia in the first place?

it was the build quality adn the installed software combined with the extended battery life that sold it for me mate.
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[tonybro]

I've not left WM but I did sample the 'Forbidden Fruit'!

Didn't get along with the iPhone at all and strangely enough, my wife has dumped hers and my eldest son is dumping his and both went to HD2 after seeing mine!

So WM6.5 may not be the sharpest suit in the office block but it does what it needs to where it matters most - getting things done for you the way you want to do them!

I was also offered a Blackberry from work and rejected it!

[Bassey]

Great piece Des. I have to agree about the pricing of the apps in the Marketplace. I thought the Marketplace would drive down the cost of WM apps but that simply hasn't happened. And, because of that, I've only bought the one app - for £3. Anything else has been freebies. Obviously, it's not MS that set the prices - in the same way Apple don't set the prices for the iTunes App Store - but it's something the developers need to think about. In fairness though, selling a tens of thousands of iPhone apps at 99p is one thing. Selling a couple of thousand WM apps at 99p isn't quite the same thing!

[waveydavey]

One thing I found strange Des, you say the iPhone has TOO MUCH storage? Surely this is no different than having a MicroSD card socket is it?

[bydandie]

Originally Posted by waveydavey

One thing I found strange Des, you say the iPhone has TOO MUCH storage? Surely this is no different than having a MicroSD card socket is it?

As an enterprise device, any more than 4GB is overkill IMHO as you're over the size of most mailboxes then and the more inbuilt storage you have the more you're encouraging music and media use. You can restrict the use of memory cards in devices that have them.
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[R3PUBL1K]

You may or may not have noticed, I'd been gone for a while too, due to getting the iPhone when it became available on the Orange network.

My experience of the iPhone during time has been a learning curve as even adding your own message tone can be cumbersome, I jailbreaked the phone with (blackra1n) as I wanted to use winterboard to customise the background and icons etc.

Although the iPhone has its uses, with certain apps like iFooty and Jamie Olivers 20Min meals, I really do miss WM and the fun I had trying new ROMs, therefore I am going to get another WM device in the next few weeks, just debating which one to go for.

Any suggestions?