Microsoft hopes to take on Apple with dual mobile platforms

[AppleInsider]

A new report from Taiwan states that Microsoft intends to debut a touch interface for Windows Mobile 6.5 in early 2010, along with version 7 later that year to compete with the iPhone.

Citing sources at Taiwanese handset makers, DigiTimes reports that Microsoft will launch the latest upgrade to Windows Mobile on Oct. 1, 2009, but that a touchscreen upgrade will come in February of 2010. Following that, Windows Mobile 7 is also expected in the fourth quarter of 2010.

The two operating systems will reportedly represent a dual platform strategy from Apple's rival to the north.

"Microsoft will not phase out Windows Mobile from the market," the report states, "but will lower the OS price when it launches Windows Mobile 7."

Currently, Windows Mobile 6.5 doesn't support capacitive touchscreens, but that may change in early 2010, if the report proves true. The upcoming version was always viewed as an interim product before the launch of Windows Mobile 7, which aims to provide an experience similar to that of the iPhone.

The strategy would allegedly allow the lower-priced Windows Mobile 6.5 to compete with the free, open source Android platform, while the premium Windows Mobile 7 option would be geared toward the iPhone crowd.

With Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft intends to launch a store much like Apple's App Store for the iPhone. Windows Marketplace for Mobile would offer third-party applications for download that could be accessed both from the phone and the Web. Microsoft has already attempted to court iPhone developers to its new store, providing specific details on how to port applications from the App Store.

[tundraboy]

Dual mobile platforms? If that is true, how stupid can that be? I guess given their experience with Vista, you can't really get the replacement/upgrade out fast enough.

[fishstick_kitty]

The strategy would allegedly allow the lower-priced Windows Mobile 6.5 to compete with the free, open source Android platform, while the premium Windows Mobile 7 option would be geared toward the iPhone crowd.

they should also release a Windows Mobile 6.75 version to target the palm pre crowd.

[anantksundaram]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

...Microsoft intends to debut .......Microsoft will launch... a touchscreen upgrade will come ... Windows Mobile 7 is also expected... The two operating systems will reportedly represent ... will lower the OS price when it launches Windows Mobile 7....The upcoming version ... Microsoft intends to launch a store .....

Enough said.

[bigpics]

Originally Posted by anantksundaram

Enough said.

[Wiggin]

Originally Posted by tundraboy

Dual mobile platforms? If that is true, how stupid can that be? I guess given their experience with Vista, you can't really get the replacement/upgrade out fast enough.

Does that mean developers will have to decide which platform to support, or create two versions of all their apps? If I'm invested in apps from one platform will I be able to move them to the other?

I don't understand the point of fragmenting your own market like that.

Originally Posted by anantksundaram

Enough said.

[Wings]

I wonder where the iPhone puck will be in 4th quarter 2010?

[PXT]

Good grief. If you can't deliver, then pre-announce.

[badtux]

From a technical point of view, Windows Mobile is already a superior platform to the iPhone. WM has full multi-tasking for example. But that's not why the iPhone rocks. The iPhone rocks because it has a slick UI. Anything Microsoft makes will always look like a mess designed by geeks, because that's what it is -- designed by geeks. If Microsoft would hire real UI designers and give them the power to override the geeks maybe they could compete, but until that time (which will happen sometime after the current Microsoft management dies in a mass extinction event similar to that which took out the dinosaurs and not one minute sooner), WM phones are going to continue being also-rans bought only by businesses running Exchange who don't want to pay extra for a Crackberry.

[doyourownthing]

I wonder what blue screens will look like on a tiny mobile phone screen? I guess we'll find out soon.

[Dlux]

Originally Posted by fishstick_kitty

they should also release a Windows Mobile 6.75 version to target the palm pre crowd.

There is a discount/salvage store in Mass. called Building 19, which, when first established, simply used the warehouse number as the business name to re-use an existing sign (these guys were unapologetic cheapskates). When they expanded, the next store was called 'Building 19-1/2', and then the next was called 'Building 19-3/4' and -7/8, and so on. They had tied themselves to the 'Building 19' identity and made it a running theme.

So when I read your comment, the first thing that leapt to mind was the bargain-bin Building 19 franchise and all the cheapness and chaos that made it an endearing part of low-budget living. I would not be at all surprised if Microsoft takes on the same association, although in their case I doubt it will be intentional. Or endearing.

[zindako]

Originally Posted by doyourownthing

I wonder what blue screens will look like on a tiny mobile phone screen? I guess we'll find out soon.

LOL

[fishstick_kitty]

From a technical point of view, Windows Mobile is already a superior platform to the iPhone. WM has full multi-tasking for example.

iphone OS does too...they just prevent you from running multiple apps at once. But, for example, you can play music and browse the web at the same time...they selectively allow their own apps to multitask.

[bartfat]

Originally Posted by badtux

From a technical point of view, Windows Mobile is already a superior platform to the iPhone. WM has full multi-tasking for example. But that's not why the iPhone rocks. The iPhone rocks because it has a slick UI. Anything Microsoft makes will always look like a mess designed by geeks, because that's what it is -- designed by geeks. If Microsoft would hire real UI designers and give them the power to override the geeks maybe they could compete, but until that time (which will happen sometime after the current Microsoft management dies in a mass extinction event similar to that which took out the dinosaurs and not one minute sooner), WM phones are going to continue being also-rans bought only by businesses running Exchange who don't want to pay extra for a Crackberry.

Multi-tasking isn't a good thing for battery life.. it's not that the iPhone can't do it (e.g. iPod playing while surfing the web or making a phone call while also browsing the web or checking mail), but Apple chooses not to, because they figure that closing those background apps will be a nuisance. Sure they could implement something like Task Manager on Windows, but do we really want to burden people with managing their battery life if they forget to close Pandora and it runs down their battery a few hours later? Granted, that could happen while in the foreground, but at least you had a sense that it was running. With background apps, there's no clear way to know if a 3rd party app was running unless you had a Task Manager. So no, I don't think WM is a superior platform, otherwise people would've rushed to it in a mass exodus for the "feature" of multi-tasking, just like they "rushed" to buy the Palm Pre for its supposed multi-tasking.

But otherwise, your post sounds reasonable.. oh and of course since we're on AI, I might as well mention businesses who buy WM also don't want the iPhone and its UI, since that can connect to Exchange as well

[Tummy]

Originally Posted by badtux

If Microsoft would hire real UI designers and give them the power to override the geeks maybe they could compete...

They do actually hire real UI Designers and very good ones, but for some reason the results are just never as good. They use features to sell the devices and differentiate between all the different hardware instead of concentrating on a limited amount of functionality, but with an excellent user experience.

[christopher126]

Originally Posted by badtux

....But that's not why the iPhone rocks. The iPhone rocks because it has a slick UI. Anything Microsoft makes will always look like a mess designed by geeks, because that's what it is -- designed by geeks. If Microsoft would hire real UI designers and give them the power to override the geeks maybe they could compete, but until that time (which will happen sometime after the current Microsoft management dies in a mass extinction event similar to that which took out the dinosaurs and not one minute sooner), WM phones are going to continue being also-rans bought only by businesses running Exchange who don't want to pay extra for a Crackberry.

Right on! I can't remember which previous poster said this but Jobs' success is due, in part, because he's able to corral the "geeks" (no offense) and make them produce user friendly software/hardware on a consistent basis!

One only has to look at the crap MS produces, their misteps, the lame interfaces of cell phones (prior to the iPhone) and the television interfaces all of which are so clumsy and clunky compared to Apple's products!

[Quadra 610]

Like, what else can be said?

[Virgil-TB2]

Originally Posted by badtux

From a technical point of view, Windows Mobile is already a superior platform to the iPhone. WM has full multi-tasking for example. But that's not why the iPhone rocks. The iPhone rocks because it has a slick UI. Anything Microsoft makes will always look like a mess designed by geeks, because that's what it is -- designed by geeks. If Microsoft would hire real UI designers and give them the power to override the geeks maybe they could compete, but until that time (which will happen sometime after the current Microsoft management dies in a mass extinction event similar to that which took out the dinosaurs and not one minute sooner), WM phones are going to continue being also-rans bought only by businesses running Exchange who don't want to pay extra for a Crackberry.

I know you have two people already agreeing with you on the thread, but this is such a serious misrepresentation of almost every point you cover it's almost funny. You are oversimplifying to the point of idiocy here and characterising things you apparently know little about in terms that make no sense whatsoever.

For starters, Windows Mobile is a lot of things but it is not a "superior" OS to anything. Least of all to OS-X on the iPhone. Secondly, the iPhone is not successful just because it has a "slick UI" and the implication that the underpinnings of the OS, the API's, the SDK, and the hardware have little or nothing to do with it is just a joke.

The idea that Windows Mobile would be fine if they just gussy up the interface is laugh out loud funny. Computing history is full of wonderful, attractive sexy GUI's that didn't go anywhere at all, as well as knock-out successes with more mundane looks.

[Quadra 610]

Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2

I know you have two people already agreeing with you on the thread, but this is such a serious misrepresentation of almost every point you cover it's almost funny. You are oversimplifying to the point of idiocy here and characterising things you apparently know little about in terms that make no sense whatsoever.

For starters, Windows Mobile is a lot of things but it is not a "superior" OS to anything. Least of all to OS-X on the iPhone. Secondly, the iPhone is not successful just because it has a "slick UI" and the implication that the underpinnings of the OS, the API's, the SDK, and the hardware have little or nothing to do with it is just a joke.

The idea that Windows Mobile would be fine if they just gussy up the interface is laugh out loud funny. Computing history is full of wonderful, attractive sexy GUI's that didn't go anywhere at all, as well as knock-out successes with more mundane looks.

This. Well put.

After two full years MS is still stuck in the Dark Ages. They've changed their "mobile strategy" several times, to the point where they don't know whether they're coming or going. There is a horrible lack of focus at MS, and it all comes down to its corporate culture.

MS management needs to be overhauled completey. They can start by getting rid of Ballmer. The poor idiots are all over the map.

[Jim Campbell]

Originally Posted by bartfat

.. it's not that the iPhone can't do it (e.g. iPod playing while surfing the web or making a phone call while also browsing the web or checking mail), but Apple chooses not to

Do you actually own an iPhone? I most certainly can play music whilst on the internet ...

Cheers

Jim

[davebarnes]

"The vision see-what-sticks thing

By Gavin Clarke in San Francisco
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08...bile_strategy/

Posted in Mobile, 19th August 2009 19:43 GMT

When a person says they like something, they might also add: "What's not to like?"

When Steve Ballmer said he liked Microsoft's Windows Mobile strategy a few years back, you had to ask "what strategy"?

Microsoft's chief executive told CNBC-TV "I like our strategy, I like it a lot" while laughing off Apple's iPhone.

Ballmer was speaking when the iPhone was announced and not yet released, Microsoft's primary market in mobile was business users, and the competition was RIM and the sickly Palm.

It was a stable and predictable world, like the world of super-power politics before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Now, with the company losing market share to Apple along with RIM and Palm, and Google moving into the handset space with Android, old certainties are off and Microsoft is scrambling to find its place in the new world order.

Six months ago it unveiled Windows Mobile 6.5, which will add some finger-based input capabilities to Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile 6.5 wasn't even talked about when Ballmer went on TV in 2007, and when it launches in October this year it'll be almost two and a half years behind the iPhone and four months after Palm's webOS was released with the Pre.

We were told Windows Mobile 7.0 would follow in 2010, and would add more touch capabilities. Details are sketchy and Microsoft has not talked about Windows Mobile 7.0, but we had something to aim at. Call it "a strategy."

Now, it seems that Microsoft plans an interim Windows Mobile 6.5 upgrade in February 2010 "with a touch interface", DigiTimes has reported. The report cites sources inside handset makers.

And, once Windows Mobile 7.0 is released in the fourth-quarter of 2010 Microsoft will cut the price of Windows Mobile 6.5. The idea is to compete against Android using Windows Mobile 6.5 and the iPhone with Windows Mobile 7.0, DigiTimes said.

Microsoft refused to comment on the report, but a spokesperson told The Reg that Microsoft is excited about the launch of Windows Mobile 6.5. "This is our focus right now," he said.

The dictionary defines strategy as "a plan, method, or series of maneuvers or stratagems for obtaining a specific goal or result." Based on what we've seen, on what Microsoft has said about needing to do better, and on the company's recent loss of market share, it would be generous to call what's going on in Windows Mobile a strategy - now, in 2007, or going further back.

If DigiTimes is correct, the new so-called dual-approach strategy backs what The Reg believes is Microsoft's real goal: use Windows Mobile 6.5 to onramp iPhone converts to Windows Mobile 7.0.

It's hard to see, though, whether Microsoft can sway iPhone developers with the offer of either of these operating systems, or if they'll respond to being gently moved down an unclear roadmap that'll simply bring Microsoft to some kind of parity with Apple, Google, and Palm once it's completed.

Meanwhile, we have the added complication of Windows 7. This will add finger-licking touch and raise further questions of why didn't Microsoft simply cut its losses and cut down the PC version of Windows for mobile devices.

Keeping up with the Joneses

This would have made sense for the roadmap of Windows and provided a practical answer to getting developers. Microsoft could appeal to the existing base of Windows programmers, rather than try to poach smartphone developers from Apple, Google, Palm, or RIM.

At a high level, Microsoft's approach to mobile has been sound: build market share for Windows using devices, with Microsoft as a software-only player. It's what Microsoft did in the PC and server world - build software and outsource hardware engineering and delivery to partners.

Ballmer had every reason to like Microsoft's strategy because it worked. Microsoft has provided email, web browsing, and music in Windows on handsets right up there with everyone else and it has built market share. Windows Mobile worked for business users, and Microsoft kept up with the competition.

However, Microsoft did not excite developers or consumers, the leading adopters of new technologies past whose embrace of touch on smart phones is driving uptake of the iPhone among business users.

In the partner model Microsoft has followed, excitement and innovation must come from the top - from the software provider. And in this regard, Microsoft has failed to read the future and create a strategy for it in the way that Apple did, and in the way Google and Palm have now caught on to.

Microsoft needs a strategy reset to regain a vision that will capture developers and consumers, not updates to Windows 6.5. ®"

[Quadra 610]

Originally Posted by Jim Campbell

Do you actually own an iPhone? I most certainly can play music whilst on the internet ...

Cheers

Jim

Well whaddya know, sa can I! I can even make phone calls while playing music (the music fades out during the call and fades in when you hang up.)

I can even make phone calls while surfing the net, as well as view SMS messages while on calls.

But then again, we should know this, because we actually own one.

[justflybob]

Barney Frank had it all wrong.

The crazy woman he was having so much trouble with today wasn't a conservative wingnut, she was a MicroSoft executive attempting to defend their recent actions in the marketplace!

[elgronk]

Hahahahahahahahahaha. I made the mistake recently of buying an HTC Touch Pro 2. Windows Mobile is so bad that HTC feel obliged to write their own UI/OS on top to try and make it appear competitive. The result is a botched user experience that is partially Windows, partially HTC and all bad.

How have Microsoft failed so badly with their implementation of a mobile OS? My personal belief is that they have become fat, bloated and lazy. WinMo was good enough so why bother innovating until the iPhone and then Android came along and now they have been caught so badly with their pants down that their earliest response! is really in 2010. Don't kid yourselves WinMo 6.5 is not really much better than HTC's skin and is really just to try and avoid mass defection from a lazy, non intuitive and frankly dull platform. For me the turning point was their Oracle of all things mobile Jason Langridge left to become a BD manager for Apple.

Microsoft is living proof that evolution works and if you don't fit with your environment you're finished.

[doyourownthing]

Originally Posted by elgronk

Hahahahahahahahahaha. I made the mistake recently of buying an HTC Touch Pro 2. Windows Mobile is so bad that HTC feel obliged to write their own UI/OS on top to try and make it appear competitive. The result is a botched user experience that is partially Windows, partially HTC and all bad.

How have Microsoft failed so badly with their implementation of a mobile OS? My personal belief is that they have become fat, bloated and lazy. WinMo was good enough so why bother innovating until the iPhone and then Android came along and now they have been caught so badly with their pants down that their earliest response! is really in 2010. Don't kid yourselves WinMo 6.5 is not really much better than HTC's skin and is really just to try and avoid mass defection from a lazy, non intuitive and frankly dull platform. For me the turning point was their Oracle of all things mobile Jason Langridge left to become a BD manager for Apple.

Microsoft is living proof that evolution works and if you don't fit with your environment you're finished.

I tried using an HTC which had winmo and it was painful, slow, frustrating. I hope HTC has an operating system of their own in the works.

Apple will be screwed when ballmer finds another way to finance his cocaine problem and steps down from the ceo chair...because this "strategy" is doing wonders for Apple. I say, keep him!

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Wiggin

Does that mean developers will have to decide which platform to support, or create two versions of all their apps? If I'm invested in apps from one platform will I be able to move them to the other?

I don't understand the point of fragmenting your own market like that.

MS has a big problem here.

On the one hand, the iPhone totally caught them off guard. On the other, they now have to contend with a free OS supported by a very big, rich competitor they can't force out of business the way they did to Netscape.


With Apple, MS is at a disadvantage, because MS MUST make a profit off the OS or there's no point in it. But Apple doesn't care about selling the OS, they give it away for free because they make far more off the phone. They charge a small amount to Touch owners.

As for Android, Google is doing to MS what MS did to Netscape. So what does MS do?

By making a cheaper version of the OS they hope to retain most phone manufacturers who make less expensive smartphones, while making the "best" OS available at a higher price, hoping that more expensive phones will cover the higher OS price.

I'm not sure this strategy will work.

It seems to me that companies that make Win Mobile phones are looking at their costs entirely.

If they had a Win Mobile phone last year that sold a million, and they paid MS $15 for the OS, that's $15 million in potential profits.

If this year, they sold 750,000 units of a Win Mobile phone (very possible sales slip when you look at the declining marketshare of Win Mobile), and sold 500,000 units of an Android device, they would have made more profit on the smaller number, because of no MS license fees.

MS has to deal with this, and somehow convince those manufacturers to continue using Win Mobile.

Now, look at the phone purchasers.

Before the iPhone, you couldn't upgrade your phone OS. Yes, you could get some bug updates. A small feature fix. Maybe even a single small addition. But no upgrades.

The iPhone changed that. not only do you get a major upgrade every year, unheard of, but it's free.

As said before, Apple can afford that as they're not selling the OS, but the phone.

But what happens if you're a Win Mobile 6.5 or 7 owner? Will your phone allow upgrades? Good if it is forced into that by Apple, an industry hanging situation. Not everyone realizes this is such an earthquake in the industry.

Why? Because all those phone manufacturers that relied on people buying a new phone to get the features of the new OS, will no longer do so!!! his means that they will sell less phones to those people. Wow! Major problem.

But Apple doesn't care, because they never sold phones before, and don't have to worry about that change in sales routine.

So now, other companies are up against that.

But there's one last problem they will have. As Apple gives the OS away, how do these companies, with their new shiny OS upgradable phones react to Apple giving the OS away? How do they give away an OS that they have to pay for, year after year?

If they pay MS $15 for each upgrade to out into their phones, what do they charge as an upgrade? Usually a company must double the purchase, or license cost to make a profit on it. Even if they were willing to break even, that $15 could cost $25 to the consumer. How will those consumers react to being asked to pay $25 every year?

Look at how iPod Touch owners respond to being asked to pay $9.95, which is a pretty small amount?And anyway, Win Mobile won't be out for another year, or more, late 2010 most likely from what they are saying. Thats one more iPhone refresh and OS upgrade.

Its kinda late.

So, yeah, MS has a lot of problems.

Not a boat I'd like to sail in.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by badtux

From a technical point of view, Windows Mobile is already a superior platform to the iPhone. WM has full multi-tasking for example.

hat's a feature that isn't "technically superior". Why? Because the iPhone OS has always been a multitasking OS, so there's nothing technically superior bout MS's version.

The only difference is that MS exposes that to third party developers. Thats not a technical matter, it's more a practical one.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by doyourownthing

I tried using an HTC which had winmo and it was painful, slow, frustrating. I hope HTC has an operating system of their own in the works.

Apple will be screwed when ballmer finds another way to finance his cocaine problem and steps down from the ceo chair...because this "strategy" is doing wonders for Apple. I say, keep him!

Several years ago, when I was looking for a newer version of my Samsung Palmphone, I was hoping for the new Samsung which had a lot of new and better features. Unfortunately, Samsung never came out with that as they had some problem with the hardware. I waited for a while, and when the HTC 6700 came out, I thought that that was the phone for me! I went back to Sprint, and asked about it. I was all ready to get that rather expensive model, though it used Win Mobile, which I wasn't thrilled about. It was only for business at the time, and so I couldn't buy it.

Then I began to see the reviews. While the hardware garnered a lot of praise (it was dynamite for the day), the OS was panned. I never bought that phone. As I began to read more Win Mobile phone reviews, something I hadn't bothered with before, I noticed that there was a constant in them.

Even if the reviewers liked the hardware, they would always say that "If it weren't for the OS, the phone would get a top rating". What?

I've never seen that amount of constancy across so many reviews for so many pieces of hardware over so many years for so many versions of the same OS.

Absolutely amazing!

I bought a new Palm treo 700p when it came out, and then a 3G when that came out.

[Quadra 610]

Well this is one of the problems with MS. They wait forever to come out with a similar product, which then ends up sucking completely.

I wonder where all that MS R&D money is going.

[doyourownthing]

Originally Posted by Quadra 610

Well this is one of the problems with MS. They wait forever to come out with a similar product, which then ends up sucking completely.

I wonder where all that MS R&D money is going.

to Steve Ballmer's nostrils

[Dr Millmoss]

Aw come on you guys, since when is panic not a strategy?

More versions! We want more versions!

[digitalclips]

Where would M$ be without Apple as a free R&D department and ideas supplier? Frankly I keep expecting Ballmer to show up in a black turtle neck and jeans.

[backtomac]

Originally Posted by melgross

MS has a big problem here.

On the one hand, the iPhone totally caught them off guard. On the other, they now have to contend with a free OS supported by a very big, rich competitor they can't force out of business the way they did to Netscape.


With Apple, MS is at a disadvantage, because MS MUST make a profit off the OS or there's no point in it. But Apple doesn't care about selling the OS, they give it away for free because they make far more off the phone. They charge a small amount to Touch owners.

As for Android, Google is doing to MS what MS did to Netscape. So what does MS do?

By making a cheaper version of the OS they hope to retain most phone manufacturers who make less expensive smartphones, while making the "best" OS available at a higher price, hoping that more expensive phones will cover the higher OS price.

I'm not sure this strategy will work.

It seems to me that companies that make Win Mobile phones are looking at their costs entirely.

If they had a Win Mobile phone last year that sold a million, and they paid MS $15 for the OS, that's $15 million in potential profits.

If this year, they sold 750,000 units of a Win Mobile phone (very possible sales slip when you look at the declining marketshare of Win Mobile), and sold 500,000 units of an Android device, they would have made more profit on the smaller number, because of no MS license fees.

MS has to deal with this, and somehow convince those manufacturers to continue using Win Mobile.

Now, look at the phone purchasers.

Before the iPhone, you couldn't upgrade your phone OS. Yes, you could get some bug updates. A small feature fix. Maybe even a single small addition. But no upgrades.

The iPhone changed that. not only do you get a major upgrade every year, unheard of, but it's free.

As said before, Apple can afford that as they're not selling the OS, but the phone.

But what happens if you're a Win Mobile 6.5 or 7 owner? Will your phone allow upgrades? Good if it is forced into that by Apple, an industry hanging situation. Not everyone realizes this is such an earthquake in the industry.

Why? Because all those phone manufacturers that relied on people buying a new phone to get the features of the new OS, will no longer do so!!! his means that they will sell less phones to those people. Wow! Major problem.

But Apple doesn't care, because they never sold phones before, and don't have to worry about that change in sales routine.

So now, other companies are up against that.

But there's one last problem they will have. As Apple gives the OS away, how do these companies, with their new shiny OS upgradable phones react to Apple giving the OS away? How do they give away an OS that they have to pay for, year after year?

If they pay MS $15 for each upgrade to out into their phones, what do they charge as an upgrade? Usually a company must double the purchase, or license cost to make a profit on it. Even if they were willing to break even, that $15 could cost $25 to the consumer. How will those consumers react to being asked to pay $25 every year?

Look at how iPod Touch owners respond to being asked to pay $9.95, which is a pretty small amount?And anyway, Win Mobile won't be out for another year, or more, late 2010 most likely from what they are saying. Thats one more iPhone refresh and OS upgrade.

Its kinda late.

So, yeah, MS has a lot of problems.

Not a boat I'd like to sail in.

This.

I would also add that more than likely Win 6.5 will differ so much, or just enough, from Win 7 mobile that apps developed for one platform won't work on the other. That's going to make it less appealing for developers and more confusing for consumers.

I think the strategy is a looser.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Dr Millmoss

Aw come on you guys, since when is panic not a strategy?

It's worked for me.

[digitalclips]

It will probably only work with fat, sweaty fingers when you are jumping up and down like a deranged monkey...

[melgross]

Originally Posted by backtomac

This.

I would also add that more than likely Win 6.5 will differ so much, or just enough, from Win 7 mobile that apps developed for one platform won't work on the other. That's going to make it less appealing for developers and more confusing for consumers.

I think the strategy is a looser.

That could be. If 7's support for multitouch doesn't work on other hardware, and software must be programmed so that it works with a non multitouch input, then that would be a problem. But it says that multitouch will b coming for 6.5 in early 2010. Too bad.

I'm curious what differences there could be.

Maybe it will be like XP Starter, and XP prefessional, or something like that, a subset of features.

But even that could be a problem for developers, though not as much. This is the situation Apple will be facing as they upgrade the hardware in their phones, along with an upgraded OS.

[Quadra 610]

http://gigaom.com/2009/08/19/microso...strategy-fail/

Microsoft’s Mobile Strategy: Irrelevance

Om Malik:

Microsoft is apparently going to counter the Android and iPhone offensives on the mobile market with a new strategy: confusion. The company will allegedly continue to sell its increasingly less relevant Windows Mobile 6.5 for a lower price when it launches version 7 in the fourth quarter of 2010.

The fourth quarter of 2010? I mean, does Redmond expect Google and Apple to go on a yearlong vacation? No wonder Microsoft is becoming irrelevant on the mobile platform.

This is based on a report in DigiTimes from unnamed sources, so I’ll take it with a grain of salt. But it sounds plausible given Microsoft’s confusing, fragmented mobile strategy to date.

(Speaking of which, I’ve heard from a second developer of a popular iPhone app who was approached by Microsoft to port their app to the Zune. They, like my initial source, declined the offer. Keep in mind that the Zune is not Windows Mobile.)

[CurtisEMayle]

Originally Posted by PXT

Good grief. If you can't deliver, then pre-announce.

Since the mid-80's, that's been the Microsoft marketing tactics.

[Hattig]

Just more proof that Microsoft just doesn't get it.

Android is free - HTC have turned from a Windows Mobile OEM into an Android OEM, and I don't see this stopping their migration. Android has a lot of good things going for it. HTC was the biggest Windows Mobile OEM. Dell went straight to Android for their phone, not that they would want to touch Windows Mobile after the experiences they had with their PDA lines a few years back (good hardware though).

Apple are providing a single platform, hence the updates are free. This makes development easier and more desirable. Apple are even effectively doing this for Mac OS X as well, by making Snow Leopard $29 for 80%+ of active Mac users. It just works.

I've never seen someone eulogise over a Windows Mobile device. Swearing is more likely. These devices are archaic, configuration all over the place, filesystem structures from the 90s, a GUI that looks awful and it tied to a pen interface. Yes, they can create a touch interface on top, but they're not making it work for all those applications that need the pen. So the pen will remain, just the core phone part will be touch enabled.

It's just not what people want. They don't want to align their stylus every few reboots. They don't want to deal with terrible configuration screens, duplicated functionality, wireless managers that don't work, interfaces that seem out of place, and all that.

They can look at the iPhone, Android and WebOS and see where the state of the art is. That's what the word of mouth is.

Creating a split personality platform, at some point in the future, is not a plan. All it will do is galvanise manufacturers in their move to Android.

[backtomac]

Originally Posted by Hattig

Just more proof that Microsoft just doesn't get it.

Android is free - HTC have turned from a Windows Mobile OEM into an Android OEM, and I don't see this stopping their migration. Android has a lot of good things going for it. HTC was the biggest Windows Mobile OEM. Dell went straight to Android for their phone, not that they would want to touch Windows Mobile after the experiences they had with their PDA lines a few years back (good hardware though).

Apple are providing a single platform, hence the updates are free. This makes development easier and more desirable. Apple are even effectively doing this for Mac OS X as well, by making Snow Leopard $29 for 80%+ of active Mac users. It just works.

I've never seen someone eulogise over a Windows Mobile device. Swearing is more likely. These devices are archaic, configuration all over the place, filesystem structures from the 90s, a GUI that looks awful and it tied to a pen interface. Yes, they can create a touch interface on top, but they're not making it work for all those applications that need the pen. So the pen will remain, just the core phone part will be touch enabled.

It's just not what people want. They don't want to align their stylus every few reboots. They don't want to deal with terrible configuration screens, duplicated functionality, wireless managers that don't work, interfaces that seem out of place, and all that.

They can look at the iPhone, Android and WebOS and see where the state of the art is. That's what the word of mouth is.

Creating a split personality platform, at some point in the future, is not a plan. All it will do is galvanise manufacturers in their move to Android.

I think Android has some issues, just go to Daring Fireball and Gruber does a nice job explaining them, but it does seem way better than the MS alternatives.