In a neat article on Pocket PC Thoughts, Jon Westfall comments on the fact that WinMo isn’t exciting for him now. Whereas in previous years he hankered after the latest WinMo-toting device, this year he says he isn’t so bothered – and kinda wants an iPhone.
Funny that – I’ve been thinking more or less the same thing! Back in the day, I used to LOVE the fact that Activesync was a seamless connection between my PC (contacts, calendar) and my Mobile – and I forgave the lagginess and lack of other functions in the devices because of it. But as time has moved on, WinMo hasn’t come along at the same pace – a bit like peoples’ pay in the UK, compared to inflation!
We’ve now got some incredible (yes, I believe they are!) feature phones, some astounding smartphones, and a plethora of devices that play heavily in both of those former camps – but WinMo-powered devices are somewhat behind in general.
Now, HTC have been a major force in reducing this ‘delta’ (gap) between where other devices are, and where WinMo devices are, but they can only do so much. To at least some extent, WinMo needs to evolve. We could bring the iPhone in to this argument in detail, but I don’t think there is much need – everyone recognises the O/S and user experience are light years ahead of most other devices, and definitely WinMo. HTC’s buffer in this case is it’s TouchFLO interface, but as a Jon and a friend of mine both commented, there are layers of traditional pen-based input screens there if you look!
So what are Microsoft going to do? They are facing real pressure on the PC O/S and Apps side (due to cheaper, “better”, and lightweight alternative packages), and also on the Mobile front. In fact, to turn this in to a tripod of issues for Microsoft, the Xbox is also facing some serious heat….
..but looping back to WinMo – just what can be done? What to the readers think?
(BTW, if you want to read Jon’s really well written piece, go here)