You certainly won't get any argument from me! There is (was) certainly
room for improvement in Windows Mobile, especially with making the UI
more finger-friendly, adding a good browser, fixing the mess that is WMDC
once and for all, and a tightening up of minimum hardware specs to insure
the base apps ran smoothly.
Unfortunately, I suspect the powers that be decided WinMo needed a reboot
from the ground up, which would've been a fine idea if they started two
years ago, but I suspect they waited until WM6.5's lackluster reception
to get the ball really rolling, and now find themselves under deadlines
and letting features slip.
I'd probably be more forgiving if I thought this strategy would pay off,
but I can't see, even with the good reception in the tech press from the
previews, why WP7 will be any more successful stealing sales from the
iPhone than Zune was stealing sales from the iPod.
There's nothing wrong with the Zune- they're decent media players, but
the iPod was too entrenched to be threatened by a new player with only
marginally more functionality - I see WP7 having the same hurdle. Except
for perhaps the Xbox fans looking forward to the Xbox integration, I
can't figure out who, exactly, is supposed to buy a WP7 device that
doesn't already have an iPhone, and therefore has invested in that
ecosystem with apps, hardware accessories, etc.?
Post by M SkabialkaIf I had wanted an iPhone I would have bought one, but I liked my PDA which
synced to my PC, and bought a smart phone because it did too. My phone is
my data entry device, my PC is my backup. I enter calendar items whenever
they come up because my phone is always with me. I hear about a festival
coming up - I add it to the phone, someone calls - I add them to my contacts
on my phone, I suddenly remember something I have to do later - I add a task
on my phone. Sure I could write these on a scrap of paper and enter them on
my PC later - maybe - if I had the paper handy, and remembered to do it, but
that's the beauty of having the smart phone in the first place - enter it
immediately.
Honestly I think the iPhone users are a different type of user, and
Microsoft needs to cater to the rest of us, not follow the Apple crowd.
Post by M SkabialkaPost by M SkabialkaI have read that there will be no copy/paste clipboard in Windows
Mobile 7
Post by M Skabialkabut I use that feature a lot in 6.5.
e.g. after I went to the dentist today he gave me two more
appointments
Post by M SkabialkaPost by M Skabialka- I
Post by M Skabialkacopied today's appointment and pasted twice on the appropriate days and
times and was done in less than a minute. In replying to an email I
copied
Post by M Skabialkasome text from another email and a link from Internet explorer. I
often
Post by M Skabialkafind uses for this feature on my touch screen phone that save me time
keying
Post by M Skabialkain or transcribing text.
Is there a way to let Microsoft know that this is unacceptable?
Other than by not buying a WP7 device?
Judging by the feedback I've seen, I'd say they already know that many of
us find it unacceptable. I'd also suggest we're not necessarily the
indended market for WP7.
I think Microsoft is envisioning WP7 in much the same way Apple
envisioned the iPhone- as a content consumption device, not a content
creation device.
I'd probably expect anyone who worked on WP7 to say "why are you entering
the appointments on the device? Just type them on your PC and watch them
magically sync to the device over the air... ...and then you can tweet
about it!"
To me, it looks like the design philosophy of WP7 was "portable access to
your data" with "data" being defined as media, and social networking
contacts. Sadly, the designers seem to be more worried about providing a
good Facebook experience than putting a mobile computer in my pocket,
which seemed to be the goal of the previous iterations of the OS.
Having said that, the runaway success of the iPhone suggests that
consumers by-and-large don't care about things like cut and paste or
multitasking as much as an intuitive UI and a little "sizzle."
I had hoped that Microsoft would be able to improve the user
experience
Post by M SkabialkaPost by M Skabialkawithout sacrificing power and flexibility, but, alas, it doesn't seem
like it.