Sunday, April 6, 2003
Passionate Phone People
Posted by Andy Sjostrom in "THOUGHT" @ 07:45 AM
I just got back from Mobius 2003. Microsoft had invited about twenty passionate PDA and mobile phone people to listen to and talk about what's going on with Microsoft products and in the market in general. The participants were all involved in running sites related to everything from Symbian, cell phones, PDAs, to Pocket PCs. (No particular order!)
Pocket PC Thoughts was represented by myself and Jason Dunn. The conference was held just outside Disneyland, Paris, at Disney's Newport Bay Club Hotel. The event was non-NDA, so there was no information given regarding future Pocket PCs or Smartphones. From my perspective, the real value was meeting with everyone and the discussions we had. It's really interesting to see the faces "behind the web sites" and interact in real life. We got a bag of goodies which contained an Orange SPV Smartphone, keyboard and camera to the Orange SPV, an empty 128 MB SD card, a 64 MB SD card with Smartphone software and a few more smaller items. I hadn't planned on getting a Smartphone 2002 since I am waiting for the next version which will come with .NET Compact Framework in ROM. But now I feel it is great having one now so I can get up to speed faster on the next Smartphone. I have actually retired my Pocket PC Phone Edition!
I know Jason has an extensive (!) trip report cooking, so I will let him talk more about the contents of the conference. At times like this, it is easy to sum up things. So, here are two lists that I feel talks about what Microsoft has done well as well as needs to do.
Done well:
1. Began its entrance into the mobile phone market
2. Aligned mobile device software across PDA style, hybrid and mobile phone devices
3. Attracted a large number of mobile network operators
Needs to do:
1. Increase speed of hardware design and innovation (fund projects, if nescessary)
2. Get either Motorola (likely), Nokia (fat chance) or Sony Ericsson (if they were smart) to adopt their software
3. Make sure they are in the 3G spotlights that are being rigged as we speak
Pocket PC Thoughts was represented by myself and Jason Dunn. The conference was held just outside Disneyland, Paris, at Disney's Newport Bay Club Hotel. The event was non-NDA, so there was no information given regarding future Pocket PCs or Smartphones. From my perspective, the real value was meeting with everyone and the discussions we had. It's really interesting to see the faces "behind the web sites" and interact in real life. We got a bag of goodies which contained an Orange SPV Smartphone, keyboard and camera to the Orange SPV, an empty 128 MB SD card, a 64 MB SD card with Smartphone software and a few more smaller items. I hadn't planned on getting a Smartphone 2002 since I am waiting for the next version which will come with .NET Compact Framework in ROM. But now I feel it is great having one now so I can get up to speed faster on the next Smartphone. I have actually retired my Pocket PC Phone Edition!
I know Jason has an extensive (!) trip report cooking, so I will let him talk more about the contents of the conference. At times like this, it is easy to sum up things. So, here are two lists that I feel talks about what Microsoft has done well as well as needs to do.
Done well:
1. Began its entrance into the mobile phone market
2. Aligned mobile device software across PDA style, hybrid and mobile phone devices
3. Attracted a large number of mobile network operators
Needs to do:
1. Increase speed of hardware design and innovation (fund projects, if nescessary)
2. Get either Motorola (likely), Nokia (fat chance) or Sony Ericsson (if they were smart) to adopt their software
3. Make sure they are in the 3G spotlights that are being rigged as we speak
