Sunday, June 22, 2003
Microsoft's Derek Brown Speaks on Pocket PC 2003
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 09:33 PM
Below is an excerpt of a recent message from Derek Brown, Director of Marketing Communications in the Mobile Devices Division at Microsoft. He has an interesting perspective about Microsoft's mobile device strategy and shares some of his favorite updates with the latest version of Windows Mobile software for Pocket PCs that I thought was worth sharing with you.
"We put a tremendous amount of work into this release and focused explicitly on building for the future. As any of you who have spent time discussing it with me know, development is a game of finite time and people. In any given release with a deadline you have X number of persons and X days to develop and test. Period. You make cuts, you make hard decisions and you postpone features or improvements to the next version. This is how it works. Over the past 18 months or so, two of our primary goals were to: first, unify as much of the code-base for our software for Pocket PC and Smartphone as possible; and second, get on schedule to ship as much of that code as possible on the most current version of Windows CE.Net.
Accomplishing these two tasks was a huge undertaking, involving not just a lot of code re-work, but also structuring our development team so that most of our efforts would accrue to both form factors. Today, we have a platform optimized for *the future* - both in terms of technology and resources. We're in this game for the long, long term - forever.
In the latest release, I think there is incredible value in the latest release: For instance, we’ve improved the wireless experience with this release by making it easier to connect to Wi-Fi networks. From a phone perspective, we’ve implemented smart, persistent 2.5G data connections, GSM Suspend/Resume and CDMA Dormant modes. We’ve updated the phone usability features, such as including a Mute button and adding separate phone and device volume controls. There are also enhanced messaging and multi-media features, like the New Pictures application that allows you to manage and view photos.
We’ve also improved functionality for our developers, by improving the performance and stability of the OS through Windows CE.NET and increasing productivity and application quality by integrating the .NET Compact Framework into the OS.
This a great upgrade for existing customers and will power some fantastic new Pocket PCs. In addition we’ve taken a big step forward with the long-term success of our platform. I’m happy with what we’ve done on both counts."
"We put a tremendous amount of work into this release and focused explicitly on building for the future. As any of you who have spent time discussing it with me know, development is a game of finite time and people. In any given release with a deadline you have X number of persons and X days to develop and test. Period. You make cuts, you make hard decisions and you postpone features or improvements to the next version. This is how it works. Over the past 18 months or so, two of our primary goals were to: first, unify as much of the code-base for our software for Pocket PC and Smartphone as possible; and second, get on schedule to ship as much of that code as possible on the most current version of Windows CE.Net.
Accomplishing these two tasks was a huge undertaking, involving not just a lot of code re-work, but also structuring our development team so that most of our efforts would accrue to both form factors. Today, we have a platform optimized for *the future* - both in terms of technology and resources. We're in this game for the long, long term - forever.
In the latest release, I think there is incredible value in the latest release: For instance, we’ve improved the wireless experience with this release by making it easier to connect to Wi-Fi networks. From a phone perspective, we’ve implemented smart, persistent 2.5G data connections, GSM Suspend/Resume and CDMA Dormant modes. We’ve updated the phone usability features, such as including a Mute button and adding separate phone and device volume controls. There are also enhanced messaging and multi-media features, like the New Pictures application that allows you to manage and view photos.
We’ve also improved functionality for our developers, by improving the performance and stability of the OS through Windows CE.NET and increasing productivity and application quality by integrating the .NET Compact Framework into the OS.
This a great upgrade for existing customers and will power some fantastic new Pocket PCs. In addition we’ve taken a big step forward with the long-term success of our platform. I’m happy with what we’ve done on both counts."
