Windows Phone Thoughts: How Do You Dial 1-800-FLOWERS?

"Say you’re a business that sells flowers over the phone. And say that, while picking a phone number for your business, you’ve got the choice between 1-800-356-9377 and 1-800-444-4444. Which do you pick? You’d pick the first one, because, while 7 seemingly random digits are hard to remember, the fact that they spell “FLOWERS” isn’t. Unfortunately, on some of the more prominent Windows Mobile devices, it’s pretty hard to dial 1-800-FLOWERS. This entry will attempt to explain why."

Another insightful article from Mike Calligaro of the Mobile Devices team, talking about how QWERTY-only devices complicate matters when you're trying to dial a "text" number that corresponds to the letters on a traditional phone pad. It's worth pointing out that this is a problem on other platforms as well, such as RIM's Blackberries. My solution on most Pocket PCs has been to summon the touchscreen dial pad, but of course that's clumsy and not supported on Smartphones. I'm glad to see, therefore, that Microsoft's working on making WM smarter in this regard.