Windows Phone Thoughts: Windows Mobile: Bring The Excitement Back

Five years ago in 2003, I was a serious September wreck. I was in my last year as an undergraduate student, a new follower of Windows Mobile, and seriously obsessed with the i-Mate Pocket PC. It was rumored, debuted (in early October) and drove me to do some really strange things to finally get my hands on one in November. Four years ago I had new device fever over the HP iPAQ h6315. Three years ago I was absolutly crazy for an i-Mate JASJAR. Two years ago I had to have an iPAQ 6915. And last year the Kaiser called my name. If it's nearing fall, Jon's obsessing over a device. This year I thought the Touch Pro would be my new love, but perhaps not. You see, now that the Touch Pro is surfacing, I have come to a sad realization: It doesn't excite me.

Don't get me wrong, the Touch Pro is an awesome looking device. It boasts some great stats: VGA screen, GPS, 3.2 MP Camera, Qwerty keypad, TouchFLO and a nice look. However it occured to me today that while it may have the VGA screen adn the TouchFLO, for Kaiser owners, it really doesn't bring anything super stellar. It's not appreciatively smaller, and it doesn't include a newer operating system than the Kaiser. In short, if I combine my JASJAR and TyTN II (Kaiser) together, I have pretty much all the major features of a Touch Pro, minus .2 Megapixels and the sleek Touch design. I'm sorry, it probably isn't enough to coax out of me the same amount of money I spent on the TyTN II last year. It's just not exciting enough.

You see, with each generation of product I gained a feature I'd never had before. The i-Mate Pocket PC brought me Bluetooth, the first iPAQ provided Wifi, the JASJAR gave me VGA and a really cool form factor, the second iPAQ provided GPS, and the Kaiser brought a tilt and GPS/WiFi/Bluetooth in a landscape screen. The Touch Pro gives me all of that (Save the new form factor) in one package which is nice - and I'm sure users who haven't upgraded in a few eyars (e.g. those with a TyTN or a device released in 2006) will find it attractive. But for not for this old diehard.

Now I'm not holding solely HTC responsible for this. Yes, they could have added something new (or made the device super slim), but they can only work with what they currently have as an OS. Windows Mobile 6.1 feels dated - it gives essentially the same user interface that Windows Mobile 5 did, in 2005. Now Microsoft knows this, and certainly has plans continously in the works - but they simply can't roll out in time to make this year exciting for a vet like me. They would have had to push out the next version of Windows Mobile in May for that to have happened. So this year may be the first time in a long time I don't get all anxious and worked up over a device (Which will probably make my wife happy, as she's had to watch me pine away each year for the last several). The question I have after ruminating on all this is simple: How does Microsoft put the excitement back into Windows Mobile? Is it a snazzy new look or feature that would do it? A new browser? A free service that would sync everything to and from your computer to your phone? A personal butler delivered with the phone? etc..). And how can the ODMs and OEMs help? This time next year I really hope I have new device fever again - my "fun money" account just looks too weird if it has too much money in it!