Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"If our kindergarten skills haven't failed us, then this data shows iPhone usage surpassing the once mighty Windows Mobile OS for the very first time. Unfortunately for Microsoft, Google's Android OS is set to accelerate significantly by the time the February 2010 data rolls in as is WebOS just as soon as Palm can bring its fledgling OS to Verizon's subscriber base."

Well, it was on the cards and had to happen sooner or later - Windows Mobile is now third in terms of actual handsets in consumer hands in the US, with just 7.1 million units compared to Apple's 8.9 million and RIM's 14.9 million. I'll forbear to comment on the obvious implications for Microsoft. Read the original FierceDeveloper scoop here and the press release from comScore here (incidentally, comScore's actual tagline focused more on Android's gains rather than Apple's). The real kickers are some of the supplementary survey questions that were published in the press release - out of the thirteen specifically mentioned handsets most users were planning to purchase, only one was a Windows Mobile device (AT&T Tilt), at just 2% of respondents. The media consumption results are also pretty damning. Where, oh where, is WM7?

"BlackBerry users in North America are experiencing email outages after an unspecified problem from maker Research in Motion. Service has been down from some customers since about 3:15 a.m. Thursday."

Tell me again why people place so much trust in a device that's tied to a service that goes down at least once a year? The centralized "One Server Cluster to Rule Them All" approach to email is the most idiotic approach to delivering email I've ever heard of. What baffles me the most though is that customer pressures over repeated failures haven't forced RIM to deploy an alternate approach to delivering email. How much failure are you going to take RIM customers?

"Word dropped this morning that Torch Mobile, makers of the Iris Browser, had been purchased by Research in Motion. That's great news for BlackBerry fans, who have been in dire need of a browser for, well, ever. However, this is bad news for Windows Mobile. We just heard back from Torch Mobile spokesman George Staikos, and the response is unequivocal: 'The company will no longer continue developing for Windows Mobile or Windows-CE.'"

I just can't help but think that if another large company in the mobile market, such as one that may also be chronically dogged as anti-competition, were to do this, people would be outraged. But since it's RIM, I suspect no one will make much of a fuss. Pity to see a WM browser alternative bite the dust over purely financial reasons.

"Windows Mobile does have and support voice-enabled functions, but this is an interesting twist. Due to better support for Java, Microsoft's Tellme subsidiary is offering its voice search for Blackberry devices before it goes live on Windows Mobile handsets. Tellme keeps track of where you are through your phone's GPS radio so your search results are local to where you are... Device owners can tap a button and speak their search query; in return, Tellme will offer local results using the Microsoft Live Search engine."



You know what? I'm not really too broken up about this. Don't get me wrong, I think the idea is pretty cool in theory but to quote Lawrence Peter Berra - "In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not". As amazing as Microsoft's Voice Command service is on our handsets the one major drawback I have always encountered is that it just does not work very well at all if you are not in a quiet room. Same thing goes for voice enable telecom services! Every time I try to use anything voice enabled and there is any noise in the background whatsoever then the service flat out fails... unless I yell my command into the microphone but then you just end up looking insane. This is the exact reason why I have stopped demoing the Voice Command feature for people who are interested in learning more about my phone.

Who knows, maybe this is a Trojan horse for Microsoft to make all Blackberry users look crazy while they shout into their handsets - aggravating them to the point where they switch over to Windows Mobile devices.