The Competition: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5
Check out the video over at WMExperts (via PocketNow). Never mind that it's Windows Mobile 6.5 rather than the still-in-the-desert Windows Mobile 7 -- that words like "finger-friendlier" are being used in 2009 sends us into sympathetic collective apoplexy. Yet our ever brave sibling site holds to hope and we wish them well, 'cause we might see iPhone 4.0 sneak-previewed by the time this ships...
What do you think, enough to stem the bleeding, or too little too late?
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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I'm sorry. I can't be objective. I pretty much gave up on Windows mobile years ago. I say "Yaaaaaaawwwwwn!"
I AGREE YAWWWN
after owning a samsung blackjack 2 before my iphone 3g, i can honestly say that i will never, ever, use a winmo phone ahgin for the rest of my life. give me the iphone's quirks over winmo anyday. the blackjack 2 was nice hardware, shame it had to be gimped with winmo.
Last phone before iPhone was a ATT Tilt. Urk, that was horrible just thinking about. Gotta say MS is clueless about phones. But still, why don't they ditch WinMo and bulid a new phone system on the Zune OS (if its different). By all accounts the few who own a Zune say the interface is sleek and easy to use. Couldn't be any worse.
Too little too late? Doesn't make sense at all. Microsoft has got alot of money and time left. They don't have to have 6.5 be a hit like the iPhone to keep developing. They are in it for the long haul and do have the capability of puttig out some game changing stuff. Heck. PPC2000 had functionality that apple still keeps from the iPhone. All that being said though, I am wrriting this from my iPhone.
i love the magnifying glass "feature" they stile from iphone OS.
like others i was a multi year WM user and got fed up with no improvements over years. Maybe WM7 will change that when they totally redo it. But until then no thoughts of going back.
I've heard Alot of cool stuff about wm 6.5 and 7, but if they don't get their stuff together soon, android and symbian (not to mention iPhone) will overtake them. Already many different phone providers are adopting cool new phones with interesting touch interfaces. Let's not forget the pre. All of them are thinking ahead, but wm seems to be just resting on it's laurels. Same with blackberry. I guess we'll see soon enough...
Windows Mobile has a registry. I shouldn't have to go into any more detail as to why the platform is virtually unusable.
Frankly, as iPhone users, we are all better off if Microsoft were to hit a homerun at some point with WinMo, just as we are better off with Palm succeeding rather than failing. As a former WinMo user, I would love for WinMo to be a viable option. As shollomon points out, my coworker who has a Zune loves it. Microsoft should imitate Apple and have a non-phone Zune as well as a Zune phone. Hopefully they will succeed, but so far, I'm sticking with Apple.
Will they have Google Voice?
I've never used a WinMo before but that actually looks very friendly. (Except the double click)
I have just sold my Samsung Omnia which was running wm6.5 and it's actually very good. The iPhone is also very good but for different reasons. Once Windows hardware moves to capacitive screens this will help with text input and the windows marketplace will have plenty of software. Personally I use an iPod Touch for my music and games and just got a HTC Hero for my main phone. Best of both worlds IMO
I just got my 3gs after having the touchpro running 6.5 gotta say I miss alot of things that winmo offered having a registery is better than hoping apple will allow u to change the wallpaper and yes they have an app for GV some of the things I miss that I can remember skyfire a regular file manager downloading apps on my own not through the app store the list goes on..... I'll stick to my 3GS until winmo7 comes out winmo is not for the avarage user btw, it's a power house if setup right don't think so????? Ask deiter
Yup, 100% garbage!
To all that say winmo "too little too late" I agree but don't think that winmo first have something up it's sleeve. WM 6.5 is just a hold over until WM7 is ready. In my opinion WM6.5 shouldn't even exist but they have to try to stay in the game any way they can. I am currently using an iPhone 3G and a G1, both have quirks but better than WM's current offerings. Never say never when it comes to switching OS's. There os always something new around the corner
just returned an HTC Touch Diamond, WM was so horribly slow and unresponsive on it. I could not take it. my iPhone is soo much faster. the Touch Diamond had similar hardware (528MHz 256mb) but it was waaaayyy slower. I think I am going to have to try out Android though
Microsoft has let to much time pass since the release of the iPhone. They can't touch that market now. They're not going anywhere, there's enough market share to keep them, and others, afloat. What they won't do is become any sort of standard, they lost out on that opportunity...
Whilst everyone may make snipes at different os systems, i reckon Android could be the big threat to everyone.
With a windows handset you can do everything and anything you want but you need to learn a lot to get the most out of it. Apple make easy to use products out of the box but you need to conform. Android is like Apple but exciting easy and configurable . Palm - not sure of their future .
Last WM phone I had was the (HTC) O2 XDA Exec. It was such a horriffic experience that I shunned smartphones for a contract cycle- I figured the tech had just over bloated itself. I switched to the simplest phone I could find and lived with only voice and SMS for 18months. I guess it was kinda like a detox from the slimy steaming pile of muck that is windows moblie. It pissed me off so much that I could never even consider returning to the windows fold- also played a bit part in my decision to switch to OSX as my main OS.
I think they are saving the big stuff for their own feature phone: The ZuneHD Phone.
Oh come now about dissing winmo. I love my iPhone 3gs but is used winmo for many years prior and I have to tell you iPhone is much much less functional for the business user because of Apple's draconian policies. The iPhone just got cut and paste and even now won't cut and paste into the dialer. No multitasking, can't even sync outlook tasks from the server, and frankly most business type apps that were ported over from winmo to iPhone have many many less features. And to think you guys are going ga ga because Apple is finally going to let you have nav Programs with text to speech features. LOL! winmo has had that for many years.
Honestly I hate to break it to you but the iPhone is not better than winmo just different. And when winmo has a capacitive touch screen Steve Jobs will probably still not be letting us multitask.
@ truth 2.0
Shit if the zune hd phone does as well as the current zune apple better watch out, huh?
Windows Mobile always feels like a perpetual beta program. Even non Windows Mobile phones got better sync programs on Windows than Windows Mobile.
to all of you dissing WM, lemme ask you: Is it really that horrid that no person can use it? Lets be clear, iPhone targets a different type of user than WM. WM offers a lot of flexibility over OSX Mobile, yet OSX Mobile is very intuitive (to most, I had issues figuring stuff out on it) and very, very beautiful (though WM can be beautiful as well).
Back in the day, WM did a lot of stuff right, and since it did stuff right back then, MS thought that it still did some stuff right today. Both have their strengths and weaknesses, but these strengths and weaknesses change from person to person
Microsoft and Nokia should have had the smartphone market to themselves . They allowed Apple and RIM to waltz in and take over.
I entirely agree with 'gavin' (no. 18 above) on his comment 'With a windows handset you can do everything and anything you want but you need to learn a lot to get the most out of it.'
I have been using wm 6.0 & 6.1 for around 2 years now and I have been using the facilities and functions (available on iphone,'now) way before iphone was even launched. I am in no doubt all for iphone.'No offence' but iphone is for people who have little or no idea about how to make windows work for them,meaning iphone has done to mobiles what windows OS did for computers.(made it easier to work with).
Tell me: lackluster SMS function; No T9 Search; Poor implementation of Cut & Paste; No category; Can't download from browser; No file structure; Poor Bluetooth implementations; Poor Battery; limited ringtones; limited to only virtual keyboard input; can't transfer/delete/add MP3 files directly from the device; No multitasking etc.
Yet you complain about registries? Which can be easily tweaked with so many freeware?
Well, that's why we have a choice. Some prefer a powerful phone and some prefer a dummy proofed Phone.
BTW, I have both a Jailbreak iPhone 3G & a TouchPro 2. Both served me well for different purposes.
Yes, I think the Zune HD is too late. But I think the only problem with IE6.5 is reputation. Just because the PC version is bloated and overpatched doesn't mean the IE team couldn't have cleaned up and tweaked IE 6.5. Think about it. IE's Biggest problem seems to be ActiveX. Obviously, the mobile version could not run it so there goes that problem. Which leaves the program open to remove a lot of security patches and other junk. the same goes for Flash support, Java, CSS, among many other things, leaving a simple, secure, fast browser.
Hi!
Bear in mind that Microsoft makes an OS and leaves the "tweaking" and additional sceleton and apps to be put on the device by the OEM. This is not the same strategy as Apple who makes the OS and sell the iPhun as-it-is
But, ofcourse MS feels the need for changes in strategy and renewing their MS WM OS. Another comment I need to make. I don't know who "invented" the touch screen technology, but it certain wasn't Apple. I am tired of reading articles about this-and-that about the iPhone when its not an innovative feature, but just a enhanched feature done by other (Palm, MS WM, etc.) for a long time (in general) 
No 6.5 is released and still not comparable to the Iphone usability...
Well said Joykiller. It's like women who bag out penises. I had a wm phone some 5 years before ipone appeared. Apple **its me. I say this as an ex mac user. The registry is a database of settings. The ipoon lacks this so you are stuck with what apple gives you. Apple looks good, like a show pony. Iphoon sheep are generally low iq luddites who show their ignorance in comments like this one about the registry. Ironic that WM is somewhat open source and ipune is the same old apple proprietry **ite. Ironic because Gates mission statement started out as 'make then need you' and Jobs was 'power to the people, a personal computer in every home'. iphune is not a computer but a 2nd rate phone. My HTC HD is a powerful computer and communication device in my pocket. It's big brother the HD2 will eat iphone in performance and use value, but with a large following of sheep, iphone may still outnumber it, proof that there is no accounting for taste, as iphune is the macdonalds of portable computers.