Another post on Windows Mobile

I want to emphasize that it is not one of these things that is pushing me over the edge finally this week, it is all 4 taken together.

First take the iphone. Yes it sucks in a million ways that will never be fixed. But the fact that Apple walked in and stole the show with a device that made everyone who ever used a pda slobber, with no multi-year ramp-up, is just amazing. Look at Microsoft with the Zune - basically the same circumstance in a different market. Did they walk into the mature mp3 player market and stand the thing on it's head? No way. The Zune is nice - I hate iPods (buggy) and iTunes (slow in Windows), and have 3 Zunes and use the Zune software to play music and download podcasts. But it's no iPhone. It's merely a good copy of the current state of the market.

Secondly, the latest videos of the first shipping Android phone, the ones where the Android team points out their favorite features, are awesome. I totally can't believe this is a cooperative open venture, and they put together a phone that leapfrogs everything else available in the industry except perhaps the iphone, in like a year. Yes I know it was seeded by other work, but c'mon - imagine the number of meetings they had to have. Imagine That alone was a decade gone I figured. I didn't expect it to do anything but barely turn on and make a phone call. But it rocks. This is the first thing ever that makes me want to take on Java.

Third, I have to admit I was shaken by the sad news that my current Windows Mobile phone, the Samsung SCH-i760, which in my opinion is the only WM phone on the market that comes close to getting it right in terms of feature set (except for the need to use two hands on the keyboard), and which took so long to get through Vzw's testing process, and which just got WM 6.1, has been yanked from sale by Verizon Wireless. Supposedly there is a software issue, but I predict it will never be back. And that means a shrinking pool of people interested in the phone, working on fixes or add-ons, influencing vendors, and providing help in the forums. It's stillborn now. Ugh.

Finally, we have the announcement from Microsoft, that Windows Mobile 7 will be delayed. And the rumor that it is due to internal bickering about whether to scrap and start over, or try to continue with the WM platform. Microsoft folks! You just threw away the most important platform for perhaps the next two decades. Idiots! You stole the market from Palm and had it sewn up, to do with what you would. And you sat and did nothing for years and years. No innovation. Barely rev'd the platform, adding the minimum of stability and ease of use. You deserve to lose this, and it may cost you everything. I am so frustrated, because I have waited every day of each one of those years for you to get off your butt and kick butt.

In conclusion, I will be buying an iPhone, and probably an Android phone, as soon as possible. That will annoy me for many reasons, mostly because while I think Verizon Wireless sucks (they are always part of the problem rather than part of the solution) they clearly suck the best. But there too, I think as a consumer they had my business to lose. Why isn't it a Vzw iPhone, or Vzw Android phone? Oh well. The bottom line is the platform is moving forward (read innovation), which is all I care about. Market forces (including me the consumer) will leave the also-rans in the dust where they will be forgotten.