It’s time [...]]]> I am a long time user of Windows CE, Pocket PC and lately Windows Mobile devices. I am no fan of Microsoft’s. However, I have always thought their mobile OS, although not always the best and, certainly not open, it was a step in the right direction with decent devices and plenty of software.

It’s time for a new smartphone. I admit habits die hard and this is the first time since 2000 I am actually considering changing mobile platform. Not because touchscreens were “non-existent” before multi-touch, as Apple fans would put it, but because Microsoft has, or is close to managing what seemed impossible: lose in the software availability arena. Most new mobile applications for new Web 2 needs are created for the iPhone and Android first and for Blackberry and WM later.

Microsoft clearly failed to recognize the mobile devices market trends in time and doesn’t even seem to do anything serious about it. WM updates are drugged by hardware and other developments and are nothing to write home about. Devices are still best-of-breed, thanks to HTC and others, but this can’t be credited to MS.

So, these are the lists for and against staying with WM:

Stay with WM

• 10 years of usage (habit)
• It does work, most of the time
• I have almost all the applications I need
• MS Outlook synchronization. What about Outlook synchronization with Android? Android Market’s web interface is bad to useless. It’s a Google product with no search!
• HTC HD2

Leave WM

• WM is not open. Android or Maemo would be candidates as open platforms
• Most hip programs and services are first available on other platforms. Android is the only candidate here as the iPhone is closed, regulated and not the best hardware around
• All else being equal, open platforms are also hosted by cheaper devices

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

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I can’t understand why Android-based HTC G1 and other [...]]]> I read about Open Handset Alliance’s Android platform and cellular phones with great interest. The web is full of specs, reviews, comparisons and the like. I just can’t help but share the following thoughts:

• Sometimes it seems Google’s Android is the second touch screen platform after Apple’s iPhone

I can’t understand why Android-based HTC G1 and other touch devices are automatically compared to the iPhone. Yes, it is a great looking device. It has a great touch screen. And that’s where innovation ends and limitations begin.

Great as the iPhone may (or not) be, it’s not clearly and objectively superior to Microsoft’s Windows Mobile devices hardware-, software- nor appearance-wise. Plus, Windows (Mobile and its previous incarnations) has been, so far, dominant in the touch arena. So, how come the iPhone (a new comer with plenty of flaws of its own) is the ad hoc point of reference? And how come all Windows Mobile’s long-standing features (touch screen, great sofware library, multitasking) are rarely mentioned?

• Android, anyone? Sure, on what hardware?

Maybe I understand a new platform like Android needs to come with new hardware for psychological (marketing) reasons. Now that’s over and done with, why not introduce Android for old and new hardware? Wasn’t one of Linux’s advantages better performance on old PCs? I’m sure I would love to run Android on my current Windows Mobile Phone but I fear this won’t happen any day soon, if at all. How about selling the HTC Touch HD (my favorite, in the absence of an Android phone with no hardware keyboard. With a camera flash, please) with a choice between Android and Windows Mobile? Better yet, sell it able to dual-boot both platforms? I would buy it right now. Now this is not so, I just have to wait and I am not happy about it at all.

Consider how nice it would be to compare different platforms’ sales and performance on the same hardware (isn’t that what Apple avoids at all cost on the PC market?)! How different the HTC G1 is from the Touch HD or any other current model?

It is my prediction that we will see Android and Windows Mobile running on the same hardware not later than 2009. And this will be the start of a new era on the “choice” and “objective comparison” fronts.

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