So I was reading around on various stuff looking for news of a 1080p playback capable Windows Mobile phone and I discovered some pretty crushing news about windows mobile 7.
They are taking the route of disabling multi-tasking, forcing only one resolution (Read stuck with 480x800 screens indefinately), removing all support for external storage, removing all ability to load software that's not bought from a Microsoft App Store and basically turning it into a useless lump of turd.
This means there will be no hardware innovations, no using messenger whilst doing anything else, shitful app support because lets face it, they will be playing catchup indefinately with the iPhone app store, except unlike the iPhone, most people wont bother trying to develop for Windows Mobile as well.
The UI will be completely locked down with no way of customising it or running custom UI software.
If all this pans out to be true, Microsoft may as well just give up and ditch Windows Mobile all together because they are basically dumping every aspect of it that makes it worth choosing - especially as Apple intend to ADD multi-tasking support soon which means it will be a less supported, more restrictive and therefore more shitty iPhone.
Yeah I know my point was that even then its still less crippled than WM7 will be with at least rumours of Multi Task support. If I was going to go the windows 7 route despite those negatives Id rather go to the iPhone for the market share advantage.
I'm still going to consider it depending on factors such as ease-of-use and quality of their apps, even if there are far less of them. Only because Windows 7 has turned me into a complete Microsoft fan-boy. :)
Let me tell you right now, that Windows 7 Mobile will be pretty to look at and easy to use, but I can fucking guarantee it will be generally an unresponsive piece of crap. I'm sick to death of all this laggy shit that MS puts out for it's mobile platform. I've used Windows Mobile 5 through to 6.5 and it is, by far, the slowest piece of shit when compared to pretty to the other two big mobile OS's. Symbian and now the iPhone. I've used WxM on heaps of different phones and it's all totally horrible compared to the iPhone or Symbian. Obviously Symbian is hard to compare because of the lack of touch on any devices I've used.
Anyway. Rant over. That last para looks like Chad fucking wrote it. :P
I used various wm devices over the last 3 years for work - sony, htc etc. I'm now using a nokia 2730 and loving it. You can make phone calls and send sms and all without the handset locking up/requiring a reboot/pressing the wrong buttons.
Windows Mobile blows so fucking hard. Who cares about all the extra functionality of a smartphone when you can barely do what the device is intended for? making phone calls!
Either I dont notice it or I'm the one person that is happy with Windows Mobile 6.5 (and Vista for that matter).
The interface for my Touch Diamond was horrible when I got it, but since I updated the official ROM (even with the Telstra crap) its been a pleasure to use. Way more responsive and lightning fast.
The only issue I have is the memory leakage, which needs a soft reboot every fortnight or so.
That said if they do cripple WinMo 7 like that I wont be getting a phone with it.
Windows Mobile only runs like ass if you try and load a rom which is packed to the hilt with 40 thousand things running at once. The iMate JasJam was a perfect example of this - the Telstra ROM was so laggy and unresponsive due to Telstra's preloaded shit that it was virtually unusable. Once you load on a good aftermarket ROM it became a decent, snappy, usable phone.
For me smartphones are the cross between PC and phone that I need. Laptops and even netbooks are too big for the computing stuff I use when not home, a smartphone fills the gap.
Will it support flash if so that is one feature up on the iphone. Just easily being able to transfer documents to the phone without needing to hack your phone would be a good thing too.
Wrathlon, if you're after a smartphone as we know them today - Symbian and Windows Mobile - there's only a road filled with disappointment ahead. WinMo 7 is designed with ease of use (see: heavy restrictions) in mind, chasing what has made the iPhone so popular.
My advice is keep your eye on Android devices and Nokia's upcoming Linux-based Maemo OS devices.