in Search
Welcome to Neopoleon - Sign in | Join | Help
Navigation: Home | Forums | Galleries

Windows Mobile - The team that "gets" it

It’s almost 4:00 AM. I’m having a hard time sleeping.

It’s nights like this when I find myself poking around strange web sites, reading whatever gets put in front of me.

Tonight, my focus has been Windows Mobile. Started out reading the news on Smartphone Thoughts, and then eventually wound up at the official Windows Mobile territory.

Since I first met some members of this team during filming of The CodeRoom, I’ve been thinking that they’re one group at Microsoft that really “gets” it. If you take a look at their home page, you see the following:

– A link to podcasts done at the Mobile and Embedded DevCon (complete with instructions on how to use podcasts with your mobile device)

– Links to key Windows Mobile blogs (I spent most of my time working with Mike Hall and James Pratt – both smart and cheerful people (to the point that it just sort of makes you jealous and wonder why you aren’t smart and cheerful people))

– A page of condensed Windows 5.0 information including:

        – A Windows Mobile 5.0 Fact Sheet

        – An entertaining look at what went in to making the product (apparently, development of 5.0 contributed “6 brand new 4–letter words” to the “English language”)

What I like about what the team has done is that they’ve managed to cater to just about everybody: developers, bloggers, press, end users, and the insomniacally curious. I’ve had discussions with people about Microsoft’s image and how utterly, uberly uncool it is. The common argument is that we’re a business company and we should just be marketing to business users, and damn the rest. What the Windows Mobile stuff shows is that you can target everybody without compromising your message.

All that while creating what I think is the coolest product coming out of Microsoft right now.

Really – Aydika was at the wheel of the rental tonight during our three hour drive home from Seattle. I just sat in the car and browsed the web, wrote email, played games, and distracted myself in other pleasant ways on my Smartphone. For people who’ve never had a chance to play with one at length, it can be a little odd. After a couple hours, Aydika asked me why I was spending so much time on the phone rather than my laptop.

I didn’t have a concrete reason. The best thing I can come up with is that my phone is bloody !@#$ing awesome, and I can’t wait to see what these guys are going to do next – product, community reach, marketing, and all…

Published Friday, May 20, 2005 11:03 AM by Rory

Filed Under: ,

Comments

 

Klok said:

Im the happy owner of a Orange SPV M1000, and I sure also looks forward to the teams next version.

I love the fact that I can stay in bed and check out if the webserver is really down, when i get an sms-alert.
Also I never have been a big fan of calenders, that is until I got my SPV. It changed my hole perspective on planning, and now you can find every little thing I do in my calendar (And that actually gives you more time).

What will the windows mobile team change next in my world?
May 20, 2005 11:10 AM
 

Matthew White said:

Rory, I've got to disagree with you. I don't think they've got it.

Why? Because I didn't get it.

I'll explain that self-centred view. About an hour or so before your post, I'd just spent stolen work time wandering around the Windows Mobile site. I don't have a PDA or smart phone but I'm thinking of getting one. As a result I'm a really fresh newbie to what it is and how it all works.

I don't think I'm dumb or technically illiterate but i couldn't find anything, anywhere which would tell me in simple non-marketing terms *what it actually does*.

I don't want "solutions", I just want a simple "It is X, and it does Y". It took me ages just to work out that it is an app that sits on your phone, not on your client PC. Apart from "enhancing my experience", as to what it actually DOES - I still don't really know.
May 20, 2005 2:19 PM
 

paul said:

We need to grow the Windows Mobile and Embedded community, I told Mike Hall we need to do something at TechED. Any ideas Rory?
May 20, 2005 4:19 PM
 

Paolo said:

Ok, so what phone do you have and from what provider? I've been looking lately and haven't come up with anything particularly interesting. Seems like the only phone being sold in the US is the Samsung i600.

I think the biggest issue with the whole smartphone thing right now is that if I build an app for it then potential customers are locking into choosing between only 1 or 2 phones. Cell phones tend to be something very personal to people and I don't see forcing everyone into a single phone as something that's going to fly long term.

Cingular and TMobile don't seem to offer anything on their web page (although I have found places that seem to sell phones that work with these providers)

Verizon offers the i600 but with windows mobile 2002?!? Jeesh.

Sprint offers the i600 and they only seem to be one version behind on the OS - 2003 - not second edition.

Most do offer the PDA variety phones but in my opinion those don't really count because no one really wants to carry around a brick.
May 20, 2005 5:43 PM
 

Rory said:

Matthew -

"Apart from 'enhancing my experience', as to what it actually DOES - I still don't really know."

I went back to the site and tried to view it from the perspective of someone who didn't know anything about Windows Mobile, and I can see what you mean.

Went to the "What is Windows Mobile?" page (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/about/default.mspx), and found that it did pretty much everything *but* tell me what it was.

I'll shoot someone an email with that feedback.

Although I was able to piece together what the product was, I was doing so with a specific goal in mind, and so was able to pick and choose from bits of information that I knew would complete the picture.

And I can see how that could be frustrating...
May 20, 2005 5:51 PM
 

Rory said:

Paolo -

"Ok, so what phone do you have and from what provider? I've been looking lately and haven't come up with anything particularly interesting. Seems like the only phone being sold in the US is the Samsung i600."

I'm using an Audiovox SMT 5600 and an i-Mate SP3i. Both can be unlocked to work with any GSM carrier in the states.

If you want to purchase one with a plan, Cingular is now offering the SMT 5600, and that's cool as it's generally agreed upon to be the best Smartphone produced so far (it's also the best mobile device I've ever owned, period).

Here's a link to the offer:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/cingular/us_m.aspx
May 20, 2005 5:53 PM
 

Rory said:

Paul -

"We need to grow the Windows Mobile and Embedded community, I told Mike Hall we need to do something at TechED. Any ideas Rory?"

There are lots of things I'd love to do, but I've been overcommitting myself lately :| The Rodawgg is spread pretty thin right now.

However, you've got me thinking now :)
May 20, 2005 5:55 PM
 

Mike Dimmick said:

"We need to grow the Windows Mobile and Embedded community"

Start by reversing the decision to make Windows Mobile 5 development VS2005-only. Come on, guys, you'll be lucky if VS2005 is out before the first devices appear.

Sure, you can use the .NET Framework SDK to build Compact Framework 2.0 apps, and it's backwards compatible so older tools will work for compiling. But as far as I can see you can't use VS.NET 2003 or eVC 4.0 to debug on the new devices. Which means that it's really hard to produce software that's binary compatible both on old and new devices. The spectre of write-once-debug-everywhere is still present.

Previous generations of the C++ toolset were free (well, eVC 3.0 and 4.0 were). Trying to make this pay-only again seems pretty dumb.

Ah well, at least the horribly buggy nature of Windows CE and Pocket PC has subsided a little now. I'm still pretty shocked at how long it took MS to a) notice and b) fix the FTP authentication bug on Pocket PC 2002. As in, you tried to specify credentials for an FTP session, but it simply ignored you and connected with an anonymous session. Fixed in End-User Update 2, I think.
May 20, 2005 7:35 PM
 

Rory said:

Mike -

"Start by reversing the decision to make Windows Mobile 5 development VS2005-only. Come on, guys, you'll be lucky if VS2005 is out before the first devices appear."

I agree, but what else can they do?

It was cool getting eVC and eVB for free, but that meant the maintenance of a whole other set of IDEs.

One the one hand, I'd like to see something like eVC/eVB again (free IDE and tools), but on the other, I can understand not wanting to support a whole extra tool that doesn't generate any revenue, but which would require maintenance and support.

"I'm still pretty shocked at how long it took MS to a) notice and b) fix the FTP authentication bug on Pocket PC 2002."

Bugs with Windows Mobile are complicated because Windows Mobile isn't a shrinkwrapped product, and there aren't really any one-size-fits-all implementations. Cingular is going to have its own tweaked system while Orange will have another.

If something goes wrong, the bug can be fixed, but how does the fix get to the users?

And, it can be hard to tell which bugs are the result of vendor twiddling and which were baked into the system's components by Microsoft.

It's interesting going from device to device and seeing these small differences. My iPaq 38xx was awesome, whereas the 6315 was barely useable. I've heard some bad things about the Motorola 2xx series, but the Audiovox SMT5600 is a kick-ass device.

Sometimes, OEMs cut corners on their implementations, and they pass those savings on to the customer in the form of bugs and instability.

The platform itself, as can be seen with devices like the 5600, is actually pretty spiffy.
May 20, 2005 8:59 PM
 

John Walker said:

Rory,

I agree whole-heartedly. My SMT5600 (which is available from Cingular) is absolutely amazing.

Functionality: Email, Internet, Outlook synchronization, camera, Newsbreak RSS Reader, iPodderSP (Snookum) Podcast Aggregator, Windows Media Mobile 10 and most importantly developing apps using VS.Net easily. Did I mention good voice quality, great dialing support, and speakerphone? Oh yeah, and works great with a BlueTooth headset.

All this in a tiny cell phone the size of any plain old Nokia. It really does have to be tried to be appreciated in my opinion. I'll never go back, that's for sure.

jw
May 20, 2005 9:26 PM
 

Anonymous said:

http://homepages.inspire.net.nz/~gambit/
May 21, 2005 6:23 AM
 

Jason said:

From what I understand, Windows Mobile 5.0 requires ActiveSync 4.0, which actually removes the ability to synchronize your PDA via WiFi, and instead users can use Bluetooth. If that's truly the case, then the Windows Mobile team truly does *NOT* "get" it. That's a huge, ginormous bit of functionality to remove, that would absolutely impact on my decision to buy or not buy a new Pocket PC. ARRRGH!
May 24, 2005 11:12 PM
 

Anonymous said:

Rory: "Windows Mobile - The Team that 'gets' it ... I’ve had discussions with people about Microsoft’s image and how utterly, uberly uncool it is"

Really! In some ways this group - dating to its origins, has been one of the darker marks on Microsoft's image in the entire history of the company.
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/37507/37507.html

'...in 1999, the two companies formed a partnership to develop smart cell phones....Sendo's suit alleges that Microsoft "plundered" Sendo's intellectual property, proprietary hardware expertise, and trade secrets by providing this information to High Tech Computers and other companies that were working on Stinger phones. Sendo also accuses Microsoft of using Sendo's relationships with Orange and other mobile phone carriers to gain access to these carriers, then bypassing Sendo. The company says it's looking into the "legal implications" of Microsoft's relationships with former Sendo partners. Sendo has since made repeated requests to Microsoft to return its intellectual property and says that Microsoft has "failed and refused" to do so. According to the lawsuit, Microsoft has used "its secret plan to pillage Sendo of its technology, convert that technology to its own use, steal Sendo's customers, and leave Sendo cash-starved and on the brink of receivership."

Sendo claims it's at "the brink of bankruptcy" because of Microsoft's actions, which also included continually late software-update deliveries and cash payments. Microsoft also refused to provide the $14 million in financing it promised Sendo, the suit says. Even more damning, Microsoft and Sendo had agreed that if Sendo declared bankruptcy, the company would grant Microsoft a royalty-free license to use its intellectual property. '

For more details:
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/mobile/0,39020360,2127984,00.htm

Now I don't know anything about the merits of the case - noone who can speak does; since it was settled out of court with an undisclosed monitary component and both sides claiming to be very happy with the outcome -- but regardless of the merits, this group is absolutely not one I would use as an example of positive image reenforcement for Microsoft.
May 25, 2005 8:10 AM
 

Rory said:

RonM -

"Now I don't know anything about the merits of the case - noone who can speak does; since it was settled out of court with an undisclosed monitary component and both sides claiming to be very happy with the outcome -- but regardless of the merits, this group is absolutely not one I would use as an example of positive image reenforcement for Microsoft."

You don't know the "merits" of the case, yet you'd refer to it in your argument?

People make accusations of Microsoft all the time. It was practically a business model in the late 90's.

If you don't have anything to back it up except your armchair conjecture, then you probably shouldn't bother.

Anyway, does the group have any other blemishes, proven or otherwise?
May 25, 2005 4:57 PM
 

RonM said:

The conversation was one of Microsoft's Image.

Even if Microsoft were 100% in the right in this case, the way the PR guys handled it (with a quiet payoff that made tech news headlines) is the wrong way to do so.

Of course there are many many many cases where Microsoft lost in court (Stac, Eoalis, their temp workers, various governments, DEC), many where they won, and many where they settled - but in those cases I think Microsoft does a pretty good job in maintaining their image.

It's the quiet payoffs with sealed judgements with former partners that harm the image the most - because they leave doubt in peoples mind regarding who was in the right, and they leave fear in their partners who only hear the allegations and not the conclusions of the cases. And as you point out, this same policy made Microsoft an attractive target for every scammer that has any patent because of Microsoft's eagerness for quiet settlements.
May 25, 2005 8:04 PM
 

Vince P. said:

"Now I don't know anything about the merits of the case - noone who can speak does; since it was settled out of court with an undisclosed monitary component and both sides claiming to be very happy with the outcome -- but regardless of the merits, this group is absolutely not one I would use as an example of positive image reenforcement for Microsoft"

This sentence does nothing to enhance your image as someone who's qualified to determine the image of others.
May 25, 2005 10:33 PM
 

TrackBack said:

The Mobile Minute 96
May 26, 2005 5:12 AM
New Comments to this post are disabled

About Rory

I *own* this site, you loser.

This Blog

Post Calendar

<May 2005>
SuMoTuWeThFrSa
24252627282930
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930311234

Post Categories

Feeds
Copyright Rory, 2007. All rights reserved.