Windows Mobile 6.5 Slightly Less Unmemorable Than Predecessor
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 6, 2009 at 8:50 AM PT
The majority of Windows Mobile users have no idea what operating system is running on their phones, a recent survey from the CFI Group found. Microsoft is hoping to change that with the release of Windows Mobile 6.5 and the opening of Windows Mobile Marketplace, its long-awaited answer to Apple’s (AAPL) iTunes App Store.
Both debuted this morning, along with a Web-based storage and media-sharing service called My Phone. And while they’re certainly better than Microsoft’s offerings to date, the market seems unimpressed. Said Gartner (IT) analyst Carolina Milanesi: “There is nothing in this version that makes drastic changes that will get people to choose Windows who didn’t before.”
And, indeed, that appears to be the case. WinMo 6.5 is very clearly a stopgap on the path to 7.0, which is to be released next year. “Windows Mobile 6.5 isn’t just a letdown–it barely seems done,” Gizmodo’s John Herman complains, adding that its underpinnings reveal “an OS that hasn’t been fundamentally changed in years, and which bears a strong resemblance to Windows Mobile 6.1, and a startlingly not-weak resemblance to PocketPC.”
A startlingly not-weak resemblance to PocketPC. Not the comparison Microsoft (MSFT) was hoping for, I’m sure, especially given the OS’s decidedly flashier competition. But likely about all we could expect when even the company’s own executives are saying privately and publicly that they wish the OS was further along.
So 6.5 is really just a placeholder to keep Microsoft in the game–and just barely. As Windows Mobile Senior Product Manager Greg Sullivan told TechFlash, “It’s not the destination for us, by any stretch of the imagination, it’s a step along the way.”
Comments
> It’s not the destination
> for us, by any stretch
> of the imagination, it’s
> a step along the way.
BS. iPhone OS v2.0 was step along the way. There was a legitimate departure point of 1.0 and destination of 3.0. Windows Mobile 6.5 is just a coat of paint on top of Windows Mobile 6.0 which is actually older than the iPhone and should therefore be MORE mature, not less. Microsoft literally has nothing to contribute to this conversation. They generate heat but no light.
I stopped using Microsoft products in 1999 and have not looked back. Since then sometimes people would recommend a Microsoft product to me and I would just say “why?” and nobody has been able to give me an answer for that. They used to say “because everybody uses it” but I have not even heard that gem in a while. Why? Just blank stares.
Consider that it takes about 20 hours to upgrade a Windows XP box to Windows 7 following Microsoft’s instructions, and you lose all of your installed apps and have to restore your documents from a backup. But you can buy a new Mac and import your Windows XP system into Fusion or Parallels (which cost less than Windows 7) in an hour or so, and keep your apps and documents where they are within your XP system. What is wrong with this picture? Shouldn’t it be easier to go from NT 5.1 (XP) to NT 6.1 (7) than it is to go from NT 5.1 to Mac OS 10.6?
The funny thing is that Microsoft is moving so slowly that many of us are saying “they’re dead” and their apologists are saying “they’re only sleeping” but I’m telling you, that is an ex-Microsoft. It is over. When their response to 2.5 years of iPhone is Windows Mobile 6.5? C’mon c’mon c’mon.
Posted by Fred Hamranhansenhansen at October 6th, 2009 at 7:49 pm