Windows Mobile - where is it heading?

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Windows Mobile - where is it heading?

Todd helpfully re-published the Windows Mobile Silverlight roadmap recently. It does not make exciting reading. In amongst news of Impressive Google Android Apps, (and here) a T-Mobile Android phone this year (from HTC) and endless twitter about iPhone and 3G, the road map is hardly going to light any fires. Here's my take on the Windows Mobile roadmap in general, followed by my hope of a glimmer of light for all us WM developers and users...

Windows Mobile 6.1 was just released - really nothing to write home about - threaded SMS is nice but there is not much else here - in particular the Getting Started Application is very lame - just a list of items, that when clicked show some text and links to the real apps. The worst is the "Make a Call" option shown below - really does this add anything? Couldn't a few more images or even a little animation have helped? Why have the icon shown for step 1 but not step 3? My mum was just baffled by this, and my 12 year old daughter just could not understand why anyone would find this useful.

We are still waiting for Silverlight 1.0 support on Windows Mobile. At Mix08 I attended various mobile talks (Amit Chopra: "The wait is finally over, we have Silverlight for Windows Mobile" - from one of the less impressive sessions), where Silverlight 1.0 was promised shortly after Mix. According to Todd a CTP should be available soon - a CTP? of Silverlight 1? Come on guys, Silverlight 1 should be done and dusted by now, it was announced at Mix07, we need Silverlight 2 and a WPF-like UI.
Todd says: "We'll get the first "official" Silverlight for Mobile (1.0) towards the end of this year, sometime after Silverlight 2.0 officially ships for the desktop. Around the same time we should get a CTP of Silverlight 2.0 for Mobile." - That isn't very positive language, "should" sounds a little shaky to me. (Todd isn't employed by Microsoft though, so perhaps we shouldn't read too much into that)
Location Services - this is a high growth area - sales of Mobile Navigation devices has doubled and location based services are an important aspect of mobile development. Google look like they may make their Geolocation API public - this lets you get your location on devices that haven't got a built in GPS - using the Skyhook service, and is seen in Google Maps Mobile currently. Windows Mobile has the Intermediate GPS Driver and some sample code to get you started. However in our experience this sample is buggy and the Intermediate driver is implemented differently across different hardware manufacturers (ask me for details), making it hard for developers to take advantage of. Look how easy it is on Android - this is how it should be on Windows Mobile too.
UI - We all know there is plenty wrong with Windows Mobile UI - and that IPhone sales are beating WM in the US (though both are behind RIM and Symbian) and the Android will do the same IMHO. Microsoft will be acutely aware of this too, so why the delay for Silverlight on Windows Mobile?

The glimmer of light

OK so Windows Mobile is not in a great way compared to the competition at the moment, but is there any hope that Microsoft is actually keeping their rapid development of Windows Mobile 7 behind closed doors, and that they may actually get a device to the market this year, together with Silverlight and a UI that can compete with IPhone and Android? Well there may be. Some clues:

Microsoft bought Danger Inc - could this mean they are developing their own hardware for WM7 and beyond?
Rumour that MWg are launching a WM7 device this year
PDC Sessions 08: Windows Mobile: Location, Location, Location, Silverlight: Developing for Mobile Devices

I really hope Microsoft are planning to surprise us with Windows Mobile this year. Android is starting to get developers excited, and if they can get it out on more than the T-Mobile device, I think it offers real competition - we will certainly consider it for future mobile development, based on the look of the Api, but I would prefer to stay with Windows Mobile if it can improve it's api and UI support.

Cheers

Ian

Technorati Tags: Windows Mobile,Android,iPhone,Silverlight

posted @ Thursday, May 29, 2008 11:19 AM

Comments on this entry:

# re: Windows Mobile - where is it heading?

Left by Surur at 5/29/2008 2:16 PM

Does iPhone really outsell WM in USA? AT&T has only activated 2.5 million iPhones,while Apple must have shipped more than 6 million.

We all know there is a roaring smuggling trade in iPhones - they are the cheapest in the USA, due to the weak dollar.

At lest 25%, and possible as closer to 50% of iPhones end up exported, meaning while in retail the iPhone slightly beats out WM, in terms of the number of handsets retained in the country its not even close.

Secondly, while to you WM6.1 is nothing to write home about,to the CTO and CIO having full file system encryption, enrollment in the domain with automatic VPN, selective disablement of features like cameras and other manageability enhancement would be a rather big deal, and brings WM closer to RIM in feature set.

In short, WM6.1 is an arrow aimed at RIM, while WM7 will be aimed at Apple.For a preview of WM7 one only has to look at the HTC Touch Diamond, a worthy iPhone competitor with a lot of excitement around it. The device brings a lot of the UI elements that were leaked in that WM7 presentation to life, and certainly succeeds in making most interactions enjoyable, and keeping the features discoverable.

In short, a lot is going on with WM, and when you ask, with >20 million sold in the last 12 months, were its heading, the answer is many people's pockets.

# re: Windows Mobile - where is it heading?

Left by Ian Blackburn at 5/29/2008 3:07 PM

Hi Surur,

Thanks for your comments.

The figures regarding the sales were taken from canalys via http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS8948844785.html

I agree in the Enterprise WM still has wins (which is where I use it), but that is not where WM is losing out - it is the consumer market that gets all the media attention and where Android and iPhone win.

The Diamond does a resonable job of wrapping a smooth shell around the OS, but when you drill down a bit, you still mostly have to start picking with your stylus or fingernail for navigation. (see http://www.tracyandmatt.co.uk/blogs/index.php/2008/05/07/htc_touch_diamond_in_action_video) - and it is some way short of a worthy iPhone competitor IMHO. Nice browser experience, but that comes from Opera. It will be interesting to compare the HTC Diamond with the HTC Dream (Android) when that is out.

I would concede that if the Diamond is an indication of the UI WM7 will have throughout the OS then that will be great - but it is not clear when that will happen, or as developers (and Microsoft Partners) when we can start working with it.

As I mentioned Silverlight Mobile roadmap is a disappointment to most - no-one really wants to use SL1 if SL2 is an option, and it still remains a surprise that we are only looking at a SL1 CTP being available in the near future.

Just to clarify my position, we all use WM here, our Mediaklik mobile app is WM5/6, and we run Exchange Server to sync our devices - all this is goodness, but we can't ignore the fact that our users want to have the intuitiveness of the new generation mobiles, that WM does not yet have, and we want to be able to build apps that use Silverlight/WPF UI as soon as possible.

Ian

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