Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"... In a stunning turn of event, Steve Ballmer announced today at CTIA that Microsoft would be dropping the Windows Mobile Standard platform. When asked why Steve was quoted as saying 'Touch is the way of the future. No one wants to use a phone where they can not touch the screen. It's like that scene from Back to the Future II where Marty is in the cafe with Max Headroom and was showing the kids how to play the arcade game and they laughed at him because it was like a child’s toy. That is what we feel Windows Mobile Standard has become'..."

Harsh words coming from Steve Ballmer at this year’s CTIA and I for one am sad to see the death of the Windows Mobile Smartphone platform. It has been a good little platform and has served us all very well for so many years... except that one year I owned an MPx220. Microsoft dropping the Windows Mobile Standard platform makes sense though as we have not seen any Windows Mobile 6.5 screenshots floating around the scene as of late. However just because it makes sense doesn't mean it hurts any less. Thank you Steve Ballmer for breaking my heart! Am I the only one upset by this news? I hope not and I hope to hear you guys sound off in our forums!

"Ballmer re-affirmed his oft-repeated statement that Microsoft will not be making a Microsoft Phone, saying it was committed to the licensing model... Regarding the operating system itself, Steve Ballmer mentioned the unveiling of Windows Mobile 6.5 last week, and also clearly stated Windows Mobile 7 will be coming next year. He noted that he felt the continuing expansion of the smartphone segment into the whole phone segment should help Windows Mobile to continue growing despite the downturn in the economy, and that Windows Mobile is particularly well suited for low cost smartphones with many different from factors."

I personally felt one of the best things Microsoft could have done was to release their own handset. I completely understand that doing so would have been nothing sort of a disaster as it would have strained their relationships with Windows Mobile OEMs, but not doing so in my opinion cements Microsoft's position firmly into a slow and painful death in the mobile world. Windows Mobile 6.5, which was announced last week, is not expected to start shipping on new devices until Q4 of 2009. I wouldn't expect updates for existing handsets to start popping up until maybe Q1 or Q2 of 2010 - almost a year after the platform upgrade was announced. On top of this we won't start to see Windows Mobile 7 phones on the market until around the latter half of 2010, meaning that upgrades for Windows Mobile 7 will start to trickle out 3-6 months after this much anticipated milestone release. The process of moving to a new version of Windows Mobile takes incredibly too long and in this world of constantly updating gadgets. Microsoft's slow-and-steady take on the platform is no longer as intriguing as it was not only a few years ago as there are now way to many cooks in the Microsoft kitchen. Microsoft creating a self branded device would have drastically cut down on this. A handful of devices are a lot easier to upgrade than an army of devices. One has to wonder, when Windows Mobile 6.5 or even Windows Mobile 7 finally does make it into the mainstream, how far behind will the operating system be compared to competitors that are pushing out updates every few months?

"Microsoft says: 'Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will highlight the company's latest innovations and partnerships, as well as share insights on the company's strategies and approaches that will enable more opportunities for mobile operators and device manufacturers to deliver exciting solutions for consumers and mobile workers'. For Ballmer to attend the press conference, along with Andrew Lees, senior vice president of Microsoft's mobile communications business, it could indicate big news from Microsoft. Last year Robie Bach delivered the speech."

While I wasn't terribly impressed with Steve Ballmer's keynote this year at CES, I have high hopes for the Microsoft press conference at this year’s Mobile World Congress. Even if we are not presented with a ton of information on the rollout or feature set of Windows Mobile 6.5 - or an any mention of windows Mobile 7 whatsoever - Microsoft has been rumored recently to announce SkyBox (a MobileMe competitor,) SkyLine (an enterprise version of SkyBox,) and SkyMarket (an Apple App Store like application) which could hold the potential to drastically change how we interact with our Windows Mobile powered handsets on a daily basis.

"Microsoft will have a bunch of stuff to show at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, but a rumored ZunePhone won't be one of them, according to sources familiar with the company's plans. Instead, much of CEO Steve Ballmer's focus will be on talking about Windows 7 from a consumer perspective. Microsoft is pushing to have Windows 7 done in time for the holiday 2009 shopping season, so that means this CES is Ballmer's best stage to tout its benefits."

Ina Fried claims to have the skinny on the latest Zune Phone/Codename Pink rumors. According to Ina's recent CNET News article, Steve Ballmer won’t be unveiling this exciting new device at the biggest consumer electronics show of the year. This is one of the times where I hope Ina's sources are wrong as this mythical Zune Phone that somehow managed to make the blog rounds again has finally breathed some excitement into the world of Windows Mobile. I for one will be keeping my fingers crossed and hope something new and exciting gets unveiled at CES.

"In talking about Windows Mobile 6.5, Steve Ballmer did not go in to specifics but did hint at an improvement in the interface and flow of the software. It is believed, however, that this will be the first release to contain the reported Zune software integration instead of the much delayed Windows Mobile 7 release. Though there was no specific date given for Windows Mobile 7, it was believed to be scheduled for as late as the third quarter of 2010, two years away."

It looks Microsoft is expected to release Windows Mobile 6.5 to device manufactures within the next few months, which matches up with the previously suggested Q1 2009 release date for new Windows Mobile 6.5 devices or upgrades. I wouldn't bank on having the Zune software integrated into the upcoming new version when it is released, but I would be pretty excited if it did happen. The Zune user interface is heaven when compared to the current Windows Media Player way of doing things. Hopefully now that Steve Ballmer has broken the seal, more news will slowly start to trickle down in the next few weeks.

"When asked how he viewed Google as a competitor in the mobile market, Mr Ballmer - the chief executive officer of the world's biggest software company – initially responded with a conciliatory tone. 'This is their first phone, they're not easy,' he said. 'Let's see how they do.' But the niceties, which he had earlier shown for other competitors including Apple, were shortly dropped as Mr Ballmer expressed disbelief at Google's business practices. 'They (Google) can hire smart guys, hire smart people, blah-de-blah-de-blah,' Mr Ballmer said. 'I don't really understand their strategy, maybe somebody else does.' 'Turning up to an investor meeting saying, 'we've just launched a mobile operating system with no revenue model, yay!' – I wouldn't do that,' he said.'I don't get the business model.'"

Steve Ballmer is a hoot! Who goes on the record and says "blah-de-blah-de-blah" in regards to a competitor? I really hope Steve is just trying to downplay Google Android's significant in the mobile playing field because I feel it is plain to see what Google is trying to accomplish. You give the operating system away for free, it will eventually end up in the hands of millions of users... all of them forced to use your services to use the device. When people use Google's services, Google in turn makes a ton of money off of advertising deals they have in place. That sounds like a very solid revenue model to me. Once again I am keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that the forehead-smacking-comments that come out of Microsoft's Powers That Be mouths as of late are nothing more than schoolyard trash talking in an attempt to throw their competitors off guard.

[What do you think? Is this what we really need? (Artist Concept)]

There is a bit speculation going around the Interweb as of late that Microsoft is hard at work on a Zune based phone, or ZunePhone if you want to call it what all the cool kids are calling it. In a recent memo making the rounds at Microsoft, Steve Ballmer is quoted as saying the following:

"In the competition between PCs and Macs, we outsell Apple 30-to-1. But there is no doubt that Apple is thriving. Why? Because they are good at providing an experience that is narrow but complete, while our commitment to choice often comes with some compromises to the end-to-end experience. Today, we’re changing the way we work with hardware vendors to ensure that we can provide complete experiences with absolutely no compromises. We’ll do the same with phones—providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences."

After reading this memo I did what any fan of technology would do - I ran to my nearest window to get a glimpse of the pigs flying because Microsoft is finally starting to take an Apple-like approach to things by taking more control with hardware vendors to provide a "complete experiences with absolutely no compromises" for their end user. While I applaud Microsoft for taking that first step in hopefully stopping the hardware vendors from providing us with sub-par systems cluttered with excessive junk that we will never need or use on both the Desktop and mobile arena, you have to stop and ask yourself two questions:

1. Why the heck has it taken so long for Microsoft to step in to ensure a better user experience?
2. How angry are all the hardware vendors going to be over this news?

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