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Mix10 The key difference between Windows Phone 7 and Windows Mobile is not
Silverlight, the Windows Marketplace lock-in, nor the disallowing of native-code applications....
Microsoft's
not going to allow HTC to cover Windows Phone 7
Series with its Sense UI overlay (which is
going to be an
interesting thing to watch in and of itself), but there's no question that the homegrown user
interface has made a-many Windows Mobile
phones look and feel a whole lot better than stock. Sense is also gaining traction in the Android realm, a sector where it's far more likely to
either make a huge impact or be overlooked entirely. So, the question we're posing here today is
this: if you were granted an HTC badge for a day, how would you change Sense? Are you satisfied
with the quickness? Does anything simply get in the way? Any quirks that you just can't figure out?
Any tweaks that you'd love to see made? We aren't always serious when we say that these companies
are listening to you, but trust us when we say that design folks from HTC might just give your
comments a once over. Here's your chance. Don't screw it up.
Outre l'Xperia X10 haut de gamme (sous Android), la branche française de Sony Ericsson
propose des smartphones plus design (gamme Vivaz sous Symbian) et des modèles business et
green IT (Elm, Hazel et Aspen sous Windows Mobile).
The MTK MTK6516 phone might resemble some of the good stuff that HTC has come up with in recent
times, but this model goes one up since it has dual core functionality, working in a Windows
Mobile environment. As mentioned, the main draw would be its dual core 460MHz ARM9 main processor
which will be used to handle system tasks, while a 280MHz ARM7 Modem processor will take care of
the telephony module segment, featuring a 3.2" display, Windows Mobile 6.5, 256MB RAM, 256MB ROM,
a 3.2-megapixel camera and 1.3-megapixel secondary camera for video calling purposes, and Wi-Fi
connectivity. No idea on about pricing, but it ought to be released soon.
Sprint
had promised a first-quarter
update for its Touch Pro2 way back in
January, and sure enough, it's delivered the Windows Mobile 6.5 boost right on time. It might
not have as much punch now that we know everything there is to know about Windows Phone 7 Series,
of course, but it's still a pretty big deal -- the Touch Pro2 remains one of the best
Microsoft-powered phones you can buy in the States, and unlike AT&T's Tilt2, it launched with that grubby old WinMo 6.1. It's
available now, complete with Sense "enhancements" and a variety of bug fixes -- so if you've got
one of these bad boys in your pocket, it seems like a must-grab.
Kevin Nakao is VP of Mobile & Business Search for
WhitePages, a Top 40 Web and Mobile
Publisher. You can find him on Twitter,
and on the Whitepages
Blog where he writes about mobile, local, and social media.
While last year’s SXSW seemed to serve as the
“coming out” party for location-based services (LBS), maybe this year’s
conference signifies the migration of these platforms into mainstream culture. And perhaps the
only real “new” concept to emerge this year is the idea that there is finally a real
opportunity to make money via “location.”
Here are five things that companies should consider as they look to utilize location-based
services (LBS) as part their mobile strategy.
1. Location Shouldn’t be the Only Goal
From finding the nearest ski slope on REI’s Ski and Snow Report to a nearby movie on Flixter, there are
plenty of Top iPhone applications that have incorporated a “lead with the offer, not the
capability” philosophy into their mobile product offering to provide a better service.
Build the best service first, then add the bells and whistles.
With all the hoopla surrounding location, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that
location’s real appeal to advertisers is the fact that with this functionality, you can
reach the on-the-go user, who is ready to buy and consume. Just because Twitter and Facebook offer location doesn’t make
that valuable or new to advertisers. Location-targeting via IP address has been around a while.
For the same reason radio is a great advertising channel for retailers, LBS advertising is also
valuable: because it can reach the consumer near the point of sale.
However, if you apply any city’s share of the total U.S. population, the results show some
pretty low estimates of Foursquare users in individual localities. What emerges is a very
“long tail” — a steep, narrow graph — of local user adoption. This shows
why it is important to achieve scale if you hope to see return on investment in the location
marketing space.
For example, using these rough estimates of a city’s proportional share of the U.S. population, if a
local pet supply store wanted to target people in San Francisco, the estimated reach would be
1,310 Foursquare users. Even if you double this audience estimate, the number is fairly small for
even a local marketer. We had to hit around 4 million downloads of the Whitepages iPhone app to
achieve the minimum scale needed for advertiser geo-targeting. Today, 80% of our campaigns from
major brands are geo-targeted.
Editor’s Note: It’s important to remember that these are just rough estimates.
Because Foursquare was initially only available in a handful of major metro areas, the geographic
distribution of users may not precisely follow the geographic distribution of the
population.
3. Mobile Battery Life is Key
Battery life is the single biggest threat to location. With GPS on, the phone is asking the
network where it is, and this chatter can drain battery life — anyone with an iPhone knows what I am referring to. Thus, phone
manufacturers will play a critical role in the future of LBS. RIM, the manufacturer of BlackBerry devices, faced this problem early on with
the energy-tax of e-mail polling, and as a result, their devices now have some of the best
battery life.
Foursquare has helped us move forward here as well. “Check-ins” help to address the
issue as they offer efficient geo-triggers without having to keep battery-draining GPS features
on at all times.
4. Location Will Be the Battleground of the Mobile OS
Looking forward, I predict the mobile platform wars will be fought with location and maps. This
is an important feature that a platform can use as a point of differentiation for consumers and
developers.
In anticipation of that battle, Apple purchased mapping company Placebase, and Google is starting to provide unique
mapping features like turn-by-turn navigation on
its Android devices. The only hope I see for
Windows Mobile is if they do something
completely revolutionary on the mobile location front. A development like this was alluded to at
the recent TED conference with its augmented reality
layering of geo-tagged Flickr photos and real-time
video integration.
5. Location Pays
At WhitePages, we monetize our mobile services through a mix of premium, national display, and
sponsored links for local business. Our effective CPM (revenue per thousand ad impressions) for
sponsored local links is $30-$50 — double the effective CPM (eCPM) rate we see for premium
display ad campaigns from national brands. The eCPM multiple of local targeted ads over ad
network rates is a staggering 10x.
Location-based inventory will also become scarce as Apple recently
announced that iPhone apps will not be permitted to access GPS capabilities for advertising
alone. There now needs to be some consumer benefit and functionality in order to access a
user’s location. Geo-targeted inventory on mobile will continue to be at a high premium
with no excess supply or ad networks to drive it down.
Conclusion
It is my hope that by this time next year, SXSW –- the festival of
“emerging” music and technology –- will have finally moved on from
location. It’s clearly happening now, and if integrated wisely, location will be making
companies too much money to be called the “cool kid on the block” any longer
(Update: confirmation of Android update) Sprint on Friday made available one phone OS
upgrade and leaked another. The provider has posted a Windows Mobile 6.5 update for the HTC Touch
Pro2 that gives it all the new features of the Microsoft OS, including the more touch-friendly
interface and improved built-in web browser. It should also supply upgrades to HTC's own TouchFLO
layer (incorrectly labeled as Sense UI by Sprint) and other minor fixes....
For those of you who own a HTC Touch Pro2 from Sprint, it’s been a long time coming, but
the Windows Mobile 6.5 update is finally here! As usual, be sure to backup your data and settings before attempting to
perform a firmware upgrade, as you never know when things can go pear shaped. Features of this
latest update include:
Here it is, folks! Its been a few long months for Sprint fans toting Touch Pro2’s, given
that the same device on all of the other carriers saw upgrades to Windows Mobile 6.5 months ago
while their own Pro2s stayed back at WinMo 6.1. We knew the update was coming sometime
in March, and then we pinned the date
down to some more specific: today.
Je suis rentré de Las Vegas hier soir tard après une correspondance via Londres et
c’est l’esprit encore un peu embrumé par le manque de sommeil et le
décalage horaire que je vais tenter de rédiger ce compte-rendu sur le Microsoft Mix
10 qui s’est tenu à Sin City de lundi à mercredi.
Le Mix de Microsoft se tient traditionnellement à Las Vegas chaque
année et c’était ma première participation. Cette conférence
réunit des développeurs venus du monde entier, soit près de 3500 personnes
hautement expertes en programmation dans un environnement Windows. J’étais pour ma
part invité par Microsoft France dans le pack « presse et
média », petit privilège qui nous donnait accès à toutes
les conférences et au silence feutré de la salle de presse, richement dotée
en connexions web, muffins et café américain.
Côté impressions, ma première fut celle du gigantisme des
lieux. Dans une ville ou le problème de l’espace ne se pose pas (encore)
puisque plantée en plein désert du Nevada, l’unité de mesure de base
semble être l’hectare (y compris pour les chambres suites d’hôtel), et le
complexe hôtelier et loisirs dans lequel se déroulait le Mix en compte exactement
vingt-quatre, d’hectares. L’autre impression est le paradoxe entre l’image
corporate et assez peu fantaisiste de Microsoft et le choix du lieu, même si Las
Vegas est devenue en quelques années une grande ville de congrès, ce qui en
banalise fortement le côté joyeusement déluré (voire
dépravé). La dernière sensation est celle procurée par
l’ambiance de ce Mix, particulièrement cool et bon enfant, où rien
n’est imposé, et où vous pouvez naviguer au gré de vos
affinités et de vos centres d’intérêt pour picorer ici et là de
l’information au fil des keynotes ou des sessions. Impression renforcée par la
musique d’introduction ou d’attente entre les keynotes, à forte dominante rock
(et du bon).
Les développeurs sont à la fête dans ce type de
conférence, et nombre de sessions – trop techniques pour moi et sans grand
intérêt pour la plupart d’entre vous – ont certainement fait le bonheur
des programmeurs.
Côté annonces, même si aucun scoop fracassant ni aucune présentation ne
fut de nature à provoquer un séisme dans le monde de l’informatique et du
web, plusieurs nouveautés ont été présentées. Vous avez
déjà certainement lu de nombreuses choses sur le sujet, aussi vous donnerais-je
simplement mon point de vue sur ce que j’ai retenu :
Silverlight 4
Ce fut le premier sujet de la première keynote, mais aussi la première
grosse surprise pour moi. A votre avis quel est le taux de pénétration
mondiale du player Silverlight dans les ordinateurs, autrement dit, quel est le pourcentage
d’ordinateurs équipés de Silverlight ? 5% ? 10% ? Vous n’y êtes
pas du tout : près de 60% ! Rappelons pour ceux qui sont moins au fait que Silverlight est
un environnement de développement et de lecture de fichiers multimédia dans le
navigateur web directement concurrent de Flash (qui lui équipe 98% des ordinateurs).
L’environnement Silverlight est composé d’un outil de développement,
Expression Blend, lui-même intégré à Expression Studio et du player, un plugin à installer dans son
navigateur web. Le taux d’équipement a connu une très forte croissance depuis
que certains grands médias ont délaissé Flash pour signer un accord avec
Microsoft en vue de la diffusion de leur contenu multimédia. Ce fut le cas notamment avec
des chaînes de TV américaine, canadienne et norvégienne lors des derniers JO
de Vancouver. Chez nous, c’est par exemple France TV qui propose notamment la vidéo
à la demande dans un player Silverlight, comme ses journaux télévisés.
La keynote fut donc l’occasion d’annoncer la disponibilité immédiate de
Silverlight 4 (applaudissements de l’assistance) en version
développeur, la version définitive arrivant d’ici fin avril.
Pour l’internaute, quel est l’avantage d’installer le player
Silverlight si l’on possède déjà Flash ? Ce n’est pas
véritablement une question d’avantage mais de choix : si vous voulez accéder
au contenu multimédia d’un site en Silverlight, vous devrez installer le plugin
sinon vous aurez droit à une jolie page vide. Pour les avantages il faut voir du
côté des éditeurs de site : la technologie Silverlight serait plus
évoluée et plus flexible que Flash (smooth streaming HD, deep zoom… ) et
consommerait moins de ressources. Côté versatilité des applications,
Silverlight représente un avantage incontestable car il sera nativement
intégré dans Windows Phone 7 Series : les applications du futur Windows Phone
seront en Silverlight, et les sites proposant du contenu Silverlight seront normalement
compatibles avec les Windows Phone de prochaine génération. Un exemple nous a
été fourni avec
Seesmic pour Twitter sur Windows Phone présenté par Loïc Le Meur.
Windows Phone 7 Series
J’ai déjà eu l’occasion de vous parler ici de Windows Phone 7, lors de
sa
présentation officielle au MWC de Barcelone le mois dernier. Nous avons pu cette fois
prendre en main un
prototype de mobile Windows Phone 7 et, pour un proto et un OS en version beta qui a encore
un bon semestre de développement devant lui, la bonne impression de départ est
confirmée. A ce sujet je voudrais en profiter pour tordre le cou à une affirmation
un peu simpliste que je lis régulièrement : Windows Phone 7 Series
n’est PAS une copie de l’OS de l’iPhone, et c’est même
tout l’inverse. Microsoft, contrairement aux autres, a compris in extremis que s’il
tentait de faire un énième iPhone killer (ou iPhone like) il allait droit dans le
mur (un mur sans fenêtres cette fois, hahaha). Les équipes de Windows Phone,
largement renouvelées par rapport à celles qui avaient conçu les versions
précédentes, sont donc parties d’une feuille blanche et ont tenté de
repenser complètement ce que devait être l’interface utilisateur d’un
mobile. D’ailleurs le résultat n’a pas grand chose à voir avec
l’iPhone puisqu’ici nous avons affaire à une logique de hubs (les
grands thèmes, People, Music, etc…) et non plus à un choix par icônes.
Je reviendrai dans un article séparé et complet sur la session à laquelle
j’ai assistée sur la genèse du design de l’interface utilisateur de
Windows Phone 7 (nommée « Metro »), un moment passionnant au cours
duquel j’ai pu récupérer un document riche en informations dont je publierai
quelques extraits scannés. Maintenant on ne pas nier que l’iPhone ait imposé
un nouveau standard de fait dans le mobile. Un standard qui est devenu en un peu plus de deux ans
l’ABC de l’interface mobile, comme les quatre roues et le volant pour
l’automobile. Difficile dans ce cas de se démarquer complètement. Nous
verrons si Microsoft va réussir en faisant de cette alternative un nouveau paradigme.
L’accueil de l’assistance et des grands éditeurs semble en tout cas
très encourageant, et de nombreuses applications ont déjà été
développées, et présentées au Mix, comme notamment une version
très convaincante de FourSquare mais encore une application Shazam pour Windows Phone ou
des jeux et même une fonction de télécommande pilotant un robot-canon qui
catapulte des missiles en carton-pâte dans le public (applaudissements).
Les outils de développement pour Windows Phone 7 Series sont disponibles
immédiatement et sont gratuits ici : http://developer.windowsphone.com/
(applaudissements).
Internet Explorer 9
Je vais être direct : pour moi Internet Explorer est mort depuis
longtemps. Je n’utilise plus jamais ce navigateur sauf dans deux cas bien
précis : pour tester une page web et quand j’y suis contraint et que je n’ai
pas d’autre choix (PC d’entreprise sans navigateur alternatif principalement).
Aujourd’hui je partage mon surf entre Firefox la plupart du temps et Google Chrome, sans
oublier bien sûr Safari sur iPhone ou… Opera sur Windows Mobile [1].
Je ne suis évidemment pas un cas isolé puisque les parts de marché
d’Internet Explorer, largement préservées par une forte présence
d’origine dans Windows et en entreprises, se sont fortement dégradées au
cours des cinq dernières années, passant de plus de 90% à moins de 60%
(source).
Internet Explorer 9 va-t-il changer la donne et permettre à Microsoft de
reconquérir une partie du terrain perdu ? En tout cas là aussi on sent le
vent du renouveau, qui consiste surtout ici en une mise à niveau. En substance, la keynote
sur IE9 a principalement consisté à démontrer que cette nouvelle version
allait faire à peu près aussi bien qu’un Firefox, qu’un Chrome ou
qu’un Safari, démonstration comparative à l’appui (applaudissements).
Aussi bien, c’est tout ? Non : mieux. Microsoft, décidément en mode
reconquête semble vouloir faire un peu mieux et a introduit dans Internet
Explorer 9 un traitement GPU, soit une accélération matérielle via
un traitement par la carte graphique des données rendues par le navigateur, ce qui promet
normalement un affichage optimisé et plus fidèle mais surtout un temps de
chargement des pages très fortement réduit.
Le reste de la démo a donc consisté à mettre en exergue la bonne
intégration de SVG et de HTML5 et CSS3 dans Internet Explorer 9, à tel point que
cette présentation ressemblait davantage à un inventaire des progrès et
avantages de HTML5 plutôt qu’à une démo du futur navigateur de
Microsoft. Pour vous faire une idée vous pouvez télécharger une version de
preview ici : http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/. Attention, cette preview n’est pas
compatible avec Windows XP ni avec Vista première version. Il vous faudra au moins Vista
SP2 ou Windows 7 pour l’installer.
Tous ces arguments, qui montrent là aussi que Microsoft tente de se remettre en question,
seront-ils suffisants pour inciter les internautes qui ont déserté Internet
Explorer à le réutiliser ? L’avenir le dira. Pas gagné pour
autant…
En vrac
D’autres annonces et démonsttations ont été faites lors de ce
Mix 10, et je vous les livre en vrac car toutes ne justifient pas à mon sens un
développement détaillé :
le code source du player vidéo de Silverlight 4 va être prochainement
publié en open source
présentation de Pivot, un outil en Silverlight de gestion de de
manipulation d’images (notamment pour les archives de presse) aux effets étonnants.
Je vous conseille de regarder la démo ici : http://www.getpivot.com/
présentation de Bing Maps qui propose un mode Street View
à base de photos retraitées en 3D (possibilité de tourner autour d’un
bâtiment) avec une technologie empruntée à Photosynth.
démonstration d’un widget eBay « eBay Simple
Lister » en Silverlight qui permet aux vendeurs de scanner par exemple
directement le code-barre ISBN d’un bouquin pour le mettre en vente. Toutes les
données ISBN seront alors incluses automatiquement dans son annonce avec notamment la
couverture du livre.
présentation des dernières avancées sur JQuery par son
créateur, John Resig.
hormis les applications Silverlight, Windows Phone 7 supportera les jeux
multi-plateformes : vous pouvez commencer une session de jeu sur votre XBox360 chez vous
et la continuer sur votre Windows Phone si vous devez partir en déplacement. Voir la
démo dans cette vidéo.
Ce que je n’ai pas vu au Mix 10
Au rayon des petites déceptions, et contrairement à ce que certains, dont je
faisais partie, envisageaient, nous n’avons pas vu trace ni du Slate de HP et encore moins
du Courier, pour lequel le blackout d’information semble être total chez Microsoft.
Sauf si j’ai raté quelque-chose, rien non plus sur Office 10 et sa version Online,
mais nous en saurons certainement plus d’ici fin avril.
En conclusion
Le vent tourne et après des années de domination écrasante sur
l’informatique mondiale, Microsoft apparaît dans une nouvelle posture de challenger
dans des domaines ou le marché et les utilisateurs l’attendent au tournant,
notamment le mobile, la navigation web et le respect des standards. Concernant le mobile,
à une époque où l’on commence à assister à des querelles
de chiffonniers entre Adobe, Google et Apple, notamment dans le débat autour de Flash,
Microsoft se démarque et va proposer une solution avec un avantage concurrentiel
incontestable : l’intégration de Silverlight dans Windows Phone. Un avantage
énorme pour les développeurs mais aussi pour les consommateurs, qui risque de
rendre très vite obsolètes les questions existentielles sur Flash et les
applications mobiles riches.
Enfin je ne pourrai pas finir ce billet sans remercier l’équipe de Microsoft France
pour son accueil, sa sympathie et sa bonne humeur tout au long de cet évènement, et
notamment un super poke au camarade David Cohen, aux petits soins avec nous.
(applaudissements)
Pour en savoir plus (vidéos et autres compte-rendus) :
Taco Cowboy writes "Marvell's Moby tablet will be an always-on, high performance multimedia tablet
capable of full Flash support and 1080p HD playback and supporting WiFi, Bluetooth, FM radio, GPS
and both Android and Windows Mobile platforms for maximum flexibility. It could eliminate the need
for students to buy and carry bound textbooks and an array of other tools. The tablet is expected
to hold a full year's worth of books but weigh less than half of one typical textbook." The tablet
is a bit vaporous at this point, but if the final device comes anywhere near these specs and price
point, it could be attractive.
Taco Cowboy writes "Marvell's Moby tablet will be an always-on, high performance multimedia tablet
capable of full Flash support and 1080p HD playback and supporting WiFi, Bluetooth, FM radio, GPS
and both Android and Windows Mobile platforms for maximum flexibility. It could eliminate the need
for students to buy and carry bound textbooks and an array of other tools. The tablet is expected
to hold a full year's worth of books but weigh less than half of one typical textbook." The tablet
is a bit vaporous at this point, but if the final device comes anywhere near these specs and price
point, it could be attractive.
Palm shares plunged in late
trading Thursday after the company posted yet
another dismal quarter and warned that revenue for the current one will fall
far short of Wall Street expectations. The company will have to take substantial charges to
help its carrier partners eat through excess inventory, and whatever luster once existed for its
flagship Pre is long gone. The question now is, who’s going to pick up Palm?
Palm’s last-ditch gamble on webOS has been a disaster. The operating system — which
debuted last summer on the Pre — has received solid reviews, but an utter lack of effective
marketing from Sprint — and more recently, Verizon Wireless — shackled handset sales.
And an upcoming partnership with AT&T — which looked to be Palm’s last chance at
redemption — is reportedly fizzling already after the carrier delayed
the launch of webOS handsets, slashed its order and cut its marketing budget.
So what are Palm’s options? CEO Jon Rubinstein is projecting a “stay the
course” attitude, saying better training of Verizon Wireless sales staffers will begin to
pay off — a questionable theory given the flat-line demand for the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus
so far. Producing a tablet would be an interesting strategy, as James over at jkOnTheRun
suggested yesterday. But the market for tablets is still very uncertain, and there’s
little reason to believe Palm can move a different kind of hardware when it can’t sell
phones. So a suitor will likely sweep in and pick up Palm, snatching up webOS — the
company’s most valuable asset — and a sizable patent portfolio. Here’s a quick
rundown of the most likely (or most highly speculated) candidates for acquiring Palm —
including their odds of doing so:
Google : The most intriguing play on the board, Google might be compelled by
Palm’s patent portfolio, as Gizmodo noted yesterday.
What’s more, Google and Palm both operate Linux-based mobile operating systems, which
would make it easy for Google to cherry-pick the best features from webOS and add them to
Android. Google could easily afford Palm,
and as a bonus would keep it from falling into the hands of a competitor. Odds: 7-1
Dell : The Texas computer vendor joined the smartphone space a few months ago,
launching
handsets in Brazil and China, and will soon launch an Android-based device
through AT&T. But its late entry means Dell will have a hard time differentiating its
hardware, and coming to market with its own mobile operating system, app store and developer
community could be a great way to stand out from the crowd. Odds: 7-1
Hewlett-Packard: HP’s tiny smartphone business is dissolving in the
superphone era. Picking up what amounts to a turnkey mobile OS would be a huge — if
costly — move to attract attention and breathe life into its mobile business. Odds: 11-1.
Nokia : Nokia has long been
mentioned as a potential buyer for Palm, but successfully marrying the two has become an
increasingly difficult proposition. Nokia already claims the world’s most popular
smartphone OS in Symbian, and its Maemo — um, sorry, I mean MeeGo – operating system appears to be its long-term strategy.
What’s more, Ovi has gained impressive traction in recent months. Adding another platform
to the mix would only serve to distract Nokia just as it finally appears to be regaining its
focus. Odds: 25-1
Motorola : Another hardware maker that might be compelled by the idea of
owning its own OS, Motorola’s $8 billion in
cash ensures plenty of capital to pocket Palm. Yet despite what Om suggested
earlier this year, taking on a mobile operating system would likely be more than Motorola
could handle, given its difficulty in regaining its once-dominant market share in smartphones.
Marriages of two weak players from different spaces rarely end up happy. Odds: 30-1
Microsoft : Palm and Microsoft seemed like a great fit just a few months ago.
But that was before the gang from Redmond went public with its plans to scrap Windows Mobile
in
favor of Windows Phone, an impressive, consumer-targeted platform set to debut late this
year. Windows Phone may fail gloriously, but there’s no reason to bring another OS into
the fold — and webOS is largely considered to be Palm’s most valuable asset. Odds:
35-1
Cisco : An acquisition of Palm would enable Cisco to immediately expand beyond
infrastructure into the mobile consumer market. Such a move wouldn’t exactly be
unprecedented for Cisco, which last year bought the maker of Flip Video
camcorders for $590 million, but maintaining a mobile operating system is a far more
sophisticated endeavor than simply churning out camcorders. Odds: 40-1.
This is only a partial list, of course, and new potential suitors are sure to emerge as Palm
begins to circle the drain. The clock is ticking, and there’s almost no hope Palm can
reverse course at this point. So someone in the mobile space might be able to do very well by
picking up a dying company at a cut-rate price.
Feeling like getting all crazy this weekend with Windows Mobile 6.5 on your Sprint Touch Pro 2?
Then make a backup and have at it - the downloads are now available!
Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Series emulator has been cracked. Windows Mobile Developer Dan
Ardelean, who works out of Italy, announced Friday that he had hacked into the emulator, which
allows users to run the WinPho7 platform on a full-sized computer. Microsoft had unveiled the
emulator and other products, including Internet Explorer 9, this week at MIX10, Redmond's
conference for Web designers and developers. Ardelean has taken down the link to his exploit. "I
passed from being excited that I was able to see more to being stressed that Microsoft will be
angry about the leak," he said.
Marvell is planning to take the ARMADA chips to school as it announced an initiative that will
deliver $99 tablets powered by the ARMADA 600 series SoCs to students around the world. Marvell's
cheapo educational tablet is called Moby and is claimed to deliver 1080p video, 3D media, and full
Flash Internet in a tight package that would have less than half the weight of a typical
textbook.
"Education is the most pressing social and economic issue facing our country and our times. I
believe the Marvell Moby tablet can ignite a life-long passion for learning in all students
everywhere," said Weili Dai, Marvell's Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell
Semiconductor's Consumer and Computing Business Unit. "Marvell's goal is to fundamentally improve
the way students learn by giving them more efficient, relevant - even fun tools to use. Marvell's
Moby tablet recognizes that every student learns differently and so it delivers an array of media
choices for different learning styles."
Likely boasting a 10-inch display, Moby is expected to have a gigahertz-class processor, high
performance 3D graphics, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and full support for Windows Mobile and Android
operating systems. Battery life is also claimed to be high but that's yet to be confirmed with
hands-on testing.
Perhaps most compelling is the continued emphasis on creating an experience more so than an
enterprise "phone." It appears that Microsoft has learned a lesson that is more apparent every
day. People want smartphones as much for personal use as for business use.
Sponsor
But Microsoft is saying little about what it does plan for the enterprise with its Windows Phone
7 Series. They say more is to come in the next few weeks but clearly the emphasis is on the
consumer market, not the enterprise.
Network World did a little sniffing around Mix10 and did get a few tidbits of what we should
expect:
Windows Phone 7 is no longer enterprise-centric but the user experience is still catching the
fancy of independent software vendors that want to sell it into the business market. The iPhone
and Google Android are proof enough that people will find relevance for smartphones in the
enterprise even if the devices are meant primarily for consumers.
A developer community is ready and waiting to make applications for Windows Phone 7.
Developers can create applications within a development environment they understand. Network
World notes: "Visual Studio programmers can drag and drop controls onto a Windows Phone surface,
bring in existing Silverlight libraries or Azure cloud projects, and wire them up to data
sources, behaviors and services, just like they do when writing software for a Windows PC."
Microsoft is expected to offer a secure area within its Marketplace to accomodate enterprise
applications. The intention wold be to provide a place where enterprise customers could download
company specific software or the framework for their own marketplace. This would provide IT
administrators with ways to administer applications within the enterprise.
It's uncertain what security features will become part of Windows Phone 7. Microsoft has
historically provided Microsoft Exchange Active Sync which enables Windows Mobile devices the
ability to sync with Microsoft Exchange. Actice Sync has offered a number of security features
such as remote data wipe and encrypted connections. Will this rich security framework be kept
intact? With such a consumer focus, it's uncertain what will come of it.
Windows Phone 7 includes an Office Hub, allowing people to create and edit Microsoft Office
documents. Microsoft has put a lot of effort into making Sharepoint a mobile site. Windows Phone
7 will integrate with Microsoft Exchange. It appears users may set up tiles within Windows Phone
7 to edit and share Sharepoint documents.
It appears that Microsoft may not necessarily have to focus on the enterprise. Its rich user
experience may be enough to get people interested. Core enterprise features will only help give
Windows Phone 7 a chance to compete more effectively.
Outre l'Xperia X10 haut de gamme (sous Android), la branche française de Sony Ericsson
propose des smartphones plus design (gamme Vivaz sous Symbian) et des modèles business et
green IT (Elm, Hazel et Aspen sous Windows Mobile).
Windows Mobile 6.x can multitask, and it can run applications written in native code. Windows
Phone 7 Series can do neither of these things. The reasons are not philosophical, however:
Microsoft has no problem with either concept per se. They're practical.
The hardware is powerful enough. The underlying operating system, Windows CE 6, can multitask
just fine. The built-in applications also have multitasking capabilities—mobile IE will,
for example, continue to download pages in the background, and the Zune application will play
music in the background. Where multitasking is absent is with third-party software. Though this
has been expected for weeks, it's only with the release of the development environment that
positive official confirmation has arrived: any time the Start hardware button is pressed (which
returns the phone to the Start screen), the current third-party application is terminated.
Windows Mobile 6.x can multitask, and it can run applications written in native code. Windows
Phone 7 Series can do neither of these things. The reasons are not philosophical, however:
Microsoft has no problem with either concept per se. They're practical.
The hardware is powerful enough. The underlying operating system, Windows CE 6, can multitask
just fine. The built-in applications also have multitasking capabilities—mobile IE will,
for example, continue to download pages in the background, and the Zune application will play
music in the background. Where multitasking is absent is with third-party software. Though this
has been expected for weeks, it's only with the release of the development environment that
positive official confirmation has arrived: any time the Start hardware button is pressed (which
returns the phone to the Start screen), the current third-party application is terminated.
Though Apple both publicly and privately warned
smartphone makers that it wouldn't tolerate its intellectual property being infringed upon, the
company made its first move against Taiwan-based HTC earlier this month with a federal lawsuit and a
complaint to the
International Trade Commission. HTC says it doesn't plan to give up without a fight.
"HTC disagrees with Apple's actions and will fully defend itself," HTC Corporation CEO Peter Chou
said in a statement. "HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue
to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue
to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best
mobile experience possible."
HTC cited the company's numerous firsts to market as proof of its innovation, including selling
the first Windows Mobile smartphone in 2002 and the first Android smartphone in 2008. (It also
lays claim to the "first gesture-based smartphone" released in June 2007, but that's also the
same month that Apple released the original iPhone.) It also noted that Fast Company and
MIT Technology Review has both recently named HTC as one of the top innovative companies
globally.
The company is confident that its own patent portfolio will prove useful in its defense. "We've been in business
since 1997 and a pioneer in the smart phone space," HTC America VP Jason Mackenzie told
Forbes. "We absolutely have our share of patents."
However, Deutsche Banks analyst Chris Whitmore noted recently that Apple has amassed a
much larger patent portfolio than HTC, or even Google, whose Andriod operating system is believed
to be the real target of Apple's legal ire. Since 2000, Apple has been awarded over 3,000
patents, compared to Google's 316 and HTC's 58. Prior to the launch of the iPhone, HTC actually
filed zero patents with USPTO. Sheer numbers don't guarantee a slam dunk for Apple, but they do
certainly give Apple a much larger cache of ammunition to draw from.
Many have criticized Apple for "competition by litigation" by filing complaints against HTC, but
as The New York Times recently reported, lawsuits not at all
uncommon in the mobile space. Apple believes it has a right and duty to protect its own
innovations, apparently just as other companies in the mobile space do. "We think competition is
healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours," Apple CEO
Steve Jobs said earlier this month.
Furthermore, Microsoft VP and deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said the lawsuits are
merely a sign that the modern smartphone market is still in its early stages, and that this
particular lawsuit
won't stifle innovation as some believe. "The smartphone market is still in a nascent state;
much innovation still lies ahead in this field," he wrote in an analysis of Apple's patent
litigation. "In all nascent technology markets, there is a period early where IP rights will be
sorted out."
Unless Apple and HTC come to an out-of-court settlement, we could be waiting until at
least 2012 to hear a decisions from either the ITC or US district court on the matter.
Apple both publicly and privately warned
smartphone makers that it wouldn't tolerate its intellectual property being infringed upon, and
the company made its first move against Taiwan-based HTC earlier this month with a federal lawsuit and a
complaint to the
International Trade Commission. HTC says it doesn't plan to give up without a fight.
"HTC disagrees with Apple's actions and will fully defend itself," HTC Corporation CEO Peter Chou
said in a statement. "HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue
to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue
to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best
mobile experience possible."
HTC cited the company's numerous firsts to market as proof of its innovation, including selling
the first Windows Mobile smartphone in 2002 and the first Android smartphone in 2008. (It also
lays claim to the "first gesture-based smartphone" released in June 2007, but that's also the
same month that Apple released the original iPhone.) It also noted that Fast Company and
MIT Technology Review have both recently named HTC as one of the top innovative
companies globally.
The company is confident that its own patent portfolio will prove useful in its defense. "We've been in business
since 1997 and a pioneer in the smart phone space," HTC America VP Jason Mackenzie told
Forbes. "We absolutely have our share of patents."
However, Deutsche Banks analyst Chris Whitmore noted recently that Apple has amassed a
much larger patent portfolio than HTC, or even Google, whose Andriod operating system is believed
to be the real target of Apple's legal ire. Since 2000, Apple has been awarded over 3,000
patents, compared to Google's 316 and HTC's 58. Prior to the launch of the iPhone, HTC actually
filed zero patents with USPTO. Sheer numbers don't guarantee a slam dunk for Apple, but they do
certainly give Apple a much larger cache of ammunition to draw from.
Many have criticized Apple for "competition by litigation" by filing complaints against HTC, but
as The New York Times recently reported, lawsuits are not at all
uncommon in the mobile space. Apple believes it has a right and duty to protect its own
innovations, apparently just as other companies in the mobile market do. "We think competition is
healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours," Apple CEO
Steve Jobs said earlier this month.
Furthermore, Microsoft VP and deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said the lawsuits are
merely a sign that the modern smartphone market is still in its early stages, and that this
particular lawsuit
won't stifle innovation as some believe. "The smartphone market is still in a nascent state;
much innovation still lies ahead in this field," he wrote in an analysis of Apple's patent
litigation. "In all nascent technology markets, there is a period early where IP rights will be
sorted out."
Unless Apple and HTC come to an out-of-court settlement, we could be waiting until at
least 2012 to hear a decision from either the ITC or US district court on the matter.
Apple both publicly and privately warned
smartphone makers that it wouldn't tolerate its intellectual property being infringed upon, and
the company made its first move against Taiwan-based HTC earlier this month with a federal lawsuit and a
complaint to the
International Trade Commission. HTC says it doesn't plan to give up without a fight.
"HTC disagrees with Apple's actions and will fully defend itself," HTC Corporation CEO Peter Chou
said in a statement. "HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue
to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue
to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best
mobile experience possible."
HTC cited the company's numerous firsts to market as proof of its innovation, including selling
the first Windows Mobile smartphone in 2002 and the first Android smartphone in 2008. (It also
lays claim to the "first gesture-based smartphone" released in June 2007, but that's also the
same month that Apple released the original iPhone.) It also noted that Fast Company and
MIT Technology Review have both recently named HTC as one of the top innovative
companies globally.
The company is confident that its own patent portfolio will prove useful in its defense. "We've been in business
since 1997 and a pioneer in the smart phone space," HTC America VP Jason Mackenzie told
Forbes. "We absolutely have our share of patents."
However, Deutsche Banks analyst Chris Whitmore noted recently that Apple has amassed a
much larger patent portfolio than HTC, or even Google, whose Andriod operating system is believed
to be the real target of Apple's legal ire. Since 2000, Apple has been awarded over 3,000
patents, compared to Google's 316 and HTC's 58. Prior to the launch of the iPhone, HTC actually
filed zero patents with USPTO. Sheer numbers don't guarantee a slam dunk for Apple, but they do
certainly give Apple a much larger cache of ammunition to draw from.
Many have criticized Apple for "competition by litigation" by filing complaints against HTC, but
as The New York Times recently reported, lawsuits are not at all
uncommon in the mobile space. Apple believes it has a right and duty to protect its own
innovations, apparently just as other companies in the mobile market do. "We think competition is
healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours," Apple CEO
Steve Jobs said earlier this month.
Furthermore, Microsoft VP and deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said the lawsuits are
merely a sign that the modern smartphone market is still in its early stages, and that this
particular lawsuit
won't stifle innovation as some believe. "The smartphone market is still in a nascent state;
much innovation still lies ahead in this field," he wrote in an analysis of Apple's patent
litigation. "In all nascent technology markets, there is a period early where IP rights will be
sorted out."
Unless Apple and HTC come to an out-of-court settlement, we could be waiting until at
least 2012 to hear a decision from either the ITC or US district court on the matter.
Apple both publicly and privately warned
smartphone makers that it wouldn't tolerate its intellectual property being infringed upon, and
the company made its first move against Taiwan-based HTC earlier this month with a federal lawsuit and a
complaint to the
International Trade Commission. HTC says it doesn't plan to give up without a fight.
"HTC disagrees with Apple's actions and will fully defend itself," HTC Corporation CEO Peter Chou
said in a statement. "HTC strongly advocates intellectual property protection and will continue
to respect other innovators and their technologies as we have always done, but we will continue
to embrace competition through our own innovation as a healthy way for consumers to get the best
mobile experience possible."
HTC cited the company's numerous firsts to market as proof of its innovation, including selling
the first Windows Mobile smartphone in 2002 and the first Android smartphone in 2008. (It also
lays claim to the "first gesture-based smartphone" released in June 2007, but that's also the
same month that Apple released the original iPhone.) It also noted that Fast Company and
MIT Technology Review have both recently named HTC as one of the top innovative
companies globally.
The company is confident that its own patent portfolio will prove useful in its defense. "We've been in business
since 1997 and a pioneer in the smart phone space," HTC America VP Jason Mackenzie told
Forbes. "We absolutely have our share of patents."
However, Deutsche Banks analyst Chris Whitmore noted recently that Apple has amassed a
much larger patent portfolio than HTC, or even Google, whose Andriod operating system is believed
to be the real target of Apple's legal ire. Since 2000, Apple has been awarded over 3,000
patents, compared to Google's 316 and HTC's 58. Prior to the launch of the iPhone, HTC actually
filed zero patents with USPTO. Sheer numbers don't guarantee a slam dunk for Apple, but they do
certainly give Apple a much larger cache of ammunition to draw from.
Many have criticized Apple for "competition by litigation" by filing complaints against HTC, but
as The New York Times recently reported, lawsuits are not at all
uncommon in the mobile space. Apple believes it has a right and duty to protect its own
innovations, apparently just as other companies in the mobile market do. "We think competition is
healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours," Apple CEO
Steve Jobs said earlier this month.
Furthermore, Microsoft VP and deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said the lawsuits are
merely a sign that the modern smartphone market is still in its early stages, and that this
particular lawsuit
won't stifle innovation as some believe. "The smartphone market is still in a nascent state;
much innovation still lies ahead in this field," he wrote in an analysis of Apple's patent
litigation. "In all nascent technology markets, there is a period early where IP rights will be
sorted out."
Unless Apple and HTC come to an out-of-court settlement, we could be waiting until at
least 2012 to hear a decision from either the ITC or US district court on the matter.
"One of the most appealing parts of the iPhone is its Web browser. Mobile Safari is powered
by the WebKit engine, and this same engine also powers the desktop browser. The result is a Web
experience that, while not identical to the desktop experience, is not far off. Windows Mobile,
on the other hand, has a browser that's roughly derived from Internet Explorer 6. The result? A
decidedly second-rate Web experience. Windows Phone 7 Series will improve things somewhat-to
approximate parity with Internet Explorer 7-but it remains behind its desktop counterpart."
I'm finding it hard to put any kind of posiive spin on this - fact is, it's hard to be positive
about a lot of the WP7S news that's come out over the past few weeks. I can (probably) learn to
live with most of them, but this is one area that I'm going to find hard to gloss over. If we had
access to alternative browsers like Opera that's one thing, but it looks like that's still going
to be a ways off with the restrictions Microsoft is placing on developers. Getting on par with
IE7 may be good enough, but...who knows? WP7S is coming late to the party as it is, and a dated
web experience is just one more strike against it.
Sygic has finally announced the public availability of Sygic
Mobile Maps with Turn-by-turn navigation for the Nokia N900 Maemo devie. It’s available
for purchase for around 60 euros and you need to download around 1.8 Gigabytes of maps data to
your phone !
Official Press Release Below
The first turn-by-turn voice guided navigation application for Maemo phones has just got
available for European Nokia N900 users at Sygic web e-shop. With the full set of navigation
features, multiple user settings, fast route calculation, user-friendly operation and the latest
maps situated on-board of the device, Sygic Mobile Maps turns Nokia N900 into a full-featured
personal navigation device, and provides for superb user experience and reliable
navigation.
The first available region, launched today, is EUROPE. It costs EUR 59,99, it has no time limit
on use after purchase, and it includes countries of Western Europe and Eastern Europe as
follows:
- Maps included: Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San Marino,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, Vatican.
- Maps with transit roads only: Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Belarus, Moldova, Montenegro, Bosnia
-- Herzegovina, Romania, Ukraine.
Further regions will be added and announced gradually. Sygic Mobile Maps navigation application
for Nokia N900 Maemo OS phones features Navteq maps.
Product description
Sygic Mobile Maps is a turn-by-turn voice guided navigation software that converts mobile phones
into full-featured navigation devices. It is fully operable on hundreds of mobile phones and
smartphones running major mobile operation systems, incl. iPhone, Symbian, Maemo, Android and
Windows Mobile, incl. Windows Mobile 6.5. It also supports various PDA, PND and MID devices based
on Windows CE, Windows XP/Vista or Linux. Sygic Mobile Maps uses latest maps located on-board of
the device, which means that the use of the navigation is not conditioned by mobile network
signal availability.
Features and benefits of the Mobile Maps:
All latest maps are with you on your phone.
Speed cameras, speed limits and railway crossings warnings provide safety for you and others.
Signposts help you to head in the right direction.
Lane assistant informs you about the correct lane to be in.
Automatically adapts to horizontal or vertical view with
Automatically or manually adjustable color schemes for day and night use.
User interface and voice guide speak your native language.
Search for millions of restaurants and other points of interest, with an option to call in,
find parking, and navigate to.
Design your trip with multi-stop route planning before you head out.
See the summary of your trip before you set off.
Avoid a roadblock with a single click.
Save and organize favorites according to your needs.
Customize what you want to see on the navigation screen.
Download Sygic Mobile Maps for Nokia N900 from: sygic.com/maemo
Ever since she brought me into the world, my mother has taught me many things, namely to not only
learn from my own mistakes, but also from the mistakes of others.
Microsoft clearly never spoke to my mom, as evidenced by its decision to leave cut, copy, and
paste capabilities out of the new Windows Phone 7 Series platform, at least in the early rounds.
If they had paid Mom a visit, they would have been told -- after being offered some tea, of
course -- to fix all the boo-boos of earlier smartphone operating systems before releasing their
own updated version. She would have advised them to understand the rough spots encountered by
competitive offerings, and do everything in their power to avoid them.
I think my mom's ticked with Microsoft
Okay, perhaps she wouldn't have worded it precisely that way, but I'm certain you get my point
regardless. I'm sure I speak for my mother (and likely, a whole bunch of you, too) when I say I'm
disappointed in what may either be Microsoft's "decision" to leave three of the most basic
functions in the history of computing out of its just-announced OS, or as we seem to be learning
now, it's having overlooked the whole subject in the planning phase.
This morning, blogger Long Zheng reports he was told by Microsoft that cut and paste is
something the company hopes will find a place in Windows Phone 7 Series at some future point.
Now, the initial excuse the company provided was (and is, and quite likely always will be)
insufficient and, if we're being brutally honest, more than a little arrogant: "Most users,
including Office users, don't really need clipboard functionality." So what's the story now,
after Long's report: "We asked users to give us some details, and they decided, most users do
like clipboard functionality, just not right at first?"
While I realize OS vendors have to make countless
decisions about which features should and should not make it into the final product, I bristle at
Microsoft's tone -- a bit like US Congresspeople explaining why the public option for health care
is a really, really, really good idea, but just not for the bill being discussed today.
If Microsoft (or, for that matter, if anyone at all) can learn anything from Congress this year,
it's that people don't like being told by The Powers On High what they are supposed to want or
not want, and when.
It isn't Microsoft's place to tell users that they won't ever need to cut, copy, or paste
anything for as long as they own their new devices. It's the kind of blow-off statement that
sounds shockingly like Apple when it introduced the iPhone in 2007, similarly stripped of any
ability to cut-and-paste. After a sea of complaints from users and reviewers who actually do know
what they want, and don't need to be told, Apple wisely retro-baked that functionality back into
the OS two years later. While the controversy didn't seem to dent Apple's market share, Microsoft
hardly has the benefit of Apple's marketing prowess or brand equity.
Apple aficionados were willing to cut the company some slack, and ended up buying iPhones anyway.
Microsoft aficionados are a lot harder to find, they won't line up around the block in the middle
of the night, and they'll probably pick up an Android-powered device as an alternative. With
Windows Mobile...oops, Classic devices retaining this feature, and Windows Phone 7
Series lacking it, the inconsistency is difficult to understand. However you slice it, there will
be no slack for Windows Phone 7 Series, and it's more than a little shocking that Microsoft
couldn't see this coming.
Teaching us all a lesson?
In fairness to Microsoft, its new mobile OS includes a data detection service that automatically
recognizes common elements like addresses and phone numbers. Within this context, perhaps there's
room to make the argument that cutting and pasting is yesterday's news. This technology,
popularized with the first mass-market GUIs in the early '80s, and perpetuated in virtually every
desktop and mobile OS ever since, could be one of those things that we hold on to like a security
blanket. And like the ratty old blanket, perhaps there's a time when we need to let go. Maybe,
just maybe, Microsoft is doing us all a favor by pushing it out the door.
But consumers are a fickle lot. And what's makes sense from a strategic or historical perspective
isn't necessarily right from the point of view of the guy forking over the dough for your new
wonder-product. Never mind that Microsoft may, in fact, be "right" in concluding that we no
longer need cut, copy, and paste on our mobile devices. Customers, after all, are always right,
even if their choices make them look like circus clowns who do their makeup in the dark. It's
their mistake to make and their shame to live down. Even if the vendor believes otherwise, it's
not the smartest business strategy to call them idiots and make fun of their smudged face paint.
Casting off a
legacy
In fairness to Microsoft, I somewhat understand where the company is coming from. Previous
versions of its mobile OS suffered from what I like to call Shrunken Windows Syndrome. Instead of
being built from the ground up as truly mobile-enabled solutions, they seemed to be pared-down
versions of Microsoft's flagship desktop OS products. Microsoft's philosophy seemed to be that if
it worked on a PC, it would work on a smartphone or a PDA, too. I used a number of Windows CE and
Mobile devices over the years, and I never got used to navigating a full-on Start menu, complete
with cascading sub-menus, with a stylus or thumb keyboard. It was as if Microsoft never actually
used its own mobile products out in the field, and never listened to users who complained
bitterly that its design philosophy simply didn't work out there.
With Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft seems to have finally gotten the mobile message. It's
built from the ground up as a modern, competitive, lean and efficient mobile OS. I suspect the
cut-and-paste omission is the company's way of overcompensating for years of heavy Windows legacy
on its mobile products, a hackneyed way to break with its past.
Memo to Redmond: There are other ways to accomplish this.
It's only temporary
If Long Zheng's reporting is accurate (and it often is), I'd wager that v7.1 will have copy and
paste...that is, if Microsoft doesn't cave to the firestorm earlier and release it as an
on-the-fly fix. Either way, the only way Microsoft will ever gain traction in the mobile OS
market is by listening to both customers and prospective customers and integrating their
suggestions -- well, the value-added ones, at least -- into successive generations of their
product.
This is a gaffe Microsoft simply can't afford. Its mobile OS is in the fight of its life as
Microsoft battles the Apple/Google/RIM juggernaut on one hand and its own declining mobile market
share on the other. Beyond the numbers, there's the risk that the market has already given up on
Microsoft succeeding as a mobile vendor. That psychological factor (something Palm knows all too
well) is something Microsoft needs to fix by reinstating cut-and-paste support. Now wouldn't be
soon enough.
Carmi Levy is
a Canadian-based independent technology analyst and journalist still trying to live down his past
life leading help desks and managing projects for large financial services organizations. He
comments extensively in a wide range of media, and works closely with clients to help them
leverage technology and social media tools and processes to drive their business.
The Windows Phone 7 platform has caused quite a stir this week as the nitty gritty details under
the pretty exterior are being exposed for the world to see. One of the details causing the
greatest amount of consternation is the reported lack of copy & paste, a feature that was an
integral part of Windows Mobile and one that was touted as a benefit Windows Mobile had over the
first two generations of the iPhone. According to well-known Windows blogger Long Zheng, copy
& paste will be an integral part of Windows Phone 7 Series, just not at launch.
Rather than delay the launch of Microsoft’s latest mobile platform, a decision was
apparently made to pull the feature and roll it out soon after launch. The development team has
reportedly worked out all the details on “how” Microsoft will implement the copy
&Â paste feature but they just needed additional time to integrate the mechanism
into the the codebase. Windows fans can possibly now stop fretting about copy & paste and
turn their attention towards the ensuing difficult buying decision they face — do they jump
on board with the first handsets at launch or do they delay gratification until a feature
complete OS is out in the wild?
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Microsoft's
not going to allow 
Kevin Nakao is VP of Mobile & Business Search for
(Update: confirmation of Android update) Sprint on Friday made available one phone OS
upgrade and leaked another. The provider has posted a Windows Mobile 6.5 update for the HTC Touch
Pro2 that gives it all the new features of the Microsoft OS, including the more touch-friendly
interface and improved built-in web browser. It should also supply upgrades to HTC's own TouchFLO
layer (incorrectly labeled as Sense UI by Sprint) and other minor fixes....
We're seeing a few glimpses from 
While I realize OS vendors have to make countless
decisions about which features should and should not make it into the final product, I bristle at
Microsoft's tone -- a bit like US Congresspeople explaining why the public option for health care
is a really, really, really good idea, but just not for the bill being discussed today.
If Microsoft (or, for that matter, if anyone at all) can learn anything from Congress this year,
it's that people don't like being told by The Powers On High what they are supposed to want or
not want, and when.
Casting off a
legacy
Recommandations
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
(
)
