RSSBallmer: The challenge for Windows Mobile
By Tim Conneally | Published March 5, 2009, 11:56 AM
In a mobile device market being driven by capacitive touch-optimized operating systems, Windows Mobile has been forfeiting stature, and the enterprise sector has taken note. At the annual US Public Sector Chief Information Officer summit yesterday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talked up the forthcoming Windows Mobile 6.5 release, and almost immediately pushed it to the side.
"We have a significant release coming this year -- not the full release we wanted to have this year -- but we have a significant release coming this year with Windows Mobile 6.5...we still don't get some of the things that people want on the highest end phones. Those will come with Windows Mobile 7 next year."
This statement came as the answer to a question from the CIO of NASA's Ames Research Center who said that it's getting tough to stand behind the OS and infrastructure when "users don't want Windows Mobile phones."
"We did sell more Windows Mobile devices last year than Apple did iPhones. That's an important factoid to have." Ballmer said, "BlackBerry was a little bit ahead, and Google was nowhere to be seen, except in Silicon Valley, I'm sure. But we'll do our best to help with that challenge."
Quite a challenge it is, because Ballmer has laid out quite a hazardous roadmap for Windows Mobile in answering these questions: Windows Mobile 6.5 will be released too late and with too few features to suit users' needs, and the responsibility of addressing those needs will be pawned off on the next OS release, which will not even begin to take shape until 2010.
If 6.5 is such a turd, why release it? How much longer are Microsoft shareholders going to let them piss money away on Windows Mobile when there is no way they will ever catch Apple, Android, Blackberry and Palm?
Same thing goes for search. Microsoft continues to piss money away on search...they will never catch Google. The game is over.
Score: -1
|*laughing*
You can not possibly be that ignorant. WinMo is 3rd as of November, surpassed only by the iPhone and Symbian. Android, RIM and Palm don't need to be "caught" in the least.
Talk about clueless...
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|It is 3rd at the direct result of Apple, within a 2 year release. That means, it has the potential to be irrelevant in another 2 years.
Is the statement saying that the release of 6.5 significant, but not what people want on smartphones, not in and itself somewhat contradictory?
Agree with the OP. There is little point to release 6.5 since it's just a half-assed attempt to stem the flow of defectors.
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|"That means, it has the potential to be irrelevant in another 2 years."
Why is that?
Are there 3 more "Apples" coming around?
Nope.
RIM and Symbian have been around far longer than Apple and MSFT seems to have done a pretty good job. Adding one more player is a *good* thing. Just as when firefox entered the scene it will hopefully server to *force* MSFT to advance their platform.
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|Correct the title: The challenge for Microsoft, make a decent Windows Mobile.
Windows mobile is the counter intuitive mobile OS. I worked with Symbian (the best for me), Mac OS (the best UI but still has a way to go to mature), Blackberry (Not good, not pretty, not fast but it works) and then we have WM... It has thrid party software available, but the integrated software is pathetic. The UI is TERRIBLE, you have to do things according its whims. I will wait for usual fan boys towards it.
I still need to look to the new boy, android..
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|face it guys, WinMobile 6.1 is a dog, 6.5 is lipstick on a pig, and 7.0 will be too late to the party.
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|Did ya get out the crystal ball for that one, sparky?
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|Of course people do not want Windows Mobile phones in US (as NASA says), because it is not possible to find any decent WM phones in US. Where is HTC Touch HD, or HTC Diamond 2? Are those WM phones available for all networks? In US retarded network operators decide what phones they want - and users are left with little choice...Maybe US operators should understand that someone is doing very bad job in understanding customer needs...
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|"We did sell more Windows Mobile devices last year than Apple did iPhones..." Of course you did you fat moron because people had no choice when they bought some LG, HTC or Samsung phones. Damn I hate Balmer.
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|"Of course you did you fat moron because people had no choice"
No choice?
My LG came without WinMo, and it's been around for years (Voyager).
No idea what you're weight is, but I wouldn't be too hard on morons If I were you...looks like they'd make good company for ya.
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|"which will not even begin to take shape until next 2010"
Oh, so not this 2010 (aka next year) but the other one..? Now that's disappointing !!!
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|lol, was thinking the same thing.
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|My english not so good! thanks for the catch
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|Here's the problem.
Enterprise users want a phone that they can talk on, get and reply to mail on, web browsing, possibly some maping and light MP3 functionality...but the latter two are not critical for day to day business (for most people.)
Enterprises and their users are realizing that a phone is a communication tool. Not an application platform. It's just too cumbersome for true enterprise class applications to function well on.
Blackberries and Palm based devices fit that bill very well.
(And don't get me wrong, I love my Windows Mobile device, but I do more with it than most of my corporations 1000+ mobile device users.)
Score: 2
|lol, where do these headlines come from? Windows Mobile was sold on more phones than iPhones and Android based phones, yet, users don't want Windows Mobile, that doesn't make alot of sense.
just because the CIO of NASA says, nobody wants your phones, doesn't make it fact and really, who the f*ck cares about NASA? what does NASA have to do with every day folks
oh and next year, isn't that far off.
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|Wow, what a laughably ignorant and irrelevant comment. That bit of drivel should be used in debate classes as an example of really poor logic shaded by blatant bias.
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|"which will not even begin to take shape until next 2010."
next 2010?... maybe next year, 2010 or simply until 2010 but.. next 2010 just seems off.
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