Why 81% of You Aren’t Impressed by Windows Mobile 6.5 ~ Random Tech Stuff

Yikes! The vast majority of our recent poll participants fell into either the “Not Impressed” or “OK, but not enough progress” categories. Only 19% of you figuratively had your socks knocked off by the incremental upgrade. I’m using the word incremental for a reason here, because it underlies a large part of the challenge that Microsoft is facing. I also believe it has much to do with how folks voted. I think folks are disappointed by what amounts to minimal improvements relative to the time between releases.

Sadly, none of us are going to see new devices running Windows Mobile 6.5 until late this year. That could be nine months from now and yes, it will only be on new devices, which is just silly. Many of the new devices won’t offer much more (if anything) different in terms of hardware capabilities. In cases like that, it sounds like a business decision to sell more Windows Mobile handsets and thus, gain more Windows Mobile license revenue.

So what will we see from the more nimble players in the market between now and then? Even if we saw nothing new from them (highly unlikely), the bar has been raised some time ago and the reaction from Redmond has been slower than an oil tanker making a turn.

Just to put the timeline in perspective here, let’s look at some history of when Microsoft released or announced different Windows Mobile versions. Bear in mind that many devices didn’t see these versions for months after the announcements, if at all:

Windows Mobile 5 = February of 2005
Windows Mobile 6 = February of 2007
Windows Mobile 6.1 = April of 2008
Windows Mobile 6.5 = February of 2009 announcement, devices in late 2009
Windows Mobile 7 = expected in 2010

Ultimately, I like what I see in where Windows Mobile 6.5 is heading with a more finger-friendly shell. Should it take this long to develop, test and release incremental improvements, however? James in his recent editorial says no, and I agree. It has that “day late and dollar short” look and feel to me. No doubt that some delays can be attributed to carriers for their testing and customizations. We’ve seen that time and again. But this doesn’t seem to be the main reason for slow progress and evolution.

This sluggishness and other factors are allowing other mobile OS platforms to catch up or even surpass Microsoft. One of our frequent commenters mentions that Windows Mobile devices outsold rival Apple’s iPhone in 2008. I’m not exactly positive that’s the case, as I haven’t seen any numbers for the full year yet. I have seen them for as recent as the third quarter of 2008, and there were more iPhones sold than Windows Mobile devices in that particular time frame. Quibbling over who sold more in a quarter or a year is pointless; the real point here is that it shouldn’t even be close. But it is. A lack of innovation and speed to market has opened up the door for others to own this space. Incremental updates every 18 months or so aren’t going to close it. Here’s wishing luck to Windows Mobile 7.

I’m already anticipating the comments with a list of what a Windows Mobile phone does well and how it has feature X that you folks can’t live without. Hey, I’m sure you’re correct, as the platform is evaluated against your own requirements. And if Windows Mobile 6.5 is going to meet your needs, then that’s the platform you should use. I’m in agreement with you with respect to your needs. Chances are, however, you’ve used Windows Mobile for several years, which isn’t the case for the market at large.

Regardless, the main issue here isn’t how good or bad Windows Mobile is as a platform. That’s an individual choice, as I alluded to above. This is more about Microsoft’s development model with the platform: At one point it was acceptable to be the tortoise, but now the hares are passing by.

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