Most non-geeky, non-techie people (if you are reading this, you are a tech geek, btw), seem to know how to distinquish the different Apple iPod models. The shuffle doesn’t have a screen. The nano is the little one with a screen The iPod (now iPod classic) is the big one. And, the touch… well you can touch its screen on purpose. It is the iPhone without the phone (for the most part). You don’t need to go into engineering or design philosophy details to distinguish the various models. And, note that the distinguishing names are all in lower case: shuffle, nano, classic, touch.
Now look (literally) at the Windows Mobile Standard Edition and Windows Mobile Professional Edition. You practically need to be an engineer to sufficiently distinguish the two devices past the touch non-touch dimension because the Professional Edition is not a true superset of the Standard Edition. The Pro Edition is actually missing a few features that are in the Standard. And, quick, look at the photo above and figure out which is the Standard and which is the Professional in under 1 second (the time it would take to distinguish between iPod models).
What is the deal with the Standard and Professional designations anyway? Is the Standard Edition for non-professionals? That’s the implication from the names, isn’t it? Microsoft needs to rethink this whole branding campaign. The previous Smartphone vs. Pocket PC Phone Edition was much easier for the average consumer to figure out (though still way to wordy) that Standard vs. Professional. The first thing they should do is create a secondary branding using WiMo instead of Windows Mobile just to shorten that part of the name. Then, they need to shorten the device category names to something like WiMo Touch (Pocket PCs with touch screens) and WiMo Phone (no touch screen) or WiMo One (one-handed Smartphone operations) and WiMo Two (two-handed Pocket PC operation). Or, how about WiMo Pocketphone and WiMo Smartphone? It would be a lot easier for non-techies to remember and cut down the typing and awkward sentences in articles and blogs 🙂
Comments
6 responses to “What’s with the Names Windows Mobile Standard Edition and Professional Edition?”
Hey Todd, My Touch should be here today. Today was the day I was supposed to be gone. 10 Minutes after I learned the delivery date was the same day as my doctors appointment, a 140 mile round trip, the doctor called and moved the appointment up a day. So once the little beastie shows up I have all day to play with it! 🙂
So far it has made two stops in China, one in alaska, one in indianapolis, one in oakland and I expect one more before it hits the truck for delivery. It has been well traveled.
Hey Todd, Mine shipped on Friday (Local California Time) which was Saturday in China. It shows that it left China but so far that is all the information that I have since Fedex does little updating over the weekend. No delivery date as of yet. If it takes four more days that would make it the 28th. With my luck it will be delivered on the only day I will not be home this week. 😉
Randy: The 8GB model shows shipping soon. The 16GB model still has a “not shipped” status.
Frank: Your 5th edition could be titled “Do Mo with WiMo” or more simply “Mo WiMo” 🙂
Hey Todd, my iPod Touch is shipping now, from China no less, should be here this week. Already have a fedex tracking number. You may want to check for yours as well.
How To Do Everything with WinMo doesn’t quit roll off the tongue. 🙂