Category: Windows Mobile

I started the Windows Mobile Back to Basics blog series a month ago. Its purpose was to highlight the things about Windows Mobile that works. Why? Because it has been seriously outshadowed from a software point of view by both the iPhone and Google Android. And, I think aspects of hardware from Nokia have seriously passed by Windows Mobile (most notably in the area of digital photos and video).

Years ago Microsoft decided to abandon the consumer market leaving hardware manufacturers to try to figure out how to appeal to that group on their own. By focusing specifically on enterprises running Exchange Server, Microsoft also alienated power users not in an enterprise environment with Exchange Server. The comment below was made on the entry I wrote to kick off the Windows Mobile Back to Basics series. Can’t say I disagree with anything Mr. Moore says. I probably wouldn’t even have felt the need to point out Windows Mobile’s hidden strengths if Microsoft had kept developing Windows Mobile past their last significant release: Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition.

After 10 years of development the Windows Mobile platform is still in last place in the smartphone market. It’s behind Nokia, behind iphone, and now google has come out and is kicking Microsoft in the rear. Why? Because Microsoft never set out to make a great phone – they set out to extend the Windows desktop on the phone. Their charter within the company was to sell more exchange seats, not to make a great phone. The browser sucks, but they won’t put Opera on their phones for political reasons. The reality is that the Windows Mobile platform works good with exchange, but nothing else. IMAP support sucks, the browser sucks, the navigation is difficult and battery life is still less than good. Ironically, had the company been broken up years ago by the justice department, I think they may have been able to make a good phone….

Originally posted as a comment by Scott Moore on mediabistro.com: MobileAppsToday using Disqus.

I was just reading a good review of the new Celio Redfly C8N terminal companion for Windows Mobile smartphones over on Brighthand…

Celio Redfly C8N Review

It looks like Celio listened to potential customers who told them their $500 price for the original model was way too high for a dumb terminal. The new C8N comes in at a more reasonable $299 (but still too high, IMHO). There’s also a smaller model for $229 (also too high). For $299 you get a dumb terminal that provides an 800×400 view into your Windows Mobile smartphone, a decent keyboard, and the ability (with an additional $20 cable) to watch videos from an iPod or Zune (or other media player).

If you spend another $40, you can get an Asus Eee PC 904 with a 1024×600 display, 1GB RAM, 160GB HD, and a 6-cell battery. It does not have Bluetooth. But, you can add one via a USB dongle very inexpensively or step up to another model like the Eee PC 1000H (what I use) for $479 and get a 10-inch display as well as Bluetooth. And, oh yes, it also has an SDHC card reader built in so I can read photos off my camera. And, wait, it has a 160GB hard drive so I can backup my photos while on the road. And, what’s this? 802.11n WiFi too? And since you can run Windows XP or Linux (or Mac OS X for that matter), I can use a real browser like Firefox instead of IE4 Mobile Minus for web browsing. And, yes, I can tether my Windows Mobile T-Mobile Dash smartphone to it either using Bluetooth or a USB cable.

It would make a lot more sense for Celio to become a software vendor that enables low-end netbooks like the Acer Aspire One ($329 for the flash storage-only, 3-cell battery model) to become Windows Mobile terminals. It would remove the all the issues surrounding hardware manufacturing and distribution and become a nimble firm with a use software product.