Like lipstick on a pig, here comes WinMo 6.5: the next amazing interface from everyone’s favorite mobile software company. I could go the “Looks like iPhone” route, but I won’t. In fact, Microsoft should have been way ahead of the game six years ago yet they clung to a dated OS for so long that this looks like catch up – to the freaking Palm Pre. While I’m sure a lot of man-hours went into producing this, those man-hours should have been put in before the iPhone was a glimmer in Steve’s eye. Sadly, as we all know, Microsoft is Me Too and not Me First.
Dvorak kind of agrees with me (”Windows Mobile 6.5… CRIPES! Are you kidding me?”) and Greg hasn’t seen this thing yet at MWC so feel free to hold back judgment but I’d say “cripes” is right. I’ve been waiting for a reason to like WinMo and this isn’t it. This is just WinMo with a new shell and, from what I can tell, very little in terms of earth-shattering improvement. My Phone is basically Handango plus Active Sync. Oh well, some companies can never win.
Well, I certainly can’t argue that WM is awful. It really is. However, I think it is a truly bizarre turn of events to see anyone claim that WM is a “me too” copy of anything, especially a device that has only been out a couple years, or a device that hasn’t even come out yet.
WM, as poorly made as it is, has been leading the way in the smartphone market, ever since Palm completely dropped the ball several years back on trying to come up with a new OS. If it hadn’t been for the 6 previous, poorly made, versions of WM, The Palm Pre never would have been designed, and Palm would probably still be chugging along with PalmOS on devices with 320×240 screens. I can think of at least a few features on every single smartphone on the market (including BlackBerries and the iPhone) which are only there because WM made them required features.
There is an almost endless list of things you can criticize WM for, but Microsoft failing to be innovative is not one of them. They pressed into the smartphone market back when it didn’t even have a name yet, and was just a weird niche, I hardly think that can be characterized as a “me too” move.
Some more hate from an iPhone fanboy and apologist. The iPhone is not the end all be all phone. In fact it sucks pretty hard as well. With WinMo I can load programs without the permission of MS! Sure the current WinMo is dated but 6.5 is a huge improvement and you are giving it no chance.
Sure they should have WinMo 7 out this year but they don’t I will take WinMo 6.5 over a locked up iPhone anyday.
Wow so the iphone can make a few nice animation with it’s interface and it has nice fun apps but revolutionary it’s not other than the sense of eyeCandy. You can only run one app, WiMo multitask, you can connect to your desktop, read email, send email, take pictures, SMS, Copy/Paste, there is a huge selection of Applications to do just about everything you would want on a mobile device. You can play games, play movies, music… So please tell me how is the Iphone better than WiMo? I mean we can give credit to Apple for it’s nice simple interface and it’s Eye Candy but please stop the fanboism!!!
Now i agree that Microsoft Drop the ball just like they did with IE but give credit where credit is due because even thought they never improved on the Interface they did quite a few improvement on the OS and what you it’s capable of doing.