Comments on: Conflicting opinions on Windows Mobile: Open source or open FUD?

Steve Ballmer is nothing if not upfront by his weird notions of how to make money in mobile.

[SururD]

How much would you pay for full device encryption?
How much for a good Internet Sharing tethering app?
How much for a full bluetooth stack.

In the end, if you want to monetize your software through advertising, you still rely on people wanting to BUY something in the end, and sometimes that thing is software.

And BTW, since when is having software tied to hardware a desirable thing? Why should I be forced to buy a RIM phone to get their e-mail app? Why should I have to buy an iPhone to get the Safari browser?

Sometimes you come across as foolish socialists who did not really think everything through.

[adamzpocketnow]

I don't think 12% market share constitutes as ignoring Windows Mobile. 12% is still 3rd place and about 4 times greater than Apple's market share. Does that mean the world is ignoring Apple's iPhone 4 times more than Windows Mobile?

How is $8-15 "outlandish" for a smartphone operating system that has more power and capabilities than any other smartphone OS out there? Do you know that a bottle of water at many NYC clubs costs $8?

Do you have any substantial reasoning to back your opinion that Windows Mobile is "potty" or difficult to use? Are you unable to understand what the Start menu does? Are scroll bars confusing to you?
How is replicating a desktop computing experience on a handheld a bad idea? Isn't that exactly what the iPhone and Google's Android are trying to do (and in pretty much the same way Windows Mobile has already done)?

Isn't Google's Android operating system practically the same as Windows Mobile? It has icons with text labels. It has a title bar with drop down status info bar. It has applications that you launch. How is that less confusing than the same icons and applications in Windows Mobile?

[Mark_Anderson]

Oh I see. So if WinMo is more expensive then how come my Omnia costs nothing on a £35 per month contract with better allowances when the iPhone costs £99?

Anyone?

Here's a hint: Carriers subsidise the cost of phones - which generally cost about $400-800 - so $8 to $15, even if true, does not a difference make.

Summary: Red herring. No-one cares.

[CrashPad63]

This right here...... "Just because people know that Microsoft wants to screw them doesn't mean they like it, Mr. Ballmer" shows why no one should really take your "opinions" professionally. MS is in business to make money...period. So is Apple So is HP, Dell, Sears Walmart.......... well I think even you can get the picture. You value something you pay for. If its given to you normally you treat it like crap. That is just human nature. Nokia and Android will see this in the end. Yeah they will get niche sales, but substainable growth with open is too fraught with unknowns. Will their be futher developement on the platform. Will Google ever release a final canidate one can bank on? Will there be a standards set for enterprise? Will this open community fracture and splinter? Do you trust a platform from an entity who has no track record in enterprise?

[slickuser]

Windows Mobile sucks big time like Vista. MS will keep tweaking it but it will get no better.

Remember the HP iPAQ that run on Windows Mobile? It never took off. at the same time
people liked Palm based devices.

Windows Mobile is not a exciting OS. Its like Mainframe OS among cool OS like OSX.

[Mark_Anderson]

People use an OS to 'get things done', not because it's 'cool'. I realise that being unemployed this concept may not have occurred to you.

P.S. Phones have moved on since the iPAQ. No, really, they have.

[Pony99CA]

As Adam pointed out, 12% is pretty good, especially given the marketshare of the #1 player (Nokia). 12% is almost 1 in every 8 smart phones. I bet Apple would like the Mac to get 1 in every 8 PC sales.

As CrashPad mentioned, there's nothing wrong with a business making a profit. There's a big difference between being profitable and screwing somebody, and it's sad that Matt doesn't seem to get that.

As for slickuser, you have no idea what you're talking about. While the original Windows CE devices didn't fare well against Palm, Microsoft coming out with the Pocket PC OS was the beginning of Palm's (near) demise. While Palm was nay-saying things like preemptive multi-tasking, color screens and media playing, the Pocket PC had them -- and eventually Palm added them (well, except for multi-tasking, which they're still trying to get right). Doesn't Palm licensing Windows Mobile tell you who won that battle?

As for the original iPAQ, that was probably the device that got people interested in Pocket PCs. When it first came out, people were paying *above* list price for it. Microsoft stopped supporting three different processor architectures in the Pocket PC 2002 OS and only supported ARM -- the processor the iPAQ used.

Try a little research next time.

[AdamWill]

I'm with the other Adam, to be honest. (And yes, I'm the AdamW who works for a Linux distributor).

My partner works in a cellphone store and I maintain the mobile device synchronization stuff for Mandriva. So I have quite a bit of experience with phones. I really don't get why some people are so down on Windows Mobile. It works quite well, in my experience. The important apps are well designed, and it's always been pretty stable for me. Its API is a hell of a lot more open than Apple's, leading to the development of genuinely useful third party apps (like tcpmp) which you don't have to download through the One True Way (like a certain Jesus phone).

It's a damn sight better than desktop Windows, anyway. It's less flashy and a bit clunkier than the iPhone interface, sure, but I'd probably rather have WM than an iPhone at the end of the day, and believe me, I'm not biased that way.

And the Google phone? Sheesh. They're hardly any better. Their revenue model is pretty obvious: lock you in to Google and Google's advertising and don't let you go. You can't use the bleeding Google phone without a Google account, which is used to track *everything you ever do* on the phone. Count me out.

On philosophical grounds I'd love to love OpenMoko, but in practical terms I can't, because they've been bashing on it for three years and the dialer doesn't work yet. I mean, COME ON. I don't care if you can run Debian on it, I want to make a bleeding phone call.

I'd rather have a Nokia, Blackberry, or Windows Mobile phone than an iPhone or T1 any day, when it comes down to it.

(And 12% is a damn sight better than the iPhone's doing.)

[paulej]

"Just because people know that Microsoft wants to screw them doesn't mean they like it, Mr. Ballmer. First mistake."

Are you kidding? Are you saying that you think trying to produce a product and sell it means you are trying to "screw people"? Microsoft is just a company trying to earn money like everybody else. Whether you like their products or not, you should recognize that it is necessary for businesses to earn a profit. If they did not, we would all be out of work! We could all go back to bartering chickens, but do we really want to do that?

[storm14k]

Wow...from some of these comments I see why we are in an economic crisis. Any sort of behavior is justifiable in the eyes of some as long as the goal is to make a buck. Make misleading claims and threats and its fine as long as its profitable. And if you dare speak against it somehow you're a socialist. Has America lost all sense of morals for the sake or a dollar?

[The_Decider]

yes, which is why the US is currently swirling in the toilet.

[SururD]

Dont be an idiot. How is selling something less honest than trying to force people into buying an expensive data plan before even contact syncing will work? Do you really think free is just FREE? You are paying for it in some way in the end.