Comments on: Toshiba 1GHz smartphone launched, runs Windows

The era of the 1GHz smartphone has arrived. In Japan, Docomo has launched a device based on Qualcomm's Snapdragon processor.

[slickuser]

who cares? it runs on crappy windows mobile. It if was Android or WebOS, then its
a different story..

[Super2online]

That crappy Windows Mobile category you have so conveniently slammed is turning out some excellent products. The Samsung Omnia (and many others) are excellent phones with outstanding features.

[seven7dust]

exactly
a touch phone is only as good as it's touchscreen and software it runs
with WinMo and resistive technology I woudn't be too thrilled either
just Like the Omnia all these WinMo phones look good on paper
but when you actually need to use them everyday then it's different story !

[limaxray]

As a long time WiMo user, I can attest to its utter crappyness, and sheer lack of market worthiness. The only way a WiMo phone is even usable is when the hardware manufacturer includes their own software to replace the garbage provided by Microsoft (IE, Today Screen, etc). Microsoft is WAY off the mark with their mobile OS and it's horribly unfortunate that so many phones with great potential come loaded with it.

[xilonic]

Indeed, Windows Mobile is a very un-usable OS - cluttered, layered, cumbersome and buggy. Doesn't matter how good the hardware is, the OS undermines the experience.

[forever4now]

Toshiba and all of the other vendors should build smartphone "platforms" that are capable of running all of the mainstream licensed OSes (Android/Symbian/WinMo/...). Then, they could be flashed, in percentages relative to customer demand, for each OS. If you want WinMo...fine. If you want Android...fine. If you want Symbian...fine.

This approach would allow vendors to maximize their ROI on each smartphone design and it would also offer the possibility of running multiple OSes simultaneously, if virtualization on smartphones ever catches on.

[drbohner]

as usual - America may be the last to see technology

[jedmmj11]

Hey, at least you see it. Down under in Australia we doesn't see half the products or brands you guys have.

[dougmcnerd]

The speed is not important when the OS is crap!

[Hernys]

I would say that when an OS main problem is performance, speed is all that's needed to make it a winner.
I would be more concerned about battery life, though.

[tipoo_]

Cnet, i really want to see a Snapdragon VS Tegra VS Cortex A8 comparison!

[rrod182]

Misleading headlines, gotta love em.

[SoCalHampshire]

Resistive Touch? What about capacitive? It's 2009 right?

[jaxstephens]

This phone is worthless based on its association with Windows Mobile, the clunkiest junker of a mobile smartphone OS there currently is. I should know--I've used Win Mo for the past nine years . . . That is, until I got my new iPhone 3G S this past weekend. I've never been happier with a phone. ;-)

[techman21]

Battery life - 5 minutes.

[mrcjacobs]

And yet WinMo continues to be the 3rd most dominant smartphone OS behind Symbian & RIM.

[kelmon]

But for how much longer? And, let's be fair, sales has never really been indicative of actual product quality.

[Drew.0]

The fud peddlers are coming the fud peddlers are coming.

if you have a windows mobile phone and think that it is not good. go to xda-developers.com and either a) read and learn to use it or b) sell it to someone that knows how to use it, then shut your mouth and go get an iphone..

My openVpn running, fm radio having, video recording/copy pasting(since ~2003), full handwriting/voice recognition supporting, torrent downloading, true multitasking WinMo phone pwns yours any day of the week.

Unless I can pull up my email get the attached document reference the email to edit the document and IM confirmation of the changes while still having the document open and listening to my audio book on the elevator then It is not a smart phone. It is a consumer media device, one day maybe.. but definitely not today.


obviously trying to use something that they don't understand makes them feel inadequate and that is projected in the form of hate towards a mature product that is is designed for a different input paradigm than what it is compared to so often.


Take your shots while you can.. tegra + snapdragon + silverlight + smart books = a rude awakening for the WinMo/CE hater crowds

[RMarch]

Well, based on your comments I don't think you are going to like where MS is going to take the platform. If you honestly think they can compete with the current pen based resistive touch screen paradigm, you better get a great 6.5 ROM and hold on to it for the next decade or so.

MS knows that these new mobile OSes like WebOS, Android, and Iphone OS have it beat. Windows Mobile 7 will most likely (no one knows for sure who can state this publicly) be a major break from the current WinMo Paradigm. You can through all the hardware you want at it, the current crop of iPhone / WebOS, and Android can outgun a WinMo device with far greater hardware specs.

I have a HTC Kaiser and have had WinMo 6.1 / 6.5 and Android builds on it in the past weeks. Android crushes WinMo in performance. The current ROM community has not got it stable enough to use as an everyday OS on the HTC Kaiser, but it is the best comparision as it is identical hardware. No contest, Android is simply far more modern of an OS. And I think android is still behind IPhoneOS 3.0 and WebOS.

[Drew.0]

if your basing your reply off my comments then you should not that i talk about tegra and silverlight both of which will be going strong on WinMo 7.

based on your comments I can see that you don't like your four year old phone... android is a native gui and a crippled java run time that even sun said did java an injustice.

New resistive screens support True multitouch. not that heuristic crap that apple is usiong and google copped but is too scared to release. New resistive screens will let you use a paintbrush or a prosthetic limb. they even have "pressure sensitivity". Just to name 4 things that capacitive cant' touch..

http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/19/stantums-mind-blowing-multitouch-interface-on-video/

be afraid.. be very afraid

[rtripathi]

I'm a winMo phone user (Tmobile-SDA) for last 2-3 years and don't like it. It can't even get it's time correct automatically. You have to setup the date/time after every cold reboot/battery swap etc. I'm not getting a winMo phone again.

[Drew.0]

fyi, just like every phone I've ever used there is an option to automatically update your phone time based on the current time. I believe it's turned off by default because the os is defaulted for "mobile" users that travel across time zones frequently and want to stay on a specific shecdule. There's also an option to display multiple times(home and visiting). long story short Start > Settings >Phone >[Time Zones Tab]

[chasahomyjr]

I dunno I'm so confused. I've been using WinMo for about 6 years now. I would really appreciate some explanation as to what the hell is so bad about it. ALL of the devices I've owned with it installed have performed exactly as specified. Maybe all you naysayers better start reading, if you can, how to use the damn things before you go poking around into places you shouldn't. I was unlucky enough to have the use of an Iphone for three months and was appalled at how little it actually does compared to WinMo. Spending as much for apps as for the phone just to get it up to WinMo standards is the utmost in stupidity.

[RMarch]

I have to tell you as a long (very long) time WinMo user I disagree with you. Actually I have been with the platform since the pocket pc days before the transition to WinMo with phone support.

The iPhone OS, WebOS and Android have simple left WinMo (and Symbian in my view) in the stone ages. All three of these products have been created in the past two years from the ground up with data, phone, and finger touch interfaces from the start. WinMo is an adapted pen based input Palm competitor thats roots have nothing to do with data, multitouch, or phones for that matter. This little bit of heritage would mean nothing if the phones worked on the same level as the current crop of competition, but this is not the case and this heritage is far, far too evident when using a WinMo 6.1 device next to iPhone OS, Android, or WebOS.

I am not sure what happened in your three months to have a bad impression of the iPhone, but core productivity with these devices far outstripes WinMo. Thankfully, I do stongly feel that MS agrees with me and is hard at work on Windows Mobile 7 which I am hopeful will be a full rewrite. They are not working for 3+ years on a new today screen (that is WinMo 6.5 :)

[Magallanes]

WinMo and Symbian are one-hand-controlled OS, while the rest will need both hand to be used.

[RMarch]

You must be joking. WinMo is a three to four handed OS at the least.

By the time you are done pounding on the resistive touchscreen and get frustrated and pull out the stylus, only to be left needing to slide out the fullsize keyboard because stylus text input is a joke (although very cool in 1999) and the onscreen keyboard needs to be pecked with that very stylus to get it to react do you then realize that the now tilted touchscreen can't be pressed hard enough to register without constantly untilting it that you finally start to type on the keyboard (as now sufficient time has passed for the screen to reorient itself in ladscape), that you enter a web address and proceed to slide the keyboard back in so you can surf in portrait mode.

Yeah, that is a one handed OS :)

All joking aside, WinMo is a two handed OS as it is still at its core a pen based OS.

The only true one handed OS is the BlackBerry OS. It was designed from the ground up to be navigated with one hand (this is why the transition to the Storm went sooo badly).

[RMarch]

One more comment, you ask "What the hell is so bad about it?". That is the whole point in a nutshell. Actually, nothing is sooo bad about WinMo in isolation. But put it up next to the competition and it is left behind, way behind.

Two years ago, before IPhone OS, Android, and Web OS it was holding its own. Essentailly right on par with the BlackBerry OS and Symbian. Now there is a very clear break between the BB OS, Symbian, WinMo and IPhoneOS, WebOS and Android. These OSes have changed the game. The other were caught flat footed an are now moving fast to catch up.

[LouisvilleSteve]

I love my Windows Phone. All it needs is SPB Shell 3.0 and WinMo Rocks! It has voice command, I can use it with Napster DRM music which lets me download all I want for $15/month. Do that with your other phones. These two features along with the requirement to work with Exchange keep me on Windows and will for the foreseeable future.

[CreativeMalcolm]

I recently had someone who works for Microsoft in my store buying an iPhone 3G S. I don't understand why more manufacturers aren't going with Android on their flashy devices.

[EmbSysPro]

With WinMo Microsoft has created a great ecosystem in which to create mobile gadgets. I know this to be true from personal experience. From initial HW design through SW development, integration and device debug, Microsoft has done a superb job in aiding device manufacturers.

The core of the 6.x WinMo OS is very good and really is not as much the issue as is the over use of the available canned Microsoft SW components. Most of the manufacturers that craft devices using the WinMo OS only create a unique face for their respective devices, while the leaving the underlying WinMO OS largely a plain vanilla creation.

And this is where the new mobile OS's from Google, Apple and Palm have an advantage. Not only are these OS's technically very sound they also ask you to be creative. They provide the manufacturer/developer with adequate tools and reference designs and expect them to step out and actually do something creative to differentiate their products. As a result we consumers benefit.

Unfortunately I can't see how WinMo can compete with the OS's from Google, Apple or Palm on a consumer level because the current mindset of WinMo device manufacturers is just to slap things together and do just enough to get e device to market. And the WinMo ecosystem works well enough to allow for that.

[monkeyfun14]

Maybe you WinMo bashers should take a look at 6.5 when it comes out which will put WinMobile back in the front of the pack.

[sims5677]

I do not doubt that Windows Mobile 6.5 will be a major push in the right direction, but as of late, Microsoft seems to just be adding features to its mobile OS instead of refining it. I actually applaud Windows Mobile because it is highly customizable and it has the ability to install applications right from the web. The problem is, is that Windows Mobile is cluttered and the OS is choppy at best. My wife has the LG Incite (528 Mhz qualcomm processor & 128 mb of RAM). That is 133mhz faster than the iPhone 2G & 3G, yet the iPhone OS is smoother, snappier and intuitive. Quality outweighs quantity. If Microsoft wants to get back on track in the mobile department, they need to streamline what they already have, not add more features.