Windows Mobile 6 – What Year Is This?
Windows Mobile 6, I am unimpressed. I have not used a Windows Mobile or Pocket PC device in a couple years. I switched to a Blackberry (8700C, then 8800) a while back, and am currently on an iPhone. In the past, I was never excited by Windows Mobile, however, I was not disappointed either. As a phone, and for reading email, it worked fine. The integration with Exchange via wireless ActiveSync is something I have always liked (having my email, calendar, tasks, and contacts always in sync, even on the go).
A couple days ago, a customer of mine switched from Blackberry (using BES on the back-end), to a Windows Mobile 6 device, called the Tilt. The phone is pretty slick, and has a lot of features. 3MP Camera (with digital zoom), GPS, a nice QWERTY thumb pad, and nice performance. I quickly set it up using the wireless ActiveSync, and these days “push” is available through Exchange 2003, so we set it up for that as well. Again, ActiveSync worked perfect, as my experience usually has been.
That is where the bliss stops. As I began to browse through the interface, I noticed it was essentially the same old thing, from years ago. Very antiquated. Microsoft essentially tried to squeeze Windows Explorer onto a tiny screen. You spend a lot of time scrolling up and down, left and right to get where you want. While the hardware of the phone has a ton of features, it is fairly lame how the interface requires you to access those features. Definitely not what I was anticipating in late 2007. I expected a lot more of Windows Mobile 6 than a re-skinning of its predecessors. It is not an all together bad solution for phones, but frankly, the cool Tilt hardware is what makes the package worthwhile.
To make matters worse, Windows Mobile 7 is still years away. I really hope that changes. Supposedly, there is some light at the end of a fairly short tunnel for current products, as Microsoft is working on a Mobile 6 update for early 2008. I hope web browsing, file navigation, and the overall feel of the system is refined in this update. The competition is heating up in this feature rich smart phone space, Microsoft should be looking of over their shoulder a lot closer.
