Last chance saloon
Microsoft has released its new Mobile 6.5 operating
system and while it appears good, it is really Redmond's last chance to make
an impact in the market.
Windows Mobile 6.5 fixes a lot of the problems that have
caused Microsoft to lose ground in this increasingly important
operating system battleground. However it is a halfway product which has hit the shops
while Redmond thinks about what to do about the operating system.
Microsoft has Windows Mobile 7 set to arrive and then it
will be a player in the market again. However version seven is a
long way from hitting the shops and really should have been here
instead of the 6.5 offering. Microsoft's strength in the market has been that its
Mobile offerings worked well with its corporate server products. This made
them more secure and an easier sell to big business.
However that is starting to change with the likes of
Google, Palm and other outfits getting better at the job. Ironically the key features of the new OS are a
re-organised user interface, larger touch-friendly icons and a more
advanced web browsing application. Generally all things that consumers rather
than corporates want.
There are some good back-up services for photos
and data called My Phone to protect users whose smartphones have been
lost or stolen. My Phone synchronises the content from contacts,
appointments, texts and photos to a password-protected website, and also let
users publish photos from My Phone or their handset to Windows Live,
Facebook, MySpace and Flickr.
However there are huge problems for Microsoft to solve.
There are few applications for 6.5, the beast has an interface which is
as user friendly as an electric eel and there is no streamlined
functionality with many applications. Settings are hard to change. In fact it is so bad that OEMs building the gear, such as
HTC and Samsung have been overlaying their own interfaces onto
Windows Mobile “to create more competitive products and make up for the
usability constraints of Microsoft's platform”.
Microsoft's new Marketplace, which launched today for
version 6.5, has about 250 applications available including popular games
and Facebook and Myspace apps priced from $3.99 to $20 for
productivity applications.