Editorials

Will Google Voice do in Microsoft's My Phone?

Editorials

By Phil Nickinson, Saturday, Mar 21, 2009 at 4:20 am

When we learned of GrandCentral's relaunch as Google Voice, one of our first thoughts was, "Uh, oh. The carriers aren't going to be happy about this."

But let's turn a little closer to home, shall we? What about Microsoft's fledgling My Phone service, which currently is in beta testing. Yeah. Feel the light bulb click on.

Quick review: My Phone syncs your phone's contacts, text messages, calendar appointments, tasks, photos, videos, music and documents to the Microsoft cloud. They're then available on the Web. You can also go from the Web back to your phone. Contacts and calendar sync require use of your one Exchange ActiveSync connection.

Google Voice? Save for not syncing photos, music and documents, it's got My Phone beat across the board. Check out our previous post for everything that's coming. But it's not a sync service. It just is. All of your data [SMS, phone calls, voicemail] pings it first, then hits your phone. Yeah, you're going to have to give yourself up to The Google to take full advantage of Voice. Some of us already have sold our souls given in taken full advantage of the services Google offers. [Edit: If you're going to be using Google Voice, you're already going to have a lot of your PIM data in their cloud, right?]

And, at least for yours truly, here's the kicker: It'll be possible (with a little third-party help - thanks, Seven!) to totally enter the Google cloud and still have Exchange ActiveSync left over for business matters.

So what say you, fair readers? We realize it's not quite an apples-to-apples fight. But does the prospect of Google Voice on your device make My Phone a non-starter?

The iPhone vs. Windows Mobile: Multitasking stays with the professionals

Editorials

By Phil Nickinson, Wednesday, Mar 18, 2009 at 1:15 am

And now, the WMExperts players present "Juiced: Powering the iPhone in a 3.0 World."

Join us after the break for a very special WMExperts post as our little iPhone cousin dives into the deep, dark world of multitasking and background notifications. Will he thrive alongside his Windows Mobile brethren? Will he survive? In the end, there can only be one.

Microsoft Poised to Make Inroads Against RIM in the Enterprise Space

By Dieter Bohn, Monday, Feb 9, 2009 at 9:56 pm

It has been easy to miss because the pieces of this puzzle are spread out across several years of news, but the headline you're reading on this piece has it exactly right: Microsoft is poised to take a serious chunk out of RIM's virtual stranglehold on Enterprise and Corporate mobile email.

The latest news is that Google has gone ahead an licensed Exchange Activesync (EAS) for their Contacts and Calendar services.. While they are not offering it for email (yet?), it does represent a pretty significant moment in the battle for standards in how data gets pushed and synced out to devices. For Google, it means that although they appear to be continuing to support open standards like SyncML and they have their own custom solution for Android, they have given up trying to get those open standards adopted across the industry. Apple made the same decision when they offered Exchange support for the iPhone.

When it comes to mobile devices, EAS is becoming the de facto standard for all smartphones not labeled "BlackBerry." To find out why this matters, read on!

There's a mad Fennec on the loose

Editorials

By Phil Nickinson, Saturday, Jan 31, 2009 at 4:00 pm

Normally we're all about leaks. We love getting our hands on the latest and greatest phones, operating systems and software before anyone else, being a guinea pig, and then sharing the results with you.

This is not one of those times.

We first noticed a leaked version of Mozilla's Fennec browser floating around the Internets on Thursday. And the early consensus was that it's nowhere near ready for prime time and is definitely not the beta we're expecting on the Touch Pro in the coming days. Our guess? The code's been compiled but certainly wasn't intended for mass consumption. So we let it go, but kept our eyes on it. But that hasn't stopped other brave souls from trying it. So, after the break, we bring you a video from Pocketnow of a browser that doesn't yet work.

Why are we getting our registry entries in a twist over this? For one, our excitement for Fennec has grown as we've waited. With all the power we're used to in Firefox with bookmarks, add-ons and Mozilla Weave, this could be the first mobile browser to really give Safari on the iPhone a run for its money (with apologies to Skyfire and the Opera 9.5 beta — ya know we've got love for ya). Ask us what our top gripes about Windows Mobile are, and a proper browser will always be in the Top 5. And that's why we'd prefer to put Fennec through its paces once the real beta build is released. Even then, it will be a beta, so there undoubtedly will be some niggles. So, Mozilla, take your time. Let's get this right.

In the meantime, instead of loading some half-baked version on your phone, we suggest trying the desktop emlator instead.

Xperia X1a: Sony Ericsson's White Whale?

Editorials

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:32 am

This year has flown by rather quickly and it seems like just yesterday Sony Ericsson announced their new Windows Mobile device, the Xperia X1. Way back in February of this year, we reported that Sony had joined the Windows Mobile family by introducing the Xperia during the Mobile World Congress. Since then we've diligently kept on eye on the rumor mill for a release of this device and continue to wait.

During that time we've had countless sightings of the Xperia, a few in-depth looks at the device and even heard that Sony was planning a developer competition for the Xperia's Sliding Panel interface (did that ever happen?). Released dates came and went with no luck in seeing the Xperia hit the shelves. September became November; November became December; and know we all look towards January (almost one year from the announcement) for the long anticipated release. Best Buy teased us by putting the Xperia on their website for pre-order, only to change the ad to "Coming Soon" a few weeks later. You begin to have the feeling that the Xperia X1a (the US version) is Sony's white whale and you're Captain Ahab sailing the seven seas.

It's Not the Specs, It's the Experience

Editorials

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:31 am

So tell us, how does this sound for a dream WM phone?

800x400 Tetra-VGA resolution
3.9 inch Projected Capacitance Touch technology with 95 SVI
WCDMA / HSPA: 900/2100MHz. HSDPA 7.2 Mbps + LTE
Scaled integrated WM architecture
WLAN: 802.11b/g + WiMax
Dynamic distributed 4mb cache
Optimized multimedia protocol (RiGB, Tif, Xled)
Connectivity: Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz + CDMA 1x
An integrated object-oriented protocol
624mhz Snapdragon main processor; 412mhz Xtel Preprocessor
BlueTooth 2.1 (EDR, GAP, GOEP, SPP, HSP, HFP 1.5, PAN, BPP, AVRCP)
1GB Pseudostatic RAM (PSRAM)

...all for running the yet unannounced "WM6.5 MultiMedia Ultimate" set for a Q2 wide release.

If you are like most people who read this and other tech sites, your jaws should be on the floor upon reading those specs. You may now lift your cracked chins, my little Guinea Pigs. Not only is that phone made up, but so are some of those "specifications". Why the cruel joke? As it turns out, you fell in line just like a bunch of nerdy researchers predicted you would.

Read on to find out why spec hounds like, ahem, us have skewed perceptions of device reality.

The Science

Evidently, consumers are strongly swayed by quantitative specification listings, even when they don't know what they mean or worse, they are made up. (See "Specification Seeking: How Product Specifications Influence Consumer Preference" in Journal of Consumer Research -- here's a scribd link). In fact, the researchers had a few hypotheses which included:

(1) Specifications will sway consumers, even when they provide no predictive information and can see and use the product

(2) Specifications have a greater effect on choice than on liking. (So if you really like Item B, instead of Item A, meaningless specifications will have less effect than if you were merely asked to choose between Item A or B.)

They ran five experiments looking to manipulate specifications on various products, including cameras, towels, sesame oil, cellular phones and potato chips. The phone experiment varied on screen vividness and screen size between two phones with two conditions. They also threw in a made up specification related to vividness called "SVI" with values attributed to each phone.

Sure enough, the "SVI Index" swayed people's choice between two phones with different values. This despite the fact that there is no such thing as SVI measurement.

An analogous situation is with digital cameras and the so-called "Mega Pixel Wars" which is really a Mega Pixel Myth. So while it is well known that more than 6MPs increases image noise and decreases sensor sensitivity, we still have cameras jacking up the MPs. Why? Because you fall for it.

Lesson Learned?

We've discussed these "Specification Wars" here at WMExperts for awhile--it's basically when companies are out of ideas so they just amp up specs with no perspective on real world differences. Think here of the dubious "benefit" of having "8x digital zoom" over "2x digital zoom", especially when the camera sensor and quality is just poor overall. Or simply adding more memory and gimmicks to a phone to differentiate it from the heard.

The article goes into methods that marketers of these fine products might consider using to sucker us. For you, the consumer, it offers this advice:

In making purchase decisions, consumers should at least do two things. First, they should seek experience, not just numbers. Seconds, they should avoid direct comparison and stimulate SE.

"SE" stands for "single-evaluation" and the essence is that head-to-head comparisons don't usually give you a clear idea of what your final experience of a device will be. Sure, in a Joint-Evaluation you'll favor the touch-screen spec of the HTC Tilt over the Motorola Q9h, but in a Single-Evaluation experience of the device you may find you'll get more done on the Q9h.

Basically, just be aware of this effect next time you're shopping or you see some Tech Blog drop a laundry list of "dream" specs on a new WM phone. Specifically, remember that higher specs may have little to no correlation to your overall happiness and satisfaction with the phone. Better to seek out single-evaluation reviews (or personal experience!) of each device separately and see which fits your needs better.

Who are we kidding? We want to know why the SVI Index on the Treo Pro is so much poorer than on the Touch Pro. Anything with an SVI of less than 78.3 is flat-out unacceptable! Ahem.

Thanks Ebag333 for the reference!

Where has Windows Mobile Standard gone?

Editorials

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:31 am

Help us Save GPS on Windows Mobile

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:31 am

Dear Readers,

As you may know, the GPS situation on Windows Mobile is becoming unacceptable.

We're not talking about the fact that on certain phones you need to go into settings and muck around with Program Com Ports and Hardware Com Ports (though that, too, is pretty unacceptable). We're talking about GPS being locked down. This has to stop and we need your help to stop it.

Read on for the rest of our letter to you, our readers (but we hope that Microsoft and the manufacturers are reading, too).

GPS is Being Deliberately Broken

What do we mean by 'locked down'? We mean that GPS is there, fully functional, yet hidden from the OS and third party applications by the carrier. With several devices, users have to resort to registry hacks or other, 3rd party programs to 'enable' GPS for Windows Mobile and 3rd party apps to access it. Verizon is by far the worst player in this little lock-down game, but the other carriers aren't innocent either.

Often this 'lock down' is pretty easy to get around -- huge shout out to MoDaCo for freeing our AT&T WinMo Standard devices -- sometimes it is not. In both cases it is, as we said, unacceptable.

Why is GPS locked down? Well, so that only one program on your device can access it. It's known by several names: VZ Navigator, AT&T Navigation, Sprint Navigation. They're all the same program, though, TeleNav. By locking down GPS to only work with TeleNav, the carriers (and TeleNav, we suspect) are trying to force users into paying the monthly fee for Telenav instead of using free alternatives.

Here's the thing: Many of us love TeleNav. Some of us pay for the unlimited subscription and use it when we travel. Some of us even endorse it to people over on-SD-solutions when we're confident they'll usually have data available in their travels. TeleNav is fast, stable, provides nice 3D views, and good voice prompts.

Despite the obvious quality of TeleNav, we feel that locking GPS down out of the box so that it will only work with TeleNav breaks GPS on a smartphone.

Broken GPS Breaks the User Experience

Locking down GPS and forcing users into a subscription that, for many of them, is unnecessary is just plain wrong. It's turning something into a for-pay service solely by blocking functionality for users who aren't savvy enough to know what's happening. It's the evil god of ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) driving his horde of minions to perform unholy acts upon Windows Mobile, corrupting it with his dark stain. It's a devil's bargain and it needs to stop.

Imagine if the WiFi on your device only worked with AT&T hotspots, for which you had to pay a subscription. Imagine if the Bluetooth chip on your Q9h only interacted with Motorola headsets. Imagine if your phone had software built-in that purposefully blocked all IM clients except for the carrier-approved version from working.

That's what we're standing for right now with GPS. For you, reading this at this site, the pain of this isn't so bad. You know enough to know that you can get GPS to work with other programs after a bit of searching and a bit of work. Most people don't know this. Most will either not use GPS or think that they have no choice but to pay the subscription fee to use TeleNav.

Broken GPS Breaks the Windows Mobile Platform

Since most people are stuck in that situation, GPS may as well not even be on the device as far as development is concerned. Imagine you have an idea that will finally, finally, manage to really bring some sort of social/location based networking to the masses. It's popular enough and easy enough and clever enough that it will garner enough wide usage to become the 'de facto' LBS app that everybody uses and nobody will bother mucking around with trying to get their friends to sign up for this friendfinder or that friendfinder, because your genius app is the friendfinder. There are dozens of these companies around right now, but maybe you've figured out the LBS/Social trick that they haven't yet (hint: it probably has to do with FaceBook. Shh!).

Now imagine you have to pick a smartphone platform to release it on. Windows Mobile is easy to develop for, right? Most Windows Mobile phones these days have GPS built-in and a lot of users know that, right? You want it to be popular both in the US and abroad, right? You want it to work on a wide array of devices from the very cheap to the high end, right? Windows Mobile seems like an awfully attractive platform for you, dear LBS developer.

Now imagine a customer on Verizon who knows their phone has GPS because they use it with TeleNav. They download your app, GPS doesn't work, they tell their friends your app sucks. Not good. Maybe it's time to look at another platform for your first launch.

We're writing to our readers, sure, but just as importantly, we are writing to Microsoft and their manufacturing partners. Microsoft: this situation hurts your app, Live Search. It hurts your platform, in that it confounds people and drives developers to other platforms -- platforms that offer location APIs to all apps, not just to select, for-pay partner apps. It hurts your users. It hurts us. We hurt.

If a phone supports GPS it should support GPS at the OS level and make it available for all apps, just as is done on other mobile platforms like the iPhone and Android. Windows Mobile still can claim to be more 'open' than any other platform out there (perhaps barring Android) because of the deep and powerful access to the bits of the OS made available to developers. But if functionality can be locked down willy-nilly at the whims of carriers, suddenly the platform becomes arbitrarily closed and we lose those bragging rights.

How Can We Fix This?

We as Windows Mobile users have complained to our carriers, but yes, we could and should do more. We should boycott devices with locked-down GPS, but honestly we're likely to buy them anyway and unlock the GPS ourselves via backdoor methods. Granted, these methods aren't often actually 'hacks' but just small configuration changes -- but these settings should be the default.

So we'll make you a deal. From now on, whenever we find out that a carrier is releasing a Windows Mobile device with locked-down GPS, WMExperts is going to write an executive at that carrier a nice letter, on real paper, explaining why this is a bad idea. We encourage other lovers of Windows Mobile to do the same. If we all promise to do that, will you please try a little harder to stop your partners from locking down the GPS?

We've drafted up the our first letter to Verizon, here it is in PDF form. We invite you to write letters of your own (they're more effective if you write them yourself instead of just copying ours) as well. Just as importantly, we at WMExperts are publicly asking Microsoft to please work to place more pressure on carriers to stop breaking GPS for the good of the platform.

The short term gain in ARPU that carriers get by forcing users into branded versions of TeleNav is causing long term losses for Windows Mobile as a platform. It should be stopped. Now.

Hugs and Kisses, XOXO, and Happy Thanksgiving,

the WMExperts Team:
Dieter Bohn, Brian Hart, HobbesIsReal, Malatesta, George Ponder, Nick Gebhardt, Phil Nickinson, and Tim Ferrill

Rant on, brother: Why WM still rules mobile podcasts

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:31 am

Once again, we really do have to hand it to Apple.

Net Neutrality Advocates Part of new U.S. Administration (Hooray!)

Editorials

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:30 am

So while we don't get too much into politics and general telecommunications news, the issue of "Network Neutrality" is highly relevant for all you WMExperts out there. And make no mistake about it: we here at WME strongly advocate the "dump pipe" model for mobile internet access.

Net Neutrality, for those who aren't in the know, is basically what we have now: your ISP cannot dictate what computer, software, OS you use to access the Internet and they cannot arbitrarily control network speeds, giving primacy to their own content while shafting their competitors (although Bittorent has thrown a wrench into this i.e. "traffic shaping").

However all is not well, as many ISPs (AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner and even Sprint/XOHM) are either advocating or flat out implementing restrictions on how you can use the internet. This is what many in the industry (Amazon.com, Microsoft, Google, Intel, Skype, Yahoo, etc.) all fear, as it takes the choice away from the consumer and gives the power to the ISPs. Those against net-neutrality are even getting bills passed in their favor to benefit their interests. Yikes.

(Still unsure of what is at stake and what all of this means? Click here to get a primer.)

Good news though: President-elect Obama has appointed two net neutrality advocates to their FCC review team (they guide the President on pertinent FCC issues). While this doesn't guarantee a positive outcome in this debate, it sure feels a lot better.

Considering Windows Mobile users are literally at the cutting edge of mobile technology--we're arguably the most open and unrestricted of the iPhone/Android/RIM crowd--this issue of net neutrality is what drives our community, resulting in a trickle down effect for everyone else. Bringing things back to mobile -- the line between your broadband pipe for your desktop and your mobile internet is inevitably going to blur in the future, so it's going to apply. Even if we're wrong on that prediction, more restrictions on your desktop would likely make it easier to add restrictions to mobile broadband.

Treo Pro on Election Day: Notes from the Field

Editorials

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:30 am

For those who may not know, my day job is with the local Sheriff

Windows Mobile Team Picks up New Exec, Faces New Challenges

Editorials

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:30 am

Originally noted over at the Microsoft Exchange Blog and then noted, well, all over, the Mobile Communications Product Group at Microsoft now has a new leader: Terry Myerson. Myerson comes over to the WinMo team after heading up Exchange (Andy Lees is still the SVP, in case that was unclear). Why's that important? In recent years Exchange has become pretty much the de-facto corporate email solution, they've pretty much taken the lead under Myerson's watch.

Windows IT Pro had a sit down with Myerson about the move and what he thinks about the future of Windows Mobile. Despite the iPhone's unprecented quarter (seriously, it was ginormous), Myerson doesn't think that Apple's going to drive them out of business anytime soon. He cited WinMo's 18 million licenses in the past year and 30 phones they introduced in 2008.

More on what exactly Myerson is facing after the break!

The main focus moving forward (besides helping Windows Mobile 7 get out the freaking door) looks to be a continued focus on Enterprise while making that same device usable outside of work:

“Microsoft’s strategy for Windows Mobile has always been to nail tough business requirements while not forgetting that all of us go home to our families and friends,” Myerson said. “And we want people to carry a single phone that crosses those two worlds seamlessly.”

Myerson also cited the Danger acquisition -- we're hoping we will see the fruits of that either in Windows Mobile or in WM services right quick. In all, it looks like a good move for the WinMo team bringing on an Executive with a proven track record of success with Exchange.

Here's the thing, though, although we agree with the argument that there's plenty of room in the smartphone market for even niche players and with the argument that competitors like the iPhone and Android raise general awareness of Smartphones and therefore can help Windows Mobile (the rising tide argument), we really don't want Windows Mobile to be stuck as a “niche player.”

Think about how quickly the smartphone market has changed in the past year: the iPhone has gobbled marketshare like a hungry, hungry hippo; Android has gone from a glimmer in our eyes to a shiping device; RIM has managed to pivot and introduce their own iPhone-competitor in the Storm. We fully expect the next year to be just as crazy -- there's no market like the smartphone market, as I said at TiPb earlier.

Given that the latest rumors are pegging the Windows Mobile 7 release for late 2009, that would likely mean we wouldn't see devices until 2010. If the next version of Windows Mobile is going to be a little more than a year away, it's going to need to feel like a device that's “five years ahead of the competition” if it's going to viable in this crazy-fast smartphone marketplace. That's in addition to the “big launch” Robbie Bach has said we can expect someday.

While we hate to raise expectations too high, that's pretty much where we feel the smartphone market is at: it's changed so much in the past year and is changing so quickly now that Microsoft needs to target the next version of Windows Mobile to beat the next versions of the competition, not what they have out now.

In other words, Myerson and the rest of the WinMo team have their work cut out for them.

Microsoft Shake Up to Lead to Zune Phone?

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:28 am

Apparently we weren't the only ones who found Microsoft's services strategy utterly confusing and slapdash -- Microsoft did too. To that end, as reported by All About Microsoft, they're splitting up their Platforms and Services unit into two different units as well as giving the previous president of that division a retirement to go work for Juniper networks.

The two new divisions will be “Windows/Windows Live” and “Online Services Business.” The W/WL will have three folks in charge and the OSB will get a new guy. Steve Ballmer sent out a letter to the company about the changes with some interesting tidbits about their feelings on Google, Apple, and Yahoo. Short version: We're working on search and Apple's done better with the “end-to-end” experience.

There's plenty to parse here, including the possibility of a Zune phone, so read on!

Zune Phone?

When Ballmer writes “We'll do the same with phones--providing choice as we work to create great end-to-end experiences,” it's likely to start up the rumor mill again with regard to that Zune phone he's repeatedly denied being interested in. Well, that and the fact that JKOnTheRun has it from an inside source that we'll see it based on Windows Mobile 7 (oh, btw, congrats guys!).

I'll stay neutral on the Zune Phone -- ok no I won't: I'm not opposed, but I'd prefer to see Zune features included in all Windows Mobile Phones, okay? I still like Microsoft's strategy of working with hardware partners to make Windows Mobile quite a bit, I just wish there'd be some more consistency (and hotness) across the different handsets. If Microsoft were to throw their own hat into the hardware market, I hope they can find a way to do it that doesn't undercut the entire ecosystem by introducing yet another non-standard Windows Mobile interface into the mix. So Microsoft: go ahead and make your Zune Phone, but offer the innovations therein to your partners, ok?

Services

Back to the Windows Live branding debacle. I'd like to think that this new split is going to help things along. I'd like to think that, but I don't. Windows Mobile is precisely the sort of platform that needs to straddle the gap between traditional business space services that will fall under the “Online Services Business” and consumer-focused services that are part of “Windows Live.”

It's all very frustrating, because the truth of the matter is that Microsoft's offering is much better than anything anybody else has put out there except for RIM. There are some quirks and bugs with Windows Live on Windows Mobile, sure, but they're nothing compared to the Mobile Me mess right now. Toss in Live Mesh and Live Search and you have yourself an excellent suite of great online, cloud-based apps. That's not even counting what we see coming, consumer-wise, after the Danger acquisition.

In poker terms, Microsoft has a straight right now, they just haven't noticed yet because they can't seem to put the cards in the right order. With any luck, they'll be smart enough to keep betting, stay in the game, and take a shot at the big money.

HTC Diamond Pro: Impress your Friends, Bludgeon your Enemies

Editorials

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:27 am

As we move closer to the second coming of the HTC Touch Diamond series (that is, the "Pro" aka "Raphael"), some pics and vids are leaking out.

One thing that is becoming clear: the Pro version is quite, ahem, thick.

Sure, the specs say it's the same thickness of the HTC Mogul and Tilt (~18.5mm) and it's actually less wide than those devices...but darn it all, just watch the vid after the jump and ask yourself...are you thin enough? Well are ya?

Via Slashgear

Smartphones and Identity: You Are What You Dial

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:26 am

Here we have another WMExperts editorial that starts relatively small and ends up turning into a big ol' discussion of what a smartphone is and what it should be. Today's question: how does your identity define your smartphone and, more importantly, how does your smartphone define your identity? Here we go!

Darla Mack asks the following question: (trackback here)

Men think that women want pink phones and cute phone charms and such. Women think that men want to have the “biggest, first, most expensive, etc. etc.”. But does anyone really know?
In my mobile journeys I've found that women do in fact want the same as men.

I'm inclined to agree -- the idea that you can slap a pink cover on a gadget and call it “female-friendly” is more than a little silly. It might be slightly less silly to argue that a given operating system's interface is “gendered,” though. I'm far from an expert on questions of gender and find the whole thing somewhat difficult to talk about (more on that in a moment).

It's more than just gender, though, there's a whole swath of people worldwide that don't seem to be getting properly addressed by the way smartphones get marketed these days. Can Microsoft (et al) find a way to direct their development and their marketing to address the needs and desires of different demographics without pandering or stereotyping?

I don't know, but I have a few thoughts. Read on!

Are Smartphones Gendered?

The default assumption, I'm guessing, is that Windows Mobile is too analytical/left brained overall and therefore oriented towards the typically male way of thinking about the world. All those regimented menus, submenus, lines, squares, checkboxes... it all seems to read decided “male.”

The numbers bear that reading out, as we reported last November:

According to a recent research by Microsoft, only 14.6% of the Windows Mobile users are women, compared with 85.4% of men.

I doubt that the divide is as stark as that for all smartphones, but at the recent BlackBerry WES 2008 conference I heard the same refrain from the few women I spoke with: “I wish there were more women here and in this industry.” There's definitely a problem here: Smartphones seem to be designed by men and for men.

I mentioned that talking about different demographics and the needs of those demographics is a little difficult to talk about. Here's why: While it's clear that smartphones are primarily designed by men and (for now, anyway) primarily used by men, it's much less clear that smartphones are “gendered.”

I have argued before that while Windows Mobile is not intuitive in a basic “I just get it / lizard brain” sense, it can be intuitive in a “Now I understand the metaphors for how this works” sense. Just as a manual transmission car isn't intuitive at all, it can still become “intuitive” to a frequent user (or, in smartphone parlance, a “power user”).

Take the earlier list of the things that are purportedly 'male' about the Windows Mobile interface. Are all those lines and checkboxes and questions of memory management and registry edits more intuitive to a male brain than to a female? Many would probably argue yes. I think that I would argue it's much more complicated.

I also think that Mack might agree, she writes:

We may take a back seat to being a mobile front runner when it comes to dropping bucks but that doesn't mean that we aren't technologically equipped to know a powerful device when we see it.

The line between “how a male brain works” and “how a female brain works” is movable, fluid, and fuzzy at best. Is “left brained” as “typically male” as we think it is? Frankly, no. The inverse also applies.

Since I'm no longer the academic I once was (and wasn't much of one even then), I can't name off the various studies about gendered interfaces, but they exist and they're a hell of a lot more nuanced than what you're reading here. Trust me - start digging into the concept of the “Cyborg” and you'll find enough material to set yourself up with complex and interesting reading for life.

So with Windows Mobile, while there seems to be evidence for it being 'gendered' based on who's making it and who's using it, trying to actually pin down the 'gendered elements' of the OS with any kind of accuracy and without blatant stereotyping is a task that's pretty much impossible to tackle.

Instead I think Microsoft ought to try to just make the interface more “lizard brain intuitive” than it is now -- more automatic transmission than manual transmission. As they do it, though, they ought to at least be aware of what their concept of “lizard brain” intuition is -- that concept needs to be much, much larger than upper-middle-class-white-male-executive-with-money-to-burn.

A Global Understanding of Who a Smartphone User is and Can Be

Saying that the target market is “upper-middle-class-white-male-executive-with-money-to-burn” may sound harsh, but the data bears it out. Gartner just released a study last month saying as much:

Sixty-eight percent of the world’s population is women and children who could benefit much from mobile technology, but the majority of mobile devices are designed by men, for men, according to Gartner, Inc. The user profile to which most mobile products are targeted is a western adult male (age 20 to 64), but this represents just 32 percent of the global population.

As I attended SOFCON 2008: The Mobile Future Conference last month, I heard the same thing over and over again: the internet is going mobile and phones are becoming more important than computers.

As people described this issue it became clear it was more than just a catchy marketing phrase (though, yes, it was that too): in the very very near future more people will be accessing the internet on cell phones than do on computers. Accessing it for the first time and nearly every time via a cell phone. The cell phone is literally going to be how the vast people understand and interact with the internet.

People might get excited by the One Laptop Per Child project, but that's nothing compared to the cellphone.

A cell phone is power, it is in an increasingly real sense a cornerstone of modern identity. Who I am is as much my phone number and email address as it is my name and physical address. Imagine having a very close friend of yours who doesn't have an email address, or a voicemail box, or -- yes -- a telephone. Barring snail mail, there would be no way to communicate with this person unless you were in person. This disconnected person would seem like a ghost, adrift in a world of connected nodes of communication, a neuron without a synapse. Where would he or she speak from or be spoken to except their physical place? Nowhere -- and as physical place becomes less important being disconnected make you more ghostlike.

This still describes the majority of people on the planet, but that's changing and changing rapidly. What companies like Microsoft and Nokia and RIM and Apple and Palm should be thinking about is much much more important than who has the most market share in North America:

What does it mean to make a smartphone that is a person's sole means of interacting with the larger world?
What does the internet look like when seen only through the screen on a smartphone?
What kind of smartphone do you need to make when it's the only means of communication for an entire family? An entire village?

...and most importantly:

What does it mean not only to supply somebody with a smartphone, but to supply them with an identity?

I don't know the answer to these questions, but they are the real stakes of the smartphone market. If you're in the business of providing tools that give people a “21st Century Identity,” you better be damn sure that it's not limited by a gendered way of thinking, a “western” way of thinking, or whatever superstructure you want. You had better do your best to design it to free people's minds instead of limit them.

In a couple hundred years I'm confident that the smartphone will be considered just as important as the PC as or as the Internet in terms of how it changed the world. It will be the primary 'PC experience' and the primary 'internet experience' for the vast majority of the planet. It's a revolution of technology and of identity. I know that people who work on creating smartphones are beginning to think of them this way, we as users should do the same.

Moto-Woe-la: Bad News Stacking Up

Editorials

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:25 am

We've been feeling, well, empty here at WMExperts lately and at a bit of a loss as to explain why. Could it be that there's a dearth of gadget rumors? No - HTC has some fancy stuff coming out and our sister site TreoCentral reported (before anybody else, btw) that the 800w has entered some sort of public/private Beta test. Could it be that we haven't been able to play around with new gadgets lately? No - a quick perusal of our Reviews Archive definitely shows that the flow of useful toys and accessories has been steady. What is it, then?

Oh yeah, it's been several weeks since we reported on what is increasingly looking like the death spiral of Motorola. Silly us. Read on for the latest in Moto-Woe-la (get it?): Two bits on that pesky Carl Icahn, Motorola's latest financial results, and peek at their upcoming device roadmap. Like a car crash, we know you won't be able to look away.

Détente with Icahn

Here's the latest: After the announcement that Motorola intends to split in two, they finally reached an accord with gadfly Carl Icahn - Icahn gets two of his people on Motorola's board, in exchange for which he dropped his lawsuits and promised to quit trying to take over the company with a stock proxy bid. Oh, and he'll quit saying nasty things about Motorola publicly. Nice, right?

Dear reader, this is Motorola, whose CEO apparently doesn't believe in email, so “nice” is a tough thing for them to come by. No, apparently the new set up with Icahn is fraught with tension, as USA Today [via mocoNews] reports:

Under the terms of the agreement, Icahn can weigh in on candidates who are being considered for CEO of the new devices company. Brown, without offering any barbs in Icahn's direction, makes it clear the concession is purely window dressing.
“We will select the leader for mobile devices,” he says flatly, adding for emphasis: “Management will select.” [emphasis his]
As for that clause, “Sure,” Brown says, a frozen smile affixed to his face, “he can certainly offer us an opinion.”

Yeouch. This is shaping up like some sort of wacky corporate custody battle, innit?

Bad Finances

The bad news continues, as Motorola also just announced their last quarter's financial results. Grim? Grim:

“The net loss from continuing operations in the first quarter of 2008 was $194 million, or $0.09 per share.”
“Mobile Devices segment sales were $3.3 billion, down 39 percent compared to the year-ago quarter. The operating loss was $418 million, compared to an operating loss of $233 million in the year-ago quarter”
“The Company’s outlook for the second quarter is a loss from continuing operations of $0.02 to $0.04 per share”

Roadmap: Bumpy.

So Motorola has some sweet, high-end smartphone devices like the rumored Motorola Q10 or a Q9h with included WiFi to help out, right? Right?

You know the drill. Wrong. Here's a leak of their 2008 roadmap -

See the Windows Mobile device in there? Neither do we. See some sort of high-margin device in there? Neither do we.

Now What?

What's Motorola to do? Search us. We do think that this split could actually end up being pretty good. We've spoken with folks in charge of Motorola's business services and found them to be very smart. Ditto on the device side. There are hella-smart people at Motorola, but something's keeping them from being able to execute. We're with Icahn on this one: Motorola's got too much talent and too many resources to be floundering like this. They need to figure out where the problem is and right it, right quick.

As for me, I'm still loving my Motorola Q9h, I'm just worried it's going to be the last of its kind.

Bluetooth Headsets: To Hook or Not to Hook?

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:25 am

Bluetooth technology has been around since the late 1990

Sprint, MMS and Windows Mobile: Why They Hatin'?

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:25 am

One question we get a lot as moderators or technical writers in the WM world has to do with Sprint and their MMS service called

CTIA: We Love to Hate 'em but Still Love that Conference

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:24 am

Let's get one thing clear: we're fond of this CTIA Wireless conference we're headed to. Fond because it's a hotspot of Mobile gadgetry and, just as importantly, a hotbed of people who think clearly and deeply about what mobile gadgetry can do for our lives. It's all sponsored by, naturally, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, which is essentially a trade group representing all the heavy hitters in the mobile world.

There's a rub there, though, and it's not that we're filthy Communists who hate all corporations. We just have a love/hate with certain corporations because they so often limit the way we can (and should) use our mobile devices. The term here is “Walled Garden” and we've been railing against them basically since WMExperts has been founded. CTIA does bequeath a great conference unto us and does manage to do some lobbying for good for the companies that they represent -- but they also do lobbying for evil.

Evil you say? Then why truck with evil? Answers to both questions after the break.

Bad CTIA, Bad

CTIA doesn't think that the “Carterfone rules” should apply to wireless networks. These are the rules that state that any phone that doesn't break the network should be allowed, see our post about Skype's thoughts on this as well.
They are against net neutrality because they believe it's their job to protect us from pornography and spam (and hey, as long as they're filtering, they may as well “protect” us from competitors, right?), besides, it's “highly unlikely” carriers would abuse such power.
They claim that the wireless industry in the US is all wine and roses and in no way worse off than the European market (pay no attention to the fact that HTC's best stuff shows up in Europe months before it does here).
They oppose a Cellphone Users Bill of Rights in Arizona (and elsewhere).
They're fond of Early Termination Fees, “Early Termination Fees provide consumers with numerous benefits, notably lower costs for wireless services and products.”

Imagine if your ISP loaded a bunch of crapware onto your desktop and it was required for you to get online? Or if they actually kept your computer from being able to, say, use your preferred music program? Or kept it from using USB because they want to make sure you access your peripherals via a program they sell? Or replaced your Start Menu with stuff pointing to their for-pay services? This sort of thing is standard procedure in much of the smartphone and cellphone world, and it stinks.

Now What?

But WMExperts, if this makes you so angry, why don't you just boycott the conference? Good point -- but we're going to the conference for the same reason we use Smartphones -- there's just so much compelling stuff that we either put up with or find ways around the bad stuff. More importantly -- we go because we get to talk to other people about how the “bad stuff” is crap and think about ways to make these companies change.

The good news is that we're making progress. Both Verizon and then later AT&T have both found it necessary to open up (or at least claim they're opening up) their networks to a wider variety of apps and devices. Unlimited everything plans are a great step toward making your smarthphone's relationship with the internet identical to your computer's -- i.e. you pays your money and you gets your internet, you can buy services from your ISP if you like, but you don't have to.

So CTIA: we hate to break it to you, but the day is coming when the companies you represent are going to have to give up all these nefarious ways to add more revenue streams. They're going to have to become “dumb pipes.” And we can't wait. Meanwhile, we're happy to come to your house and eat your food. Yes, it makes us hypocrites and we do feel a little bad about that, but while we're at your house, eating your food, we'll be telling your kids that there's a better way to act.

The Windows Mobile Interface

By chris#wp, Saturday, Jan 3, 2009 at 3:24 am

So this entry started as a simple post about how Laptop Mag [via Ciccone] has scored an interview with HTC CEO Peter Chou about HTC's plans for 2008. It's turned into an analysis of why I think the Windows Mobile interface works (and doesn't work) the way that it does and ends with 5 suggestions for Microsoft to improve it. Sometimes these things just sneak up on you.

First, let's get that interview out the way. Quite a bit of it is Android-centric (since that's due later this year), but there's plenty of crunchy Windows Mobile goodness to, er, crunch:

The Windows Mobile platform has a lot of good stuff inside, but the user interface has not been easy. It is very techy and not intuitive. HTC decided to innovate on the user experience, so we launched the HTC Touch and it was a great success. [emphasis mine]

Here's one other tidbit that Chou drops:

This year, we are coming out with even more exciting new product innovations, and we are more focused on the mobile Internet experience. Mobile Internet is going to be key in terms of making the experience more successful.

Will HTC fix our browser problem before Microsoft does? Ponder that for a second, then read on for my thoughts (and rants) about the Windows Mobile interface!

Lizard Brain Intuition

Ok, with regard to that first part of Chou's quote, that the interface is “very techy and not intuitive.” Seems like the time to mount a full throated defense of the WM interface. But no: Chou is right. Although there are some intuitive elements to Windows Mobile (i.e. “Just start typing” to find stuff in contacts, email), they're the kind of “intuitive” that aren't immediately discoverable. Which is the opposite of what “intuitive” is supposed to mean. A contradiction, right? Right.

“Intuitive” is different for different contexts. Here's what intuitive usually means: The ideal interface would somehow get into our lizard brains and we would “get” it like we “get” how to pick up a rock. That's an intuitive interface: a freaking rock. Pick it up, throw it, break stuff. Advanced users: skip it across the water. The iPhone and TouchFLO are much closer to that “lizard brain” intuition than Windows Mobile by dint of their “just touch/move parts around” interface. Microsoft needs to catch up in this field in the worst way. Chou is exactly right, WM is not intuitive in that sense.

“System Intuition”

But there are other kinds of “intuitive interfaces” that we learn very early and though they might not be based on our instinctual lizard brain, they are learned deeply enough that they may as well be “intuitive.” The mouse on your computer is a good example. Sure, there's a “move stuff” metaphor there, but clicking for selecting is the sort of thing you have to learn, but once you do you can apply it in all sorts of scenarios. Same thing for the “right click” on the desktop. A little weird, but once you get that you can generally click the right mouse button for “other options” it can become second nature.

I'll call it “system intuition” even though there's almost surely an actual term for this kind of learned, quasi-intuitive interface knowledge. I just don't know it. If you do - please educate me via the comments!

Driving a manual transmission car, operating various faucets via knobs and levers, dialing a telephone. All learned interfaces that aren't immediately intuitive but become learned so deeply that they may as well be.

Windows Mobile can have this kind of System Intuition for “Pro” users. It often can't for most others. This is a problem.

Windows Mobile is not Windows

The fundamental problem with the interface on Windows Mobile is that Microsoft attempted to leverage our desktop “system intuition” for the smartphone. In theory, this isn't all that bad of an idea. There's a comfort level to mapping an already-known interface to another context. It also can bring along certain associations that can be helpful to the new context. So, for example, a smartphone that you interact with “like Windows” might feel inherently more “like a computer” and “more powerful.”

Here's the thing, though, the desktop is a crappy interface for a mobile device. Here's another thing: people don't feel all that fuzzy about Windows anymore. Here's the last and most important thing: the Windows Mobile interface is hardly like Windows desktop at all and suffers where it actually is like the Windows Desktop.

This is why I cringe every time somebody tries to sell Windows Mobile by saying “It's just like Windows. It's very familiar.” It's not just like Windows, it has an entirely different interface that only partially maps to Windows. Again, where it does map, it stinks. Examples of how Windows Mobile is worse because it shares interface elements with Windows Desktop:

The drop-down “Start Menu” on Windows Mobile Pro. Yes, many people like this, but the target area for the elements in this menu are too small. This is bad
Right clicking by holding down the stylus or the 5-way pad. Seriously, this is a bad idea.
The stylus, period. Again, some folks like it. I find the stylus a horrible stand-in for the mouse and will go to extreme lengths to avoid having to use it. Bad.
The “x” to “close” but not “quit” (though sometimes it will) programs. First off, I shouldn't have to think about memory that often on my mobile device. Bad. Secondly, there's another area (the task manager) that's tangentially related (on many versions of Windows Mobile) Bad. Oh, and it's a really tiny area in the upper-right-hand corner that's difficult to tap with my finger. Really Bad.

...I could probably go on, but I want to point something out here: many of my gripes are based on Windows Mobile Pro, the touchscreen version. I've said here and in our forums that I prefer Smartphone edition lately but can't rightly explain why beyond a feeling that it handles memory better. Now I can explain it: Smartphone Edition has less of the Windows Desktop System Intuition built into its interface and feels better for it.

An Interface To Do List for Microsoft

Let's just end with a few ways Microsoft can fix this:

Forget about the desktop. It doesn't exist. It never existed. Instead, think about how you interact with that rock I mentioned earlier. It's not a mistake that Jeff Hawkins invented the Palm Pilot by carrying around a block of wood. Whatever the present-day equivalent of carrying around a block of wood is, do that.
Unify the platform (you said you would): It's bad enough that there's Desktop Windows interface elements in Windows Mobile. It's well-nigh unforgivable that Windows Mobile Pro and Windows Mobile standard don't share the same interface “System Intuition.”
Keep your strengths (yes, you do have them). One example: that “just start typing” feature, it's really cool. It's a core strength. Let me “Just start typing” for everything. Contacts. Email. Apps. Appointments. Internet, even, if the bandwidth is there. (Update: see also "glanceable information" in the comments!)
Maintain some backwards compatibility, but don't kill yourself to do it. You guys handled the PocketPC 2003 -> Windows Mobile transition really well, you can do it again with the next version.
Work with your manufacturers to let them customize, but don't let them go crazy with it. Right now it's just a little too “Wild Wild West,” out there. We want innovations like TouchFLO, but we also want consistency.

A tall order, perhaps, but check out that there iPhone, it's pretty serious stuff, interface-wise.