http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/ Engadget Comments for Microsoft culling the WinMo herd, fewer phones to be offered http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2010 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
This was NOT an advantage, it made developing and deploying mobile applications as fun as driving nails through your hand.

Some sort of standardized form factor / feature set would do wonders for mobile development on Windows Mobile. ]]>Jan 10th 2009 6:34PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 6:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 7:08PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
Apparently having their software in that large percentage of phones is not relevant anymore. How odd.

P.S. For you living in a black-and-white world: No, I'm not an Apple fanboy, I don't own a Mac nor an iPhone and I'm not planning to buy any in the foreseeable future.]]>Jan 10th 2009 7:26PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
Microsoft's probably hoping to strike the right balance between the two. Just because you can offer your OS on zillions of devices doesn't mean you should, and just because Microsoft is culling the herd doesn't mean that they're giving up their strategy.

I'm a huge proponent of free software and choice, yet for my consumer devices I often find that I like a locked down approach. The iPhone has it's disadvantages, but I like having a phone that works well that I don't need to mess around with to make work. Similarly, I like the challenges of working with free and open software at work, when I get paid to do so :)]]>Jan 10th 2009 8:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
Saying they're going to restrict the number of phones that have licensed copies of the mobile OS is probably just a ploy to make it look like future versions of the OS are going to be somehow be really special -- trying to capture some of the buzz that has been Apple's, Google's, and not Palm's. What Microsoft is not going to do is cut off a profitable revenue stream.]]>Jan 11th 2009 4:52AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 6:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 11th 2009 1:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
*Points at Zune*]]>Jan 10th 2009 6:35PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
]]>Jan 10th 2009 6:58PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 7:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 7:06PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 11th 2009 3:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 11th 2009 5:58AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
Nice Engadget. ]]>Jan 10th 2009 6:39PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
WinMo has never had control over the hardware. Some devices have a bunch of buttons, but you could run perfectly with none. But MS couldn't have enforced a gesture area or similar. or enforced the processing requirements of WebOS, or the constant on data requirements.

A manufacturer like HTC could do this, but not MS. So it makes sense to slim down the devices they licence it on in anticipation of a major revamp, enforcing minimum specifications and control abilities. ]]>Jan 10th 2009 6:40PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
It's very hard to build a good platform when the hardware possibilities are so wide open. One thing that really needs standardisation is input method and screen ratio. I suspect WinMo 6.5 will be available for phones in production now and WinMo 7 will be touchscreen-only, so developers can focus their apps on working with that input method.

That's one of Apple's biggest advantages - apps that use the touchscreen actually work. With WinMo, if the app wasn't designed for touch, you're going to have a hard time using it. Microsoft need to fix it.]]>Jan 10th 2009 6:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 6:48PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 6:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 6:46PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 7:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 7:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 7:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 7:22PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 11:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 7:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 8:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/I'd rather MS took all the hard work out of it.]]>Jan 10th 2009 7:05PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 7:23PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 7:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 7:24PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 8:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 11th 2009 1:48AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
IMHO, the dialer and phone access on WinMo are excellent. But this (no offense meant to Sprokinum) failure to explore the seemingly hidden, easy features built into smartphones does underline a concern I've long had for the market. After years of getting used to dumbphones, are we really to expect that everyone out there will take the time to RTFM or just play around a bit? It seems a lot of phones returned are people saying "no, this is just too complicated."

For some, that's true. But it drives me nuts when folks assume everything is the same if they pick up a Java phone, WinMo, BlackBerry, iPhone or G1 then immediately throw it back in the lake.]]>Jan 11th 2009 1:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
But really, my opinion doesn't matter as I am not a consumer of cell phones and service. My work is.]]>Jan 11th 2009 5:07PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Zune feebly attempts to be an iPod Classic
Xbox wants to be a Nintendo Wii, but never will reach those sales
Now this, apparently Apple, the relative 'newbie' had the right strategy all along.

No, that's not fair. If I was MS and more and more OEMs were ditching ME for the Android (FREE AND BETTER) platform, I'd put the word out that I was cutting the fat.

Think about that hard, kids. Before you swallow the MS line.]]>Jan 10th 2009 8:31PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
Zune > iPod.

360 does not compete with the Wii for gamers. Any serious gamer would not buy just the Wii for gaming.

Also, you're a troll.]]>Jan 10th 2009 11:59PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
please shut up.

sincerely,
anyone with a brain]]>Jan 12th 2009 10:00AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 8:13PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 9:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 9:01PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
As a sidenote, it'd be sick if they launched Windows Mobile 7 and Windows 7 at the same time.]]>Jan 10th 2009 9:02PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/]]>Jan 10th 2009 9:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 10th 2009 9:52PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
Chances are that HTC will keep making WinMo handsets, but slowly move to Android if things work out. The latter likely depends on whether Android can gain wide consumer and corporate acceptance. ]]>Jan 10th 2009 10:14PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/





(PP = Personal Phone, what were you thinking?)]]>Jan 10th 2009 11:56PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 11th 2009 3:28PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 11th 2009 10:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/Jan 11th 2009 9:18PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/10/microsoft-culling-the-winmo-herd-fewer-phones-to-be-offered/
The new "you can't fire me I quit"]]>Jan 12th 2009 5:02AM