LG picks Windows Mobile as its primary smartphone OS, plans to release 50 new phones
By Nilay Patel 
posted Feb 16th 2009 10:05AM
posted Feb 16th 2009 10:05AM
Kind of a big announcement from Microsoft and LG at MWC just now -- LG's going to make Windows Mobile its primary smartphone operating system, and it sounds like there's going to be some serious cash involved from both sides to make it happen. No specific device plans yet, but that's going to change big fast -- LG's going to drop 50 (!) WinMo handsets on us through 2012. Yikes. Hope you're ready for some S-Class WinMo action, guys.
Sorry but I have to say it. FAIL!
I have to ask why?
WinMo need I say more!
ok so im new to commenting..... u saying they fail, without any reasoning just means that u FAIL!!!!
Do I really need to explain myself? Windows Mobile = Fail, You = Fail, if you truly believe WinMo is a good mobile OS. It's bloated, slow and very unreliable, and before you say well have you used it, yea try I manage 100 devices in my company of which 25 are WinMo, ever since the iPhone supported Exchange people have been flocking to them like flys on shit. iPhone and RIM are much better options then WinMo IMO and apperently in over 50% of our users that have switched.
BTW those 25 WinMo users are a very rapidly falling number, just this year I switched over 10 people to iPhones. We currently have 30 iPhones and 20 WinMo, and 5 RIM we only have the temp license for the server so that's all we can have.
What shades of gray would you like my anti-WinMo?
Fernando, you are an iDiot.
That is all.
@Ham
Explain yourself and tell me the reason that makes me an idiot? The numbers don't lie. WinMo is a POC and it's funny to me how people like yourself sit there and back it as if it's god's gift to Mobile OS's. Please state the facts that makes WinMo such a great Mobile OS. And no "80% of smart phones have WinMo" does not count that just means that they had little to no choice with their carriers when making a purchase, but usability and stability is a whole other game. I have used and managed 100's of smart phones and to this day I have had the most issues with WinMo devices. These issues are not with users either, I cannot explain how many times I have had to hard reset our WinMo devices just because they completely stopped functioning or slowed to crawl. And yes they were on latest firmware, updates etc etc...
Flies on **** has to be the best analogy for people flocking to the iPhone EVER!
I support you Fernando. I hope everyone who voted you down with their ancient windows CE devices install a pretty UI to put lipstick on a pig and sucks up all their ram, lose all their data, experience massive lag, dead 3g connectivity, and have to hard reset their phones. Then on their way home experience a fatal application error on their windows CE based navigon and come home to a red ring of death on their xbox and a bsod on their computer.
Go ahead rank me down....
I am not a fanboy by the way but you do have to admit the OS sucks.
So, Fernando, which phones and which iteration of WinMo are they using?
People are such whiners. As stated above, it matters what version of Windows Mobile you're using versus the hardware it's on. This dynamic does not exist with the iPhone. When a company wants to protect its image by eliminating even the possibility of their OS running slow on a certain phone, it's not helping anyone but themselves. Applause to LG for picking an OS that runs on countless devices and has bigger third party support than you could shake a stick at - and free.
OK, I guess that means no LG phones for me...
nor me
You mean not until winmo 7.
u FAIL!!!!! anything with winmo is always good for the smartphone community....
Yeah the dumb down, short bus taking side of the comunity.
Fernando, you just described the iPhone community in short.
99% of the apps are fart/flashlight apps.
You can't multi-task.
You are restricted by Apple's holding of your hand if you are a developer.
You really don't have any apps that offer the functionality of the more matured and seasoned apps on WinMo such as the Office, GPS, Remote Networking, Exchange-based, Engineering/Medical/Mathematics/Programming apps.
You are limited by both the physical and software capabilities of the phone.
iPhone in a nutshell:
No bluetooth music streaming and/or file transfers (video is out of the question)
No drag and drop file juggling
No Flash support inside Safari (where the heck is Opera Mobile and/or SkyFire for this thing)
No Java
No copy and paste
No tethering
No front camera
No video recording
No video calls
No user replaceable battery
No radio
No VGA resolution
No IR port (it's something I take for granted, using my phone as a remote for well...anything just about)
No physical keyboard
No external storage card support (Micro SDHC cards are up to 32 GB now, 8GB is NOT enough these days, especially for a media device)
No voice command (WM devices and even some "el-cheapo" phones have featured this for years now)
No MMS (it doesn't have phone-to-phone MMS, it has phone-to-air-to-phone picture sharing necessitating a data plan)
No Live TV (that doesnt require you to be connected to an app like Orb on your home PC, which defeats the purpose, why would I want to watch it on a dinky non VGA screen instead of just on my home PC when im at home anyways)
No camera flash
No camera zoom
Same old, subpar, 2 MP camera for that matter
No multitasking
No turn-by-turn voice navigation system
Limited video format support
Limited picture format support
Limited file format support in general
Only 128 MB of RAM (Cant run many apps simultaneously -- I mean not that it matters since multitasking is for all intents and purposes out of the question! New WM phones are getting 256+ MB of RAM, with 150+ MB free on bootup)
So, the only question that really remains is why not WinMo.
With an interface change, or even with something such as the existing TF3D, it's intuitiveness and usability is at least on par with any other phone on the market, and arguably exceeds them to boot.
@Ham
Here is one thing the iPhone does have that is priceless, Stability, and user friendly UI when WinMo has that then you can start blabbering on about all the other useless crap that no one ever uses on a cell phone.
@ fernando
ur talking about one company.... thats it.... for my phone i have like 2 batteries, and a range of applications, which r not even available for the iphone, so which world u living in..... n its a known fact thats ppl that dont wrk in the IT department, prolly dont know much about technology, and ur using those numbers...... great JOB!!!!....(hope the sarcasm shows...)
Fernando,
Hah!
That's a riot.
The iPhone OS is clunky, slow (tell me again, why does it take like forever to type a simple text message, it lags like crazy, it also lags when pulling up contacts, sifting through music, or doing just about anything, be it intensive or not)
The iPhone is also a poor man's version of a "smart phone".
The only reason it even seems remotely stable is because, get this, in 2009, the damned thing still doesn't properly multi-task.
Outside of a remote handful of native apps that it requires for basic functionality, multi-tasking is out of the question.
Also, it does crash now more than ever before ever since Apple opened the floodgates for developers to port their code (although still restrictive) to the phone.
Furthermore, I and countless others would argue that in terms of UI, intuitiveness, and usability, that Touch Flo 3D easily meets if not exceeds the iPhone UI.
Oh, and Fernando
@Ham
Crack is bad lay off it, it will kill you one of these days. And your WinMo phone will prob be in a crashed state so you will not be able to get help.
Fernando,
"then you can start blabbering on about all the other useless crap that no one ever uses on a cell phone."
Ahh yes, the tried and true disingenuous and desperate pleas of an iPhone fan boy.
When all else fails, you guys fall back on these sorts of played out platitudes.
For your information, the above shortcomings I mentioned for the iPhone are all features that I use.
Some every single day, others intermittently throughout the week.
I do use them however, as do thousands if not millions of others around the world in some capacity at least.
The fact of the matter is that there are dozens upon dozens of lacking features on the iPhone and the reason you do not use them is because you CAN NOT use them.
Therefore, you somehow or another think they are "Useless crap".
Fact of the matter is, I know you iPhone hipsters would absolutely LOVE to have Turn-by-Turn GPS voice navigation systems.
I also know for a fact that you iPhone hipsters would love to have Voice Command.
I also know for a fact that you iPhone fanboys would love to have a full-fledged Office app such as SoftMaker Office on your phones.
That aside, I know you guys would love Bluetooth streaming (not a crippled version of it).
Furthermore, I've yet to meet an iPhone fanboy who hasn't yearned for Video Recording, Copy/Paste, tethering without restrictions, Flash-based web browser, a higher res screen, multi-tasking, COPY/PASTE, etc.
Seriously, you sound desperate and disingenuous, and no one is buying it.
Fernando,
For the record, the last time I had to restart my Touch Pro was about a week ago, and that was only to install a new system cab for it.
@Ham,
Stop trying to justify to me why your WinMo phone is a piece of shit. I have owned one and I know it's a POC.
@ Fernando
dude ur such a fish (poker terminology).... just cause u used an ancient winmo, doesnt mean they like that now..... thats like sayin all computers running windows are the same..... try running farcry on a shitty comp..... aint gonna happen..... same thing.... not all winmo phones are the same.... FISH!!!
What is the point of a thousand features if the user doesn't even want to (or can't) use the phone? Microsoft sucks at almost everything they do. There is no point in arguing with fanboys. Microsoft fanboys = the new linux zealots. You will never win.
Thank you bob for adding so much to this. All I can read here are good reasons to use WinMo but I haven't heard anything for iphone other than UI UI UI.
The fact of the matter is Apple make software for their hardware (easier to optimise and less reliant on numerous drivers to cover multiple hardware types etc)
WinMo is different - Software for OEMs - these can come how ever the manufacturer chooses. Cut it some slack. It performs very well for what it is developed for. I would like to see Apple change to the model and see how they handle it.
MS are now changing their stance to limit the OEMs and types of phone WinMo 7 will be made for so we wont see the issues we see today for performance issues as a result of it being installed on sub-par hardware.
Someone please come up with a decent arguement for the Smart Phone - ness of the iPhone because you are not doing well so far
Good for LG.
With 6.5 and eventually 7's development, WinMo is really maturing.
Thanks should be given to a lot of the developer community. The pushed the previous versions to do things Microsoft did consider. Now Microsoft as seen what the masses want and is starting to push the OS in that direction naively.
Well said.
2012 is a ways...
Also, does this mean I can expect a freshly Verizon-locked version of WinMo?
Way to over saturate the market guys! They're talking a new phone every three weeks. I guess somebody's got to pick up the slack for Motorola and pump out a shit ton of practically identical nearly useless phones.
If you give people enough money, they'll be more than willing to take your Yugo.
We said WinMo, not iPhone.
What was LG's primary smartphone OS until now? Not WM?
That just allowed WinMo to actually stay afloat for a while... that is unless it drags LG down with it too.
watch out htc..... here comes lg....
wm 6.5 and then 7 baby
LG knows where the power lies and have secured themselves a sucessful future... whos next? c'mon samsung, u know it makes sense
the wm takeover baby
Fitfy...FIFTY PHONES!?!??!
LG are in fifth place and could be overtaken by Apple, RIM or HTC in the next couple of years. Windows Mobile is a big gamble but I guess that they've not no choice from the position that they're in.
Personally, I can't see Windows Mobile ever being a mainstream smartphone operating system. It's two big rivals, Symbian and Android, are free. That doens't make a big difference when you're selling hundreds of thousands of phones but it makes a massive difference when you're selling tens of millions.
Case in point - if the iPhone ran Windows Mobile, Apple would have paid $240mil in license fees to Microsoft in the past two years. In these tough economic times, that's a lot of money to waste.
Wow, their loss... if they want to compete with the iPhone LG needs to develop their own OS. Oh wait, LG can't do that, because no matter how hard they copy, it will never be as good as the iPhone.
Multi-task much?
Copy/Paste much?
Write notes much? (I didn't say type notes)
Use Voice Command much?
Use Office Apps much?
Remote Network much?
No?
Didn't think so.
FIFTY NEW PHONES!!! That's an amazing amount of inventory to oversee. I would think an amount of five new phones would be more than sufficient. I wonder if the product manuals are all different or do they just print out one book for all the models. In a troubled economy, do they really need to put out that many new handsets?
I think 50 is unnecessary, and they should be focusing on perfecting one product.
one is kinda too few don't you think?
It appears we are going to be locked into a features war. Hamidxa has shown all the capabilities of the WinMo OS and they are indeed impressive. The current iPhone will lose that war easily. But the fact of the matter is that WinMo is losing market share. Those features are not new features, but have been on most recent WinMo phones and they are still losing market share. I really think all those features are dedicated to nerd users and not necessarily to the average smartphone user. I doubt the average user is even concerned about multi-tasking or tethering. Most of the people I see with iPhones are flipping through CoverFlow, simple browsing, watching videos, playing games and making the usual telephone calls.
I don't doubt it's nice to have all those capabilities that WinMo offers, but are they really necessary for the average user to have. That's an awful lot of menu choices to navigate through. I do think the iPhone should have copy/paste, video capture, turn-by-turn navigation, etc. I'm not sure if I'd need all that, but it's nice for bragging rights. I think future iPhones will have some of those features. But from a company standpoint I think you may have to balance what the average customer is really going to use rather than just every feature under the sun.
Anyway, we shall see if WinMo can pull back customers by throwing dozens of features on a smartphone and have very few customers being able to use them. Already, I think smartphones are exceeding most user's capabilities. I know younger people that have a difficult time with menuing systems and to bore down through complicated menus can be very confusing especially if you don't know exactly what you're looking for.
I can easily remember lots of functions, but I have a knack for that sort of stuff. Most people I know don't. They'll ask me to figure it out for them.
I think the iPhone will still prevail even though it is lacking in many features because it is easier to use for most owners and they can always go to a Genius Bar or go back to a Retail Store and get plenty of help. All iPhones are basically the same and will make it easier to troubleshoot problems.
Indeed,
WinMo and WinMo phones destroy the iPhone in terms of features.
However, you should do a bit more research when you talk of shrinking markets, because it may surprise you but:
"Windows Mobile outsold the iPhone in Q4 2008"
http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=2569
Or if you so choose to read this link:
"Top Best Selling Smartphones of 2008: Microsoft Wins?"
http://www.wirelessandmobilenews.com/2009/01/top_best_selling_smartphones_of_2008_microsoft_wins.html
Or:
"HTC hits the big time - now 3rd biggest smartphone brand in Q208" (Note the growth percentage)
http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=933
Not only are WinMo and WinMo devices superior to any other devices on the market in terms of features and capabilities, but they are still an ever-growing market with no signs of slowdowns yet.
I would thing lg picked windows mobile because they can tailor it to what they want it to be. They can put any user interface they want ontop of it and its very customizable by the user of the phone.
There are also very good gui's that go ontop of windows mobile that make it much better. Take for instance pointui
We all know why you people bash Windows Mobile so much.
But remember that the same thing was done with Vista and look
how Microsoft have surprise all of us with Windows 7. They can do
the same thing with WinMo.
All the haters for iphone calling them iphone fanboys...get one thing straight...we all want better phones. I for one am an avid iphone user since the day it came out with the 2G...one year later...not a day or a month or a week later, like winmo phones come out...the iphone 3G came out with far better GPS and a usable screen...I agree that it lacks features but for the love of god...jailbreak the device and then use it and then copy/paste, video recorder, and air mouse and wireless keyboard oh yeah and wireless tethering for free are all features that my little neice can use...pda net is the most useful tethering option available on the planet and not only that it uses my iphone wirelessly to tether to my notebook wirelessly and its free but i recommend donating as I have to support the geniuses behind the app. these three features alone make my iphone way more useable than any winmo phone...the only thing I am waiting for is HD screen resolution which any idiot with two cents of common sense knows will be out this june...apple tv has hd so will this with support for it..it should also have a much higher resolution video camera with support. Now look at the build quality as well...Both versions have the most superior build quality of a phone to date with maybe the exception of the nokia N series of phones....Now I got a little bored and decided to switch to windows mobile and I switched to the best device at the time the winmo community has been talking about seeing as how I could have chosen from countless handsets but I switched to the Fuze or Touch Diamond Pro as its called oversees. You know what...the first thing I had to do is remove all that crapware ATT puts on their phone and i went over to XDA developers and flashed it with their latest and greatest ROMS...I tested three and let me tell you they all work fine for most of the day and then crap...the same experience I have always had with windows mobile...crap or it slowed down or no button worked.. I love the TF3D but until the device seriously is able to support the OS then the only option available to a smart phone user out there is the IPHONE 3G...so dont' tell me i haven't tested it or flashed it or did this or did that...I pretty much did everything and within one week of seriously testing i switched back so fast its not even funny. Fernando, don't listen to these idiots because they just think they have the coolest shitty OS out there whent he truth of the matter is Apple is developing the next best thing coming out this June. the damn HTC touch diamond pro just got released in the states and they already have a touchpro2 our from HTC...that shows you how fast these other hardware makers are working in order to achieve what one phone has done in just one model...just imaging if we had that many new iphones out all the time...just stupid in my opinion as are most users on these forums...
thats gonna mean no Android