Windows Marketplace for Mobile, now in super-cheesy video form
By Nilay Patel 
posted March 31st 2009 3:11PM
posted March 31st 2009 3:11PM
[Via 1800PocketPC; thanks Saijo]
posted March 31st 2009 3:11PM
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
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Welcome to 2007 Microsoft
Too bad Apple already has 10,000 more apps than is available for WinMo. Here's the current breakdown:
App Store Breakdown (currently 30,883 apps)
6,227 Games
4,277 Entertainment
3,245 Books
2,571 Utilities
2,145 Education
1,695 Lifestyle
1,384 Travel
1,305 Reference
1,138 Productivity
1,093 Sports
955 Music
811 Navigation
808 Healthcare & Fitness
685 Business
589 Photography
585 Finance
490 Social Networking
413 News
309 Medical
158 Weather
I'm sure at least 99% of those apps are totally useful and significant!
OMG, LOL this S1T3 PWNZerz :P FTW!
awe, stupid website ruined my joke, was supposed to be Rinotank42. :(
I have a question for you guys who keep complaining about Engadget's bias for Apple. If you hate this site so much, why the heck do you keep coming back?
I'd love to comment on the video, but can't see it on my iphone.
Zing.
Cheesy MS video or smug cockwad in a black Marcel Marceauish sweater?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESoOJZ7IW5g
You, the jury, decide!
@ P.A.C.
...my guess is that they are hoping that someday the Engadget network will stop reporting everything at a slant. There are news agencies, and then there are media agencies, and it seems like Engadget drifts a little closer to dropping the news portion in favor of editorials every day. The proper solution would be to keep Engadget purely a "news source", and keep the apple slant on sites that are specialized in Apple Fanboyism, i.e. TUAW.
I mean, why even have TUAW, when you're just going to push the nonsensical apple slant on every page in the Engadget network? It's nonsense.
As far as coming back here... for whatever reason, Engadget is typically one of the first, and most comprehensive tech media blogs on the net. So we take your obvious slant, but we're certainly not happy about it. ...and that is why we bitch.
"Windows Marketplace for Mobile, now in super-cheesy video form" is not news. It's radiant fanboyism.
My HTC Touch Pro has more useful apps than my ipod touch. Everybody that really knows windows mobile knows XDA is the best 'marketplace' for any phone anywhere. Itunes marketplace has nothing compared.
@P.A.C. Man
Is your other alias iEye??
For what would I ever need 1,093 Sports-Apps? What is that anyway? Can I run one instead of doing workout? :D
BTW: There are dozens of websites like Handango, that gave us a "marketplace" for WinMo apps, before Apple was even thinking about making a phone (I forgot can it do copy'n'paste?)!
Fail.
@angry gamer, who said: "my guess is that they are hoping that someday the Engadget network will stop reporting everything at a slant."
I don't believe that B.S. excuse for a second. Most of the names I read here are the same people who always celebrate when Engadget makes snide remarks about the new Shuffle or broken hinges and video card problems on MacBooks or the myriad other things that Engadget has exposed about Apple in the past. Where was your slant outrage then?
It seems to me that what you guys really want is for Engadget to bash Apple when you think they deserve bashing and leave Microsoft totally alone.
@Tiptup300
And you think crappy apps will only happen on the iphone?
Look at the crappy apps for Windows vs Mac OSX.
@rock 99rock.
+1 simply for bringing forth the original engadget posts, which I never knew existed, and reminding me of 128mb storage cards.
_much love!_
@rock99rock - I've been reading Engadget for years, I do not need to go back. They simply do not have any pro-Apple bias.
They routinely praise Apple products. You can easily find hundreds of examples.
They routinely criticise Apple products. You can easily find hundreds of examples.
They routinely praise non-Apple products. You can easily find hundreds of examples.
They routinely criticise non-Apple products. You can easily find hundreds of examples.
You know what that says to me? That Engadget is reporting their honest beliefs about the products, and that they have no slant, for or against Apple (or any other company).
I think you are suffering from confirmation bias, or more specifically, a variety of selection bias or recall bias. You tend to see and remember the articles where Engadget praises Apple and criticises non-Apple products, but you tend to ignore and fail to remember the articles where they criticise Apple and praise non-Apple products (such articles are not hard to find, because they are not substantially fewer in number than the other group).
I suspect that the Bandwagon effect has also affected your thinking; i.e. the belief that, since so many commenters say that Engadget is biased, then Engadget must be biased (which is clearly a logical fallacy).
To paraphrase from The Matrix - "Try to realize the truth. There is no slant."
From what I've seen, Engadget reports it like it is, no bias. Think it's fear to say there are more anty-Apple posters hear than there are Apple fans.
@P.A.C Man
Luckily for us WinMo users, we're not limited to one source to get our apps.
This is cheesier than the ending of Heroes last week.
lol, nailed it
You gotta hand it to them, this video was very good, straight to the point and very informative.
As we British say: "That was a jolly good job old chap"
i think it was alright. it's not like it's playing between chuck and heroes, it's the internet for pete's sake! and let's see, i heard 1) guaranteed to work on my phone 2) money-back guarantee 3) shop from web or phone, wadda wadda wadda. i think that's a pretty successful advert. oh and by engadget putting it here and having a discussion about it just gave it viral status. so i guess that would make it a double success.
NOTHING is as cheesy as the Microsoft Songsmith video...
Well maybe the Hero's ending last week.
Anyone who still watches Heroes shouldn't be commenting on matters of taste.
seriously...heroes is still on? after the episode where parkman got caught trying to interogate jonah, and claire tried hooking up w/ that dude, i just said i've had enough. this show is officially HORRIBLE.
I'll stick to my tried and true dramas 24 and a lil sometimes serious, sometimes comedic house. Just glad that i'm not watching terminator SCC anymore (even worse than heroes), and heroes. saving me 84 minutes per week. more time to watch 30 rock, the office, flight of the conchords and others...
App Store for Windows Mobile made by Apple??
App Store didnt come out until 2008 boss
Yea, guys Engadget isn't biased at all. :P
If it's biased to point out that this video's presentation is so hopelessly lame it detracts from the actual value of the content, than sure. Send the check.
It wasn't that bad. It's just showing off the basic features that the store has. If your critiquing the video and not the actual potential this brings to Windows Mobile usersm I feel your not the right person to be writing this article.
Mr. Patel, why all the smugness? Are you writing articles from Starbucks again?!
Hehe, it's always funny when an engadget ed gets low ranked.
Yeah if it would of had a completely black or white background with just the phone and a finger and some voice in the background then of course it would of not been cheesy.
@ Saad, you sure like to generalize all Mac users as being smug elitists sitting in a Starbucks somewhere. So if making a mass generalization like that is your way, I guess considering anyone form the Middle East a terrorist is cool with you?
Skeezle, I didn't even write the word "Mac" or even claim that Patel is a Mac user! How do you read my posts? Maybe it is you who thinks that every Mac user visits Starbucks.
*Facepalm* *Sigh*.
Go back & re-read things you posted less than 24 hours ago.
@Skeezle: Give me a link, sucker.
Skeezle, you're confusing racism and er, something else.
I'm sure you being the smart individual that you are will be able to name that.
Engadget is the O'Reilly factor of tech blogs, where Apple is a republican and MS is a leftist gaysex whore. Ok not really, but someone will make a better comparison.
@Nilay, please don't blow Ryan Block level smoke up our butts, ok?
There were a million ways you could have chosen to express that sentiment. You could have emphasised the positive and capped it with a "But the voice of narrator of the video seemed a bit out of place." Factually correct - and points out the issue precisely with no bias.
Instead the *headline* goes further - to call the *video* cheesy (which it wasn't) and then in the body of the post, to focus on this one element to the exclusion of all other elements.
"And we'd be totally excited to point out that this teaser video shows off the interface in action, including a charmingly illiterate app review and carrier-specific stores."
Would you? Then why not discuss it? It was interesting enough to get your attention - why blow that off because of...
"But honestly, here's a better question: if Microsoft is really serious about how cool is it is to be not-cool-enough, is a totally mediocre teaser with a relentlessly corporate electrorock soundtrack and hyperactive informercial narration really the best way to sell this thing? Discuss. Video after the break."
No, that's NOT a better question. It's a question intended to deflect attention away from any positive aspect of the video (you say it yourself, 'we'd be totally excited... except') by singling out some irrelevent side note.
The reason it smacks of bias is because the same lack of professionalism in ads could easily have been aimed at Apple's Mac vs PC ads - or even just a discussion of the problems with the App Store, which regularly get neatly rationalised here.
To argue that "If it's biased to point out that this video's presentation is so hopelessly lame it detracts from the actual value of the content, than sure. Send the check." is being kind of disingenuous. If this kind of post was the exception or heck, even if you ALONE made these kinds of posts regularly then no - it wouldn't be bias. But when there's a system wide tendency to take cheap shots at Microsoft and rationalise in favor of Apple, then yes: it's a bias.
I know you're a lawyer and lawyers are masters of the careful interpretation of words in their arguments - but take a moment to look up with the word "bias" means:
From Merriam Websters:
3 a: bent , tendency b: an inclination of temperament or outlook ; especially : a personal and sometimes unreasoned judgment : prejudice c: an instance of such prejudice d (1): deviation of the expected value of a statistical estimate from the quantity it estimates (2): systematic error introduced into sampling or testing by selecting or encouraging one outcome or answer over others
Yes, Engadget has a BIAS. Your post reinforces that bias. The use of the term is correct.
And your response show little respect for your readers. Well, at least not for the PC using ones.
But are we surprised? No. Not really.
The interface looks good, but the ad is cheesy. FOCUS ON THE AD.
Well said Jeff, and Nilay, you're not fooling anyone.
They literally put the facebook logo four times in the section where they were attempting to show off all of the different potential apps.
Really Microsoft?
Was it just four? I swear it was like a dozen.
The Facebook logo has nothing on that "AP" logo, that thing was in there like 348732872365 times
We call that a swarm of particles... its random. You cant avoid repetition... blame Trapcode.
too bad they didnt start this 7 years ago when windows mobile came out.
Of course not. Miscreantsoft MO is to wait for Apple, and then quickly product a mutated doppleganger of their own. Slap more lipstick on it and claim victory within their sweaty infested halls that their current leader traverse daily.
3G in phones really didnt happen until 2005-2006 (or 2008 for some) so the idea of an over the air application store really wasnt feasible. Heck, apple didnt add the application store until their users bitched about the lack of functionality on the device and the launch of the 3G model.