Microsoft: Over 30 Windows Mobile 6.5 smartphones launching before year-end
By Thomas Ricker 
posted September 23rd 2009 8:01AM
posted September 23rd 2009 8:01AM
posted September 23rd 2009 8:01AM
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Tsing Tao:
You're the one who's assuming that Q2 of 09 = ALL OF 09 THUS FAR.
iPhone OS held a larger marketshare in Q2, WinMo held a larger marketshare in Q1
3GS has already ridden the hype train and will no longer be selling in the same quantities as it was when first introduced, that's basic common sense, to deny it would be overlooking the obvious.
Or are you one of those who also believes that Movies sell more tickets at the box office after the opening weekend?
Perhaps you also believe that video games sell more copies the week after launch than they do the week of the launch?
Common sense dictates that the iPhone 3GS and other iPhones in general will not be selling in as large of quantities as they were when first introduced and thus marketshare will slip as time progresses.
This is a basic law of demand.
Furthermore, as noted, more and more WM handsets are being released between Q3 and Q4 of this year.
Q2 saw very very few releases of WM handsets, less than a handful at that.
Compare 30+ releases in 3-4 months time versus like 3+ releases in 3-4 months time.
Common sense, apply some.
Oh, and let's compare marketshare numbers at the end of the year. I guarantee you iPhone's will slip.
Oh, and as far as reading comprehension goes (not only did you equate "2009 thus far" before with merely "Q2 of 2009"), but now in your blind ignorance and a hint of fanboyism of your own, you really, honestly, seriously, think the iPhone is the Top selling phone in the world?
Seriously, you actually believe your own BS: "you will see more iphones than any other single phone on the planet"?
BS:
http://www.prlog.org/10305450-the-worlds-best-selling-mobile-phone.html
Nokia 1100 - 200 MILLION sold.
iPhone is about 160 MILLION short.
Tsing,
For that matter, the iPhone doesn't even crack the top 5 list of best selling phones, and barely makes the cut into the top 10:
"the iPhone is only ranked 9th with 8 million units sold across the US alone."
Count with me:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, .......... 9th
How we went from 9th most ubiquitous to "you will see more iphones than any other single phone on the planet" is anybody's guess.
Why are Windows Mobile backers so overly obsessed with the iPhone?
The iPhone, as cool and user friendly as it is, is not WM's real threat. Its real competition is RIM and Android-based phones.
So far, and it will continue to do so, RIM Blackberry's have stolen WM's lunch money, given it a school yard wedgie and pushed it into a puddle of mud. Nobody in the enterprise sector is going to give up their Blackberry for a WinMo handset.
You people are arguing over a Phone OS
/If WinMo gets more people to get into buying "Smart Phones" what's the problem
Walmart == Quantity over Quality
Micorosft == Quantity over Quality
Then explain why Apple is always so eager to bring up their MP3 marketshare?
Also explain why there are over 40 different iPod models out there?
(I seriously doubt you'll reply back to this)
@WindowsFTW
If he won't reply then I will for him.
If you're gonna talk MS value over Apple, explain why the least expensive Windows 7 disk costs $119.99 on Amazon, (7Ultimate being $319.99 standalone)? Snow Leopard costs $29.99 ($24.99 on sale now) regardless of what OS you're upgrading from. Both are full OS updates; it's not like Snow Leopard isn't worth hundreds of dollars. Sounds like a deal to me.
It makes me cringe to see MS, with it's huge market share, still making you pay top dollar for an OS with all the advertised bells & whistles, and limiting your experience if you buy Home edition instead of Ultimate. Snow Leopard is a single, universal disk that cost 25 bucks and works just as well for those looking to merely browse the interwebz, as it does for those looking to produce a platinum album using Snow Leopard.
You wouldn't want to do that with Windows 7 home edition.../
Snow Leopard is a service pack. Yeah I said it. The only thing I got useful out of that is Illustrator CS4 works way better for me than on Vista and I like the integration of pictures in the stacks bar (pretty useful). That's about it.
*sigh* they're gonna give me so much shit for saying that..
@darbear5610
quit fishing for high ratings. And I'm not gonna give you any shit.
Just do me a favor and wiki Grand Central Dispatch. k? Knowledge is power.
Well that's kinda what I was referring to with Illustrator CS4.
@darbear You could not be more wrong, you could try, but you would not be successful. Read the arstechnica.com review on snow leopard and come back and say that.
Well I looked it up and yeah it does help. I use Illustator CS4 alot and I found it helpful and good to work with than in Vista. But other than that...
@WindowsFTW
40 iPod models?
There are only 4 current iPod models (Shuffle, Nano, Classic, and Touch). Even if you add up all the different capacities, the total is 8. or are you counting different colors as models? Furthermore, they all share the same connector. Accessory makers need only support one connector and 4 shells.
And what about PCs? Apple has 5 current Mac lines (MacBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, and Mac Pro) with a total of 15 total standard configurations. Dell - just one Windows PC maker - offers so many *overlapping* products (Laptops: Mini, Inspiron, Studio, XPS, Alienware, Adamo, Vostro, Latitude, and Precision; Desktops: Inspiron, Studio, XPS, Alienware, Vostro, OptiPlex, and Precision) that no one product is synonymous with Dell, let alone Windows.
Question is whether they are counting the GSM and CDMA versions of the same phone as 2 different phones or not. From a purely manufacturing/technical standpoint they are different since they have different radios but from the user perspective, the GSM and CDMA phones differ primarily in which network you can use them with.
This is amazing. my choices february when my q9m is up should be great
Windows Mobile, I believe, is in a different class from Mac OS X for iPhone.
I think the iPhone software is more integrated, more like a media device of some sort.
WM has more functionality, and runs more like what a computer does.
I can't see why the fanboys call iPhone a "computer" when it really isn't.
WM is a computer.
@WindowsFTW
We don't take kindly to fanboy type 'round here.
FOR THE RECORD, nice screenshots. We're real happy for you that you've got a build of 6.5. Doesn't make it "better interface wise than anything Apple has come up with." If you've been using WinMo as long as many of us, you should know that 6.5 "interface wise" is the same as WinMo 5; Microsoft simply put a new homescreen and a honeycomb-style start menu over their old one, rounded corners on dialogs, and improved scrolling to be smoother. I would argue some of these aren't improvements at all, just google honeycomb start menu: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=honeycomb+start+menu+site:http://forum.xda-developers.com&start=0&sa=N ; from the second post on almost all posts relate to reverting back to the old menu or modifying it because it's so flawed. Let's be honest, MS liked the idea of a list-based app launcher (like many phones today use), but didn't want to use the standard grid for fear of seeming like a copycat. Their answer was to make the grid diagonal like a honeycomb, which to me is more confusing. And you can only move icons to the very top or to the very bottom of the list! WTH is that?
Bottom line is, you're wrong here, WindowsFTW. WinMo7 will hopefully be a great competitor with regards to UI since it's being built from the ground up, but in my opinion, UI "band-aids" don't make a tired old OS new. The WinMo 6.5 experience doesn't even compare to the experience I have using my iPod Touch (have you ever used one?). The snappiness of WinMo depends on the phone's abilities; On my Tilt, 6.5 wasn't any snappier than 6.1, and on my TouchDiamond 2 is still less snappy than the iTouch (although im bored of iPhone UI now). In order to make 6.5 better like you say, I would need a WinMo phone that currently doesn't exist, and a LOT of third-party software to smoothen the interface.
Oh, and I did go gag over the ZuneHD homescreen, but that's because it's NOTHING LIKE 6.5's homescreen. ZuneHD might've been a fail if it had a homescreen remotely similar to WinMo6.5. But it doesn't. It's waay better.
"UI band-aids" do make a "tired OS new. I hated Windows Vista, even in the Service Packs where the quality was improved, and I can play games better. With 7, I get a cleaner look and feel of the OS I'm using. It's way more user-friendly than Vista ever was, and millions of iBoys call it "A minimal and stupid improvement". Ok, whatever.
Both you and WindowsFTW have good logic, but I have to disagree on that one thing you said.
@N900
when I said "UI band-aids", i wasn't referring to Windows 7. I agree 100% Windows 7 is a gigantic improvement over Vista, and I enjoy using 7 whenever I need to.
I was talking about the band-aids they put over WinMo6.1, called it WinMo6.5, and called it a day. If you look at any of the core applications and interface, you realize it's exactly the same as WinMo6.1, but with rounded corners and smoother scrolling. That's the tired OS that WindowsFTW seems to think is innovative.
@N900 I dont see how anyone could argue that Win7 isnt better than vista. Its all the promises of longhorn actually delivered. And post sp1 i will upgrade the 100 some odd computers in our office to it, which is something i would still to this day not do with vista to even 1 of my users. This is mainly because we can maintain xp support for our estimators through the new virtual xp program, and through my testing most of our programs that didnt work in vista work in 7.
As far as WindowsFTW having any kind of logic, i cannot agree with that at all. The dude is almost always wrong and he is a total asshat.
Sorry I had my implications all mixed up. It's just that I thought this would be a tad more than a holdover UI. But we'll see in Oct.
jesus,
Your information is old, and much like the rest of your post, is faulty.
1. THERE IS NO HONEYCOMB. That was removed in super early builds of WM 6.5. Virtually every build for the last 6+ months has no honeycomb to speak of.
2. The start menu is extremely elegant and very simplified. You can move items around now to wherever you want, as of the latest builds 23016 and up. You can arrange items in folders if you like, and even make copies of them outside of the folders within the start menu too.
3. Everything is much more finger friendly now, perhaps with the exception of the calendar, but their are alternative calendars that can replace the existing one, or you can use the TF3D one which is brilliant. The finger-friendliness carries over to the menus as well, and builds 23047 and up have fine tuned the menus to an even larger extent, removing greyed out options that once existed, thus navigating through menus is simply simple now.
4. Kinetic scrolling is all over the place, even Opera Mini on WM has it now. It's pretty ubiquitous, file systems, IE, playlists in media players, start menu, customization screens, setup menus, everywhere you go, it's there. No need for the stylus anymore.
5. No point in me typing any of this, because
a) YOU HAVENT EVEN TOUCHED A RECENT WM 6.5 ROM, nor will you
b) You only believe what you want to believe
"You only believe what you want to believe"
Seems to summarize your posting history quite well.
@MicrosoftFTW
What's that? No honeycomb? Sorry, I wasn't paying much attention, just looking at these pics http://www.redmondpie.com/download-windows-mobile-6.5-build-23045-com578/ on build 23045 and it's honeycomb menu.
PROTIP: The honeycomb menu is the same honeycomb menu it just doesn't have hexagonal wallpaper. But I hear you're an expert on wallpaper, eh?
Oh, and as for "You can move items around now to wherever you want, as of the latest builds 23016 and up" and "YOU HAVENT EVEN TOUCHED A RECENT WM 6.5 ROM, nor will you", I'm using build 23037 (see http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=520683) in a ROM cooked for ease of use and performance. In the honeycomb menu that is clearly still there, I can move any app icon either to the top of the list, or (if at the top) to the bottom of the list. That's it.
Everything you say is bullsh*t, and I just proved it.
You doubt Jesus? Blasphemy!! xD
Jesus,
Excuse me while i call BullShit again.
1. You either have a honeycomb, or you don't, and all of the WM 6.5 builds released in the past half year have not had a "honeycomb grid". It's simply a list of programs/apps/system folders you can access by touching start.
2. YES YOU CAN MOVE ITEMS ANYWHERE YOU WANT IN THE LATEST WM 6.5 builds.
Your ineptitude and ignorance is not an excuse in blaming WM 6.5 for allegedly lacking something you don't even know how to access.
As of Build 23016 this feature was available, but if you want to see 23037 specifically, then sure.
"New Windows Mobile Build 23037 Adds Re-Arrangeable Start Menu Icons"
http://pocketnow.com/tech-news/new-windows-mobile-build-23037-adds-re-arrangeable-start-menu-icons
3. Now just admit you fkd up and we can continue this conversation
I posted earlier (way back in Engadget, Like July xD) that my experience with CS4 is more than excellent. I mean, just running all those applications in SLeopard feels great. But that was all I could get out of it.
Oh and have you used Safari4? It's twice as snappy!
Good God this was supposed to be a follow-up comment from my reply in kibbled-bits' post. Man Blogsmith is just giving me all types of wrong today = D!
Blogsmith hates commentors all the time.
Before the end of 2009? Bah, where's Winmo7? Or the Zunephone?
I can't believe it as usual, this turns into some sort of Fanboy argument. Winmo is not the best but every OS has there problem and Winmo has taken great strides to correct their wrongs. I think some of you must have forgotten why the OS was truly made on PDA and smart phones in the first place. How can you criticize the creator so much some of you truly have forgotten where this all started and who started it. Iphone OS is nice, so is Palm, Android and Symbian for that matter but they all would be nothing without Winmo. Has anyone put together a presentation on an Iphone, Palm Pre, any Android phone or Nokia with Symbian, I highly doubt it. I guess if your life only centers around listening to music, watching movies, or chatting on twitter you would have a problem.
This OS is obsolete before it's even out the door. I feel sorry for anyone who's forced to use such a thing.
How did it feel waiting 2 years for copy/paste, video recording, office productivity apps, gps voice navigation software
or for that matter, full stereo bluetooth profile, mms, tethering, flash enabled browsing, file system access, voice controlled commands, multi-tasking....oh wait, you have none of those.
Seems to me, its the iPhone OS that's outdated, and still plays catchup to this day.
get ready for the flood of junk.
@WindowsFTW
I agree. They need to catch-up, but picture how the Nokia 1100 has absolutely NO FEATURES AT ALL, and sold more phones than any other phone......evar.
Some people just care about making calls, and if it has a pretty face then it's all the more reason to get it. That's why the iPhone sells so much regardless of the features it lacks.
I mean, people over-hype me, my brother (5800), the iPhone, the Hero, and others. While at the same time they dismiss the very phones they liked 2 years ago, and then whine about then having a 2MP camera...........seriously?
You know what was a really good phone? The Nokia 6600. I loved it's multitasking capabilities, and no one minded a 1.3 MP camera to boot.
How about the Samsung Z130? Everyone creamed when they heard 3G and bought new pants after finding out that the entire screen could swivel like that.
The Sony Ericsson P Series phones? Need I go on.
I guess a vast majority of us tend to over-trend things alot. Blackberry and Nokia Symbian and Palm fans began to over-hype smarthphones, while upcoming Sony Ericsson and Apple fans begin to over-hype the touchscreen trend. In the end, we just end up over-hyping phones across a BROAD spectrum and forget what their main purpose is: CALLING PEOPLE.
and we all fall victim to it. I do it damn-near every day and it's pretty pathetic. We go on these sites and proclaim our out-of-touch masculinity by saying that our most favored product is better than everyone else's. When we look back on the phones that made us great, we instead say "Those phones fail now. 8GB or die! Nokia N95 FTW!!!!11!" or "Nothing beats touchscreen. So you keep typing on your fail Nokia 5300 and I'll keep on with my iPhone :]". This will never end (and I'll probably fall victim to my hypocrisy and end up posting "HTC Hero owns all), but I guess we all can't change this...
The funny thing about technology is that, in the positive hopes of pushing us forward into more user-friendly ways of life, we end up killing our nostalgia in the process. So the Nokia 1100 IMO remains the best phone, smartphone, feature phone of all time.
Lol at my marathon epiphany xD.
It was a good read nonetheless :)
I'm running WinMo 6.1 (Samsung i760)....and can't wait to upgrade to a new WinMo phone when 6.5 is released.
All this talk about iPHONE......neglects the fact that iPHONE is still intended for casual users like moms, college kids, etc who like crappy little apps and a closed simple environment..........not for business users who need more robust features........
RIM and Windows Mobile rule that roost.
The fact I can run 12 applications at the same time and customize the hell out of my good old phone for what I need it to do is proof enough for that....not to mention the years and years of free apps that WinMo already has.
I have nothing against the quantity of their selection but I do remember Microsoft saying that they're going to be reducing the amount of variations released to allow better quality phones... Did they change plans or did they actually started making many quality phones?
Thats the business plan for WM7.