Really Bob? To be honest, most of the people I know who feel that way are the polar opposite of the psychographic market than what you stated.

I'm not saying you're wrong. It just seems that it's more multidimensional than either of us previously thought.

Good call. I was going to say exactly the same thing.

Hey Bob,

I see what you're doing there. Just because you have a smiley doesn't make you less smug.

In any case you're right, I was referring to WM5 (I guess I've been reading too many blogs lately). Despite my mistake I knew that OS better than I'd bet 80% of its users would ever want to know it. They just want to pick it up, make a call, ensure it doesn't call people when it's in their pocket, get fast response with few crashes, etc. That wasn't my experience. There were too many issues out of the box, so I messed around with clean versions, tweaked versions, modifications to registries and all that junk...all the stuff an average Joe wouldn't. So people either settle with the issues, give up, have lower standards than me, or are more advanced and find better solutions than me.

This is why I suggested he try one first. I'm happy for you if you like WM. I didn't. He'll never know for himself until he gets one in his hand. Preferably, that'd be before he reaches for his wallet.

@ Curt, nevermind the style of the device. It's running Windows Mobile.

I've had 3 Palm phones, 2 Windows Mobile 6 and 1 Blackberry. WM6 was by far the worst of the bunch (for me and my tastes).

Go to a store and try out the OS on any QWERTY device and try to do basic operations such as booting up the device, switching on and off wireless, making a call, muting a call, etc. and see if you like the way it functions and performs. If so, I'm sure this device would be a decent decision. One of my WM6 devices was HTC and I had no issues w/the hardware.

The problem is that many people think features when they hear the term
"innovative". I agree that most of the appeal of this phone is not in
the features you'll see on the spec sheet. Where Apple innovates best
is in the ease-of-use.

I have a Windows Mobile Treo for work. To mute a
call, I have to select Menu (hotkey or stylus) > Down (dpad) > Mute
(action key or stylus). 2 steps at least, but 3 if I don't want to
use the stylus. Most of WM is like that; too many steps to do the
most common tasks. I expect Apple has solved for most of this in
their UI. They will have mute too--not a new feature--but
implemented better. (I know Palm has a mute button on screen like the
iPhone will, that was just the first example I could come up with.)

I doubt he'd be walking around with a prerelease product. He'd need bodyguards if he were. My guess is it was an ipod.

And does he really wear jeans and a black turtleneck everywhere?

Hey about they make it interesting and release it next week at 3GSM to go along with the WIndows Mobile 6 announcement? Yeah, didn't think so.

WTF? Why bother bringing iPods into this discussion at all? Your post would have been fine if you got that chip off your shoulder before typing.

FWIW I agree w/gizmoguy and think it's a few clutzes trying to make up for their lack of hand-eye coordination.

Wow. It only took 1 post before someone mentioned "fanboy". It must be a day that ends in "y"

If it has a camera, I'll get it right away. If not, I'll have to think about it as it's not different enough from my 8700 to warrant dropping the money.