I’ve used at least 5 (possibily more) different Windows Mobile-based phones over the years. To my dismay, I must say that I’ve not been truly happy with any of them. I’ve always found that I spent more time fiddling and tweaking with it because something stopped working (Bluetooth has been notoriously bad on all of them) or didn’t work as I expected it to, rather than actually using it for its intended purpose: a device that supports you in your work and life.
Also, I’ve always had issues with the “Windows on a tiny screen” metaphor. As Steve Ballmer rightly put it in yesterday’s press conference at Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona: phones are not PC’s.
I don’t think it’s so that we use PDA’s and PC’s for very different purposes (although, of course, sometimes we do…), but that much more the circumstances under which we use them are completely different. PC’s are used intently, when there’s room, time to start it up, etc. SmartPhones are used all the time, most often for very short periods of time. I think I pick up my phone at least 50 times a day, just to check the time, messages, calls, contacts, etc. I do that everywhere – in bed, when I’m eating, in the car (I know: I shouldn’t…), when I’m on the move, at my desk, in meetings, in front of the TV, etc. – and anytime, during day and night, at work and in my free time.
The current version of Windows Mobile really isn’t geared up for that. When I’m on the move, I seldom have two hands free to fiddle with a stylus (which I keep loosing anyway). The tiny menus and fonts require me to put on my glasses (I have presbyopia) even to check if I’ve missed any calls. The myriad of settings spread over lots of different places mean that there’s always something that’s not configured right. Its inability to natively integrate easily with social networks, without additional software, holds me back.
I’m also not a big fan of the thousands of form factors and UI implementations these phones have. Because they all have different capabilities, it’s hard to know what to expect when you fork over a huge sum of money for a Windows Mobile device. The user experience differs widely from brand to brand and even from model to model, and manufacturer-specific shells like HTC’s Sense have a bunch of problems of their own.
That’s why, when I bought an iPhone about 18 months ago, I never looked back (but being a Microsoft fanboy, I’ve always felt a bit guilty 
)
But yesterday, I was really pleasantly surprised to see what Microsoft came up with Windows Phone 7 Series (well: apart from that typical Microsoft name, then…) .
A simple, intuitive and clean UI that will be more or less the same on all devices, geared for touch (and multi-touch) so you can operate it with one hand, big fonts, logically organized information, a more tightly controlled hardware platform, deep integration with social networks, a controlled application platform and store (which I hope will increase application quality): all of these are things I really like.
Have a look for yourself here: Windows Phone Newsroom: Video Gallery and on the Windows Phone 7 Series website
