HTC is abandoning the Windows platform

[BrightSpark]

HTC are abandoning microsoft windows platform. first Palm, now HTC.

things aren't looking up for MS these days in the mobile sphere...at all.
One is that Windows Mobile no longer looks like being a sufficiently strong player to support a whole business model. "We are not strictly a Windows house. We are looking at other operating systems," said HTC, in a far cry from its enthusiasm of five years ago over the Microsoft system.

Despite making gains in the enterprise and becoming a fairly robust and well recognized, if relatively minor, smartphone platform, Windows Mobile will clearly be just an element in the mobile picture, and probably a small one compared to Linux and the growing family of Java-oriented OSs like Symbian/Series 60 or Sun's new developments.

Ironically, it is not helped by Microsoft's own branding issues - as in PCs, it may be indifferent to the hardware maker, but it demands control over the user interface and software look and feel. The more this becomes the key differentiator for the mobile internet device, rather than its casing, the more Microsoft it likely to come into conflict with carriers on this issue, as it previously did when it tried to dictate the look and feel of in-car systems to the auto giants.



source (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/18/htc_new_strategy/)

[Jo]

HTC + s60... quite interesting.

[aLx]

Jo, agreed. That would be something

[para]

HTC + s60... quite interesting.

definitely.

[AvWijk]

Jo, that would be great.

If they manage to obtain good audio, camera, and phone quality plus the combination of S60 or a Linux (http://forum2.mobile-review.com/showthread.php?t=64747) form... I'm back :)

[AF]

This has nothing to do with Windows Mobile.. but with expending your market.. good choice from HTC.. they will sell more if they do this.. !! The hardware ain't that bad.. I see a lot of beautiful things from HTC..

I've heard that Nokia is coming with a WM phone.. I hope every brand will do this..

[xkube]

AF, i will abandon nokia if they ever do that!!

[BrightSpark]

This has nothing to do with Windows Mobile.. but with expending your market.. good choice from HTC.. they will sell more if they do this.. !! The hardware ain't that bad.. I see a lot of beautiful things from HTC..

I've heard that Nokia is coming with a WM phone.. I hope every brand will do this..

HTC's relationship with windows mobile is like how microsofts relationship is with XP. they are still supporting it for the time being, but they are pushing to ditch it completely in the not too distant future.

i've heard zilch about nokia releasing any windows mobile phone. source?

[AvWijk]

There is no hard proof that Nokia is working on a Windows Mobile phone, however the Nokia 330 standalone GPS device runs Windows CE like many cheaper B/C/D-brand navigation solutions. Fortunately, it isn't a phone and not a succes like the TomTom (Linux powered!) Go.

[Wilbur]

Good choice! Htc hardware combined with s60 or linux sounds definitely interesting.

[aLx]

Htc is only doing the right thing, why limit itself to one software platform, its all about maximizing shareholder value. But the real winners are we - the consumers. The competition is most likely to increase, which will lead to faster technology development and/or lower prices, and more phones to choose from. It's a win-win situation ;)

[MR]

Finally it is out in the open! Old news for me ;)

MR

[BrightSpark]

Finally it is out in the open! Old news for me ;)

MR

really? :eek: how old?

[P910 guy]

Hmm..if HTC switches fully to S60 then I think it'd be quite interesting, especially here in the UK, HTC smartphones probably hold 2nd or 3rd place in the UK smartphone market so when users of WM powered HTC's come to upgrade, they'll probably mostly upgrade to the latest HTC so that means that Nokia could finally have a decent S60 rival...maybe?

[AF]

xkube,

Why? Who said that they will only sell WM.. they're just adding it to their portfolio so that you, the consumer, can have more choices..

=/

[are_s]

Hum...if one adds this to the old SE-HTC merge rumor...lol...

[EldarMurtazin]

Nokia is cancelled all WM products - they do not see any kind of perspective, even for enterprise solutions...

HTC will be loosing market if they will be focused on WM products only... But 2008-2009 most products will be out on WM for this player

[BrightSpark]

i've heard HTC have teamed up with google. click (http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/asiatech/archives/2007/05/is_google_teami.html).
now we all know that MS and google are the biggest of enemies.

[AF]

EldarMurtazin,

"But 2008-2009 most products will be out on WM for this player"

What do you mean???

[EldarMurtazin]

AF,
Untill 2008 no other than WM products from HTC

[chlettn]

Nokia is cancelled all WM products - they do not see any kind of perspective, even for enterprise solutions...

Interesting enough that there were any projects in that direction imho - mostly for the American market, I guess?

[EldarMurtazin]

chlettn,
YEs, for US and Canada I think... something like Blackberry solutions based on WM

[MR]

Eldar is correct until 2008. 2009 will change some things.... HTC will introduce the HTC Elf next 5 June in several new colors. There are some special features in the device ;).

MR

[EldarMurtazin]

MR,
you mean software? new kind of interface like iphone? i try it but it isnt work right now

[aLx]

MR,
EldarMurtazin, any news on S730 aka "Wings"?

[tkao2025]

For me...heaven would be Sony Ericsson Design/camera and music hardware coupled with WM platform. Great for both business and pleasure:love:

[BrightSpark]

For me...heaven would be Sony Ericsson Design/camera and music hardware coupled with WM platform. Great for both business and pleasure:love:
:eek: :eek: :eek:
that would would be most people's definition of hell. fantastic! a bland looking phone with software that's as slow as molasses and crashes regularly.

[tkao2025]

:eek: :eek: :eek:
that would would be most people's definition of hell. fantastic! a bland looking phone with software that's as slow as molasses and crashes regularly.
Really...I guess to each his own since I think SE has great design and WM phone's have never crashed as much on me as UIQ.

[BrightSpark]

Really...I guess to each his own since I think SE has great design and WM phone's have never crashed as much on me as UIQ.

i guess there's always exceptions.

[AvWijk]

Really...I guess to each his own since I think SE has great design and WM phone's have never crashed as much on me as UIQ.

You use a HTC S710? Frankly I found MS Smartphones more reliable than Pocket PC's, try a Pocket PC and see how fast it crashes. But I'm not fancy of UIQ either, I hope SE makes the switch to S60 or Linux.

[Jo]

BrightSpark, +1 i agree.

[rmcrys]

I have a WM5 pocket pc and it never crashed! S60 or UIQ users can t say the same...

[are_s]

We are talking about phones here, not simple pda's...its very easy to make them stable without the phone functions...wm smartphones are just has instable, or worse, than symbian smartphones

[AF]

wm smartphones/pdas are more stable than UIQ/S60

and I used all of them..

Most people here give an opinion based on things found on the internet, I don't.. Used the m600i, p990i, n73, n95, Treo 750v etc etc

The n95 is very stable, but still, my Treo 750v beats the n95.. I can do more with it.. It only crashed ONCE in 7 months..

Just my opinion on this..

[AvWijk]

I have a WM5 pocket pc and it never crashed! S60 or UIQ users can t say the same...

Yes I can. My N80 once crashed (reboot), but I didn't had any crashes with my E50. From my own experience I can say WM for Pocket PC is crap, MS Smartphone OS has also his nags (18th-century bitmap graphics, no pixel doubling for programs or flexible resolution support, 65k colours and so on) but at least its much more stable.

I've used these devices for at least a week. (from old to new)

WM PPC. All of them I used suffer of programs heaping up in memory (except for a few newer HTC's, but with a tool of HTC, not M$), frequent hanging or slow responding, some of them instantly soft-resetted. As for the hardware, crap camera quality (except for the VGA models), crappy sound and the most boring ringtones (bleeps?) on earth, mediocre vibrate that makes more noise than phone speaker, nagging Bluetooth stack, downgraded call quality OR camera after ROM updates, lack of JAVA sometimes.

Orange SPV M1000 - Problems with screen colours, everything looked like it were 4096 colours. Seemed to be a common problem..
Orange SPV M2000 - The most stable WM2003 PPC device back then, and I liked the keyboard.
Orange SPV M500
Vodafone VPA Compact
T-Mobile MDA Compact
Qtek S100
HP iPaq hw6515 - Boring, unsuitable little 240x240 screen for doing anything.
HP iPaq hw6915 - same as above
iMate PDA2 - just as bad as the M1000, but with mediocre 1.3 MP camera and wifi
T-Mobile MDA Pro - Hugeass allrounder, heavy in weight and slow in use.
T-Mobile MDA Vario - Doesn't really have advantages. Crappy device..
Qtek 9100 - Same as above
Orange SPV M3000 - Same as above
Eten M600 - Dissapointing, more unstable than any PPC I used.
HTC TyTN - Still an average camera, call quality and speaker but better than the models before it. Still has it flaws.
MDA Vario II - Same
MDA Compact III - loose trackball, vibrated along at incoming calls. Again: Crap camera and speaker. Good: Excellent GPS chipset. Better than anything else from Nokia.
HTC P3300 - Same as above, I used the proto and later a final model.

MS Smartphone. I experienced less problems here, but still: average speaker, crap camera quality (except for the VGA models), the most boring ringtones (bleeps?) on earth, clumsy way to close programs, nagging Bluetooth stack, sometimes lack of JAVA.

Motorola MPx200 - My first Smartphone I've ever used, I liked it although it was thick and had no Bluetooth and camera. But it was stable and had good call quality.
SierraWireless VOQ - Piece of crap, faillure by design, huge device.
Motorola Mpx220 - Nice looking, but again bad camera and sound. Mpx200 felt more solid.
Mio 8390 - Looks like an old NEC iMode device, it was solid, good speaker, but no BT.
Orange SPV C500 - One of my favourites, and still beats the Nokia 6600 and Siemens SX1.
Qtek 8010 - Same as above
T-Mobile SDA - Same as above, looks even nicer :cool:
Qtek 8020
T-Mobile SDA II - Rock solid device, QVGA problem with apps, bad cam and sound
Qtek 8310 - Nice device, but bad cam and sound
Orange SPV C600 - Same as T-mobile SDA II
Qtek 8500 - Nice looking, but bad vibrate, nagging BT, bad cam, bad sound..unstable!

Symbian S60 Every OS has its flaws, including Symbian. But S60 is until now my favorite.

Panasonic X700 - My first S60, GREAT device, nothing to add, a shame panasonic stopped phone production.
Nokia 6630 - Didn't like it looks, but it was a great device otherwise. Speedy, stable and a very good cam.
Nokia N90 - Had one a while before it was released, I liked it but it was quite big, lack of vibrate, no S60 v2 programs written for 416x352. But it did pixel doubling very well.
Nokia N70 Vodafone Branded - Use for three months. Great device, not always slow.
Nokia E70 - Great device but not a practical keyboard, anyway a great browsing tool with frankly better WiFi-reception than other S60s I used.
Nokia E60 - Great device, good-looking
Nokia N91 - Great device with superb sound, good speed, too bad about the pixelerated 176x208 screen. But most of the time I ended up listening music with the N91 anyway :)
Nokia N80 - Had the silver and now the black one, I found the sliders of the silver versions better. Little bit underpowered device, can be slow sometimes. But mine does it job very well.
Nokia N73 (Music Edition) -
Nokia E50 - Very thin and reliable device, you've gotta learn the off/on button, joystick can be slippery
Nokia E65 - Just as nice and thin as the E50 but in slider formfactor. Chique and neat device, rapid wlan connections.
Nokia N95 - Many improved stuff over my N80, but I don't like the looks and the battery. Screen is not as good I thought, quite pixelerated.
Nokia E90 - OK just one day, but I played with it the whole day. Definately want one ;)

[BrightSpark]

I have a WM5 pocket pc and it never crashed! S60 or UIQ users can t say the same...
the only WM that hasn't crashed is one that has never been used.

[AvWijk]

the only WM that hasn't crashed is one that has never been used.

Or a WM phone made of wood. :lol:

[BrightSpark]

Or a WM phone made of wood. :lol:

i thought it already was :lol:.

[kochma]

the only WM that hasn't crashed is one that has never been used.

This is just not true. I've had a lot of wm-devices and each of them runs stable (except the eten m600). But I use (sell) the N95 at the moment. This phone crashes once a day, is buggy and slow.

For example to start the camera I have to wait 5 sec. Loading the main-menu 1 sec., program-folder 2 sec and if I want to use the phone (music, wifi,...) after 3 hours it is dead...

So I stay with wm.

[BrightSpark]

So I stay with wm.
good luck.....you'll need it.

[kochma]

I'm just curious, what was your last wm-device

[AF]

kochma,

AvWijk used to be a WM fanboy, but is now a Symbian fanboy

and brightspark.. is just brightspark... he hates microsoft and everybody knows that.. don't pay attention to them.. ;)

[BrightSpark]

I'm just curious, what was your last wm-device
do you think i would ever want to own one? do i need to put my hand in the fire to know that it burns?

[AvWijk]

I'm just curious, what was your last wm-device

If he gets one it will be a clamshell with Linux / GNOME Mobile and the 'designed for Windows Mobile' branding replaced by a Tux logo.

[lucaluca]

You use a HTC S710?
Heh... I though s710 was a sony ericsson phone! ;) (i believe there is something called s710 from se.. or very similar, i check on that later..)
Yes I can. My N80 once crashed (reboot), but I didn't had any crashes with my E50.
same here!:) (well 3 weeks of using it, but still..). funny thing.. my mother's digi cam has crashed few times on me (when saving log videos).


I've used these devices for at least a week. (from old to new)

WM PPC. All of them I used suffer of programs heaping up in memory (except for a few newer HTC's, but with a tool of HTC, not M$), frequent hanging or slow responding, some of them instantly soft-resetted. As for the hardware, crap camera quality (except for the VGA models), crappy sound and the most boring ringtones (bleeps?) on earth, mediocre vibrate that makes more noise than phone speaker, nagging Bluetooth stack, downgraded call quality OR camera after ROM updates, lack of JAVA sometimes.

Orange SPV M1000 - Problems with screen colours, everything looked like it were 4096 colours. Seemed to be a common problem..
Orange SPV M2000 - The most stable WM2003 PPC device back then, and I liked the keyboard.
Orange SPV M500
Vodafone VPA Compact
T-Mobile MDA Compact
Qtek S100

& more...
wow, that's quite a few devices there...

[AvWijk]

Heh... I though s710 was a sony ericsson phone! ;) (i believe there is something called s710 from se.. or very similar, i check on that later..)

same here!:) (well 3 weeks of using it, but still..). funny thing.. my mother's digi cam has crashed few times on me (when saving log videos).



wow, that's quite a few devices there...

Review work for a dutch mobile comparison website.. If the website was still running that good as it used to be I've done more, but perhaps more in the future.

[lucaluca]

Review work for a dutch mobile comparison website..
you mean http://www.newmobile.nl/ ?? :) (it has quite nice phone search engine, as i recall...)

(although the translated versions (of the site) aren't perfect...)

[AvWijk]

you mean http://www.newmobile.nl/ ?? :) (it has quite nice phone search engine, as i recall...)

(although the translated versions (of the site) aren't perfect...)

Yes, buts its not maintained anymore by the same person, the new owner even got rid of the reviews :(

[Domo Kun]

A New OS Would Be Nice.

[BrightSpark]

A New OS Would Be Nice.

apparently, HTC are going to be making the gPhone(ie google phone), and that will be running linux.

[Aidan]

BrightSpark, i just hope it's fast, has a good feature yet and isn't slow (i know it won't be, but still).

[MTM]

BrightSpark, interesting. Do you have any source? So maybe we will actually see you with an HTC phone one day? :p

[BrightSpark]

BrightSpark, i just hope it's fast, has a good feature yet and isn't slow (i know it won't be, but still).

yup. hope so.



BrightSpark, interesting. Do you have any source? So maybe we will actually see you with an HTC phone one day? :p
what? about the google phone running linux?
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0242431720070802
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its cell phone project and is courting U.S. and European mobile operators, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Anian, a Reuters company that tracks industry trends for institutional investors, reported last month that Google had engaged Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp to design a Linux software-based phone for launch in the first quarter of 2008.

as it happens, Intel are also making a linux phone(running ubuntu) that's due for next year too. it was initially going to run vista, but they concluded that vista is too fat and isn't practical for mobiles, so they switched to linux.

as long as WM isn't on an HTC, i couldn't care less :D

[diaboleek]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google Inc has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its cell phone project and is courting U.S. and European mobile operators, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

Anian, a Reuters company that tracks industry trends for institutional investors, reported last month that Google had engaged Taiwan's High Tech Computer Corp to design a Linux software-based phone for launch in the first quarter of 2008.

This sounds good. Just hope that they wont make the same mistakes like Apple!:)

[MTM]

what? about the google phone running linux?
http://www.reuters.com/article/techn...42431720070802
Yes, that's what I meant. Thanks for the link. It does indeed sound interesting. I wonder which version of Linux they're working with.

[AvWijk]

yup. hope so.




what? about the google phone running linux?
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN0242431720070802

as it happens, Intel are also making a linux phone(running ubuntu) that's due for next year too. it was initially going to run vista, but they concluded that vista is too fat and isn't practical for mobiles, so they switched to linux.

as long as WM isn't on an HTC, i couldn't care less :D

Well since HTC is not known in having the best solution in cameras and audio-quality, I fully agree. Having Microsoft software on a device from Google would be very strange. And even better... If Google releases the source code of the 'gPhone' it might be made usable for other HTC devices! :)

Go Google!

[owziee]

This is just not true. I've had a lot of wm-devices and each of them runs stable (except the eten m600). But I use (sell) the N95 at the moment. This phone crashes once a day, is buggy and slow.

For example to start the camera I have to wait 5 sec. Loading the main-menu 1 sec., program-folder 2 sec and if I want to use the phone (music, wifi,...) after 3 hours it is dead...

So I stay with wm.

I've had my HTC S710 for 3 months and it still hasn't crashed even once! I really liked my previous Symbian S60 devices... I've had the Nokia 6630, N70 & N73 and they were all nice and pretty stable devices but seriously not even nearly as stable as my S710 WM6 device... So I totally agree with your "So stay with wm." statement.

I've been a true symbian freak but I've opened my mind and eyes... I decided to try something else and I'm really happy because of that.
WM6 is really a much more powerful OS... You can do way more with WM than what's possible with S60...
A lot of that is thanks to the registry I'd guess but also since Symbian 9.x with all it's new security restricion crap it really annoyed the hell out of me.
I think Symbian should give the power back to it's users and not trying to guard it's OS like we're some babies not knowing what kind of phones we're dealing with, and on the other hand if we f*** it up it's not like it's the end of the world... Most of us have had PC problems, once at least, so what's the big deal?... Power users are well aware of what they're doing and if the problem with viruses & other malware becomes too big there's always possible to install an AV.
...On the other hand most S60 3rd Edition devices have better hardware, like better cameras, audio & video recording... So both MS & Nokia definitely have something good.
It's just a matter of preference imo, since I'm a geek who loves tweaking & customizing my device to infinity there's really no choice for me, WM lets me do all that (I know it's very easy to switch themes and move around icons in S60 3rd. but that's about it when it comes to customizing the S60 UI, sadly there's no registry hacking or anything like that...).

[mib1800]

I've had my HTC S710 for 3 months and it still hasn't crashed even once! I really liked my previous Symbian S60 devices... I've had the Nokia 6630, N70 & N73 and they were all nice and pretty stable devices but seriously not even nearly as stable as my S710 WM6 device... So I totally agree with your "So stay with wm." statement.

I've been a true symbian freak but I've opened my mind and eyes... I decided to try something else and I'm really happy because of that.
WM6 is really a much more powerful OS... You can do way more with WM than what's possible with S60...



I still can't get a stable and workable call filtering/answering machine/advanced profile 3rd party apps for my WM (02 Atom). S60 has these neat utilities for ages. :)


A lot of that is thanks to the registry I'd guess but also since Symbian 9.x with all it's new security restricion crap it really annoyed the hell out of me.
I think Symbian should give the power back to it's users and not trying to guard it's OS like we're some babies not knowing what kind of phones we're dealing with, and on the other hand if we f*** it up it's not like it's the end of the world... Most of us have had PC problems, once at least, so what's the big deal?... Power users are well aware of what they're doing and if the problem with viruses & other malware becomes too big there's always possible to install an AV.


I totally agree with you. S60v3 requiring apps signing is a pain-in-the-behind. On the upside, I think it will make the Symbian OS more stable. The one main problem with WM apps is that the many software tries to stuff as much functions as possible thus making most apps unusable because of stability and speed issue.

btw: I have not used WM6 but imo, WM is MUCH more unstable than S60. I lost track of how many times I have to soft/hard reset my Atom but my N95 has no such stability issue eventhough my N95 has more 3rd party apps installed.

[BrightSpark]

btw: I have not used WM6 but imo, WM is MUCH more unstable than S60.
from what i've been reading, WM6 is same old same old. i keep on reading about software glitches and crashes on blackjacks that have been upgraded to WM6.