Hey Microsoft, Listen to Clinton!
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While reading some news about the latest OTA (Over The Air) Android updates over at Engadget, Clinton Fitch decided to write up a letter to Microsoft. I know that Microsoft may not listen to all of us, but c’mon MS…you should really listen to your MVPs, I know that we do.
Here is Clinton’s letter for your reading pleasure:
Dear Microsoft,
I know you have heard this from me before given that we have had countless discussions amongst us MVPs on the subject. OTA updates for Windows Mobile are needed - desperately. While those of us who are “geeks” can figure out how to do a ROM flash, there are plenty of folks who A) don’t know what it is or B) are scared to death of trying it in fear of “bricking” their phone.
With Google Android out there now, you have two competing products - Apple’s iPhone and T-Mobile’s G1 - that do OTA updates. Yet my Windows Mobile 6.1 device has a “Windows Update” tool in the Control Panel that is, in a word, useless.
Now that you have acknowledged Windows Mobile 7 publicly I can only hope that OTA updates will be in the offering with it.
Regards,
Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com!
Windows Mobile is by far one of the most mature mobile operating systems on the market and there is no excuse that users still have to completely wipe everything off of their phones in order to update. I could live without true OTA udpates (though it would be nice), but Microsoft needs to come up with a way to process incremental updates without making users start from scratch. And I do not consider just backing up Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks as a proper backup before an upgrade.
While I do not consider the iPhone to be true OTA updates, they are able to update software without making their users reload everything from scratch…well unless you jailbreak your iPhone. Of course, there is very little customization on the iPhone, so all the update needs to do is restore each application with its sandbox.
Microsoft would not be able to handle application restores as easy as Apple since they give their developers true flexibility of living outside the sandbox. But in the long run, it is Microsoft. I believe they can pretty much do anything they put their minds to (I truly believe they lost their minds when it came to Windows ME, Vista, and Jerry Seinfield commercials).
So Microsoft…your users want it, your MVPs want it…can you deliver?
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