SPB And Sony Ericsson Give Me Hope
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The one thing that SPB Software House is great at is building relationships with phone manufacturers. They have partnered to get SPB Mobile Shell on several devices before. This time they have created their own Xperia Panel Interface for the upcoming Sony Ericcson Xperia X1. This will essentially be a customized version of Mobile Shell that will be a free download for all X1 devices.
I have been checking out the Samsung Epix this week and just when I think I am happy with a front-facing keyboard, I see images like these. The trade-off so much screen real estate is usually size and possibly battery life, both of which play a big roll in what device I use in my daily routine. Also, the ODM for the X1 is HTC, which is still my favorite in this market. I am waiting until I can get my hands on both the X1 and the Fuze (Touch Pro) to do some comparisons, but the more I read about the X1, the more I believe it will be my true Tilt replacement.
There have been a lot of people comparing the iPhone, Android, and Windows Mobile. If you listen to Microsoft’s John Curran in an interview with Techradar, he believes that Microsoft will still be #1 after 3 years partially due to the hardware parterships they have. I am a firm believer that the best part of any mobile OS these days is the developer community. I use an iPhone as a media device and it is great at what it does. It could not, however, replace my Windows Mobile devices because it just cannot compete with the productivity I have on the go.
I think that Windows Mobile will prosper because of developers like SPB Software House and ODM’s like HTC. They push the limits of what the platform is capable of in ways that Apple will never allow. Android is still too new and I think that we could see it as more of a threat in a year or two if the developer communities are able to provide customizations as powerful as what we have seen from SPB and VITO among others. I am excited to see what Windows Mobile 7 will give developers, but keep in mind that the devs are still coming up with new ways to use WinMo 6.1. If you ever have a doubt…just spend an hour or two browsing the xda-developers forums and you will see that we have a community of developers that just doesn’t take no for an answer when someone tries to put up a roadblock.
While I do not always have faith that Microsoft will make the right moves, I do believe that they will continue to enable developers to make up for the gaps that they do not fill in the out-of-the-box experience. This will hurt some consumers that never even realize they can install software on their phones, but the app store that is rumored for WinMo 7 could go a long way to fixing that.
So what do you think? Do you think devices like the Samsung Omnia, HTC Touch Pro, and SE Xperia X1 show that diversity in hardware and software can prevail?
[X1/Touch Pro picture via CNet Asia]
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I really does depend on the developer community. Alot of developers are spending a lot of time on iphone apps. If they do this in addition to WM apps then WM will stay on top as the most customizable and useful os. If they do this instead of WM then WM is dead.
You do have a good point. I know that I have been waiting for a better version of Evernote for WinMo while they keep releasing huge iPhone changes. The same thing goes for SugarSync…maybe it is a cloud thing.
I know that developers like Ilium and Laridian are working on iPhone apps, but I do not see them letting their WinMo apps suffer. Keep in mind that for some of these developers, other than bug fixes, the shift from WinMo 6 to 6.1 was pretty minor and 7 isn’t going to be ready this year. This seems like the perfect time in the WinMo product cycle for them to be working on other platforms.