Because it just works

[Guest Networkguy]

A few years ago, I was sitting in an office in central London when a colleague rolled in with his new iMate Jam phone. What really blew us all away was that it just worked.

No fuss, no messing. It did exactly what it said on the tin and did it well.

Well I was so impressed that I went online to buy one only to discover the iMate Jamin had just been launched. 3 days later it was in my hands and again, it just worked. That phone went around the world more times than I care to mention and just kept on giving. At the same time my company upgraded the mail platform to Exchange 2003 to support the new Blackberry servers but of course that meant that I was also able to sync my Windows mobile device directly over the internet. In return, for not having a Blackberry, I was able to have a 3G card for my laptop (our company policy is nobody is allowed more than 2 SIMS).

But whilst I looked in envy at the Blackberry users who could browse the company address book, control their out of office and set up meetings from their brick like devices, I also noticed that I was always able to get my mail on the move including all those mails telling me that the Blackberry service had failed AGAIN :-)

So when the time came to change my phone, Windows Mobile was the obvious choice, but I was really taken my the new S710 with it's slide out keyboard. Sure I lost the touch screen but what I got was a very neat package and after a few weeks, I was not missing the touch screen at all. Again this phone has worked hard. This year has also seen us upgrade to Exchange 2007 and now I have true push mail, out of office, company directory search and meeting options. Indeed everything that a Blackberry user has even down to the over the air KILL command if I loose the phone. What I still don't have is the monthly Blackberry service charge that Vodafone like to collect.

So here we are and it's time for a change again.

I look around the office and we have a few iPhone users who can sometimes get their phones to sync but not always. To be fair, the stability on the new iPhones would have you think it was built by Microsoft in the old days ;-)

Then we have the Nokia users with the likes of Road Sync. Again, they can get to their email but it's not exactly seamless.

So Windows Mobile it has to be.

So the Xperia looked good but having now played with one, it is not a £600 phone. It's good but not that good.

Then there was the new S740 but then I saw a picture of one next to the S710 and realised just how big it was. Almost as long as the Sony but not as wide.

So then I looked at the Touch Pro. The same size as my S710 and getting good write ups.

So it arrived this morning. Being Windows I am not expecting any hassle in setting it up.

So I plug it into my laptop and Activesync sees it and creates the new partnership. At the same time it configures my Exchange server to sync mail, calander, tasks, and contacts. It sets up the Onenote sync and off it goes.

I leave the phone to charge whilst I go and get some lunch.

Back at my desk and my phone is ready to go. My mailbox is synced, my notes are installed, my bookmarks are here and the corporate security policy is in place.

I then go in and set up the wifi connection for when I am at home and pair my bluetooth headset. Easy.

Then outside to the car to sync the car kit. I have a BMW with the built in bluetooth and again, easy.

So I am now in a position where I can walk out the door with my new phone in my pocket with everything that was on my S710 before hand. I have had no headaches, no calls to user support, no manuals to read.

So this is why I have shunned Apple, Nokia and even the new Android phones.

My phone is an essential part of my business life. Regardless of if I am in London, San Francisco, Washington, Bangalore or Barcelona, I just need a phone that works and has all the information I need on it.

I need something that JUST WORKS.

And you know what, Windows Mobile does just that. It is stable. It is reliable. It is compatible with my work laptop and all the software I use in the office and it just works.

So if the world is moving to everything in a browser, please just give me a quad core desktop running Windows CE and a browser. That should be pretty quick :-) and ultra stable.

So regardless of what people say about Windows on the desktop, MS have got something right in the form of Windows CE and thus Windows Mobile. They have actually made something that just works and continues to work.

All they need to do now is make it pretty but of course as soon as you do that, you mess the whole thing up.

[Guest awarner (MVP)]

Nice overall review of your personal experience in the WM format.

[Guest nevawlkalone]

here here lol ;P

[Guest Luci]

Exactly what i always say as a developer. Even if you dislike MS , THIS, they did right. Developer tools are great while you have 99% of Windows for PC available on a mobile so you can also easily port between them. In the Windows Mobile developer world, if you do it right, you don't talk about "emulating" but test the real thing , but then on a desktop-PC. AND being able to sell the software for PC also !

Actually, boldly put, i consider Windows Mobile to fit into the anarchy of the internet the best, better than Linux for mobiles which is struggling as so many people use their own implementation, android is more java then linux, openmoko lacks the uptodate hardware. THAT would be the thing to have uptodate hardware with REAL OPEN linux inside.

Very interestingly, MS is getting the message, WM7 will not try to be the slickest looking OS, but instead offer more API's for developers and handset-makers to tweak the handsets user-interface etc.

Joost

[Guest dearsina]

It's funny, your experience is exactly the opposite of my experience with WM devices (I've had a range of them, since the very first one came out in 2002 till this very phone you're writing about, the S710). WM was amazing when it came out, in 2002 even the colour screen was a bit of a novelty, but ever since there has hardly been any significant development to either the look or the functionality (things have just become more stable, and a little faster). I'm glad you have had a positive experience, mine was not so positive, including a phone that would never sync, deleted all my contacts when it finally did (I took a backup just in case this would happen) and for some reason doesn't turn off the back-light unless you lock the keys.

I've recently switched to a BB Curve and it is the best phone I've ever owned. Bar not being able to replay DivX, it does everything WM does, but without having to resort to the registry every 5 minutes to change some obscure setting. It's faster than the s710 (my favourite was to open the keyboard and hear the sound-effect that *they* added break every time because it was so resource intensive), it's more stable and as you say, it just works!

If I were you, or anybody deciding corporate devices, I would go for the BB Curve (or Bold). It makes WM look like Windows 95 after XP was released.

Edited October 24, 2008 by dearsina

[Guest Tech]

jeez - of course it works! it always has but the stupid network carriers always put on their crap which slows down the phone resulting in customers blaming Microsoft! That is so not true and no fault of Microsoft. it always works, even on a desktop PC.

I have had most of WM devices from the SPV C500 - and all have worked greaty including the latest Samsung omnia. im not complaining - love it. but people just love to mess it up and expect for it to "work" when that isnt true....

it rules. end of story.

[Guest markdotpeters5]

I don't really want to get into an iPhone VS everything else argument, and I'm glad you've had a good experience of WM, but other than the App store being a COMPLETE mess, my iPhone has been super stable.

I have never, not once, through all the firmware versions had any syncing issues (or any other major issues for that matter).

Some of the new BBs do look nice :lol:

[Guest Confucious]

but other than the App store being a COMPLETE mess,

I think the App store is fantastic! Makes it a lot easier to get software (all of which just works) than WM.

[Guest andrewkeith5]

I have to say, even though i'm not a business or corporate user, I've pretty much found my experience with windows mobile to be the same as networkguy

my first smartphone was a nokia 6600 - which was, to put it bluntly, rubbish. it did hardly anything, and when you tried to find some piece of software to do said something for you, it almost always cost a fortune and made the phone hang

from that i moved to an spv e200 which i bought second-hand off ebay for £40 - this was fantastic. even though there was a gaping hole in the side (from the last owner breaking it) it worked perfectly, and never, ever, hung up. software was easy as pie to find and you could usually find some freeware to do what you wanted, and the phone just worked...

i then dabbled back into symbian with a 6680, which although being considerably better than the 6600 before it, still suffered from the extortionate software costs and memory issues that I'd experienced before once i started more than a few programs. i also had a big problem when for some reason the thing just wouldn't turn on - it went to a white screen and then did nothing, which ended in me having to take it to my local friendly independent phone shop, who kindly fixed it for me at a cost of fifteen quid

after that, i was tempted by the sony ericsson m600i - despite the problems others were having, this was a fantastic phone. it had a huge array of features - but the problems others were having with uiq 3 meant that next to no software existed for it, and the software that did was even more extorionately priced than the s60 variants. i also had a nice surprise with this phone, when a software update (done over the sony ericsson software updater) managed to magically make the touch panel completely unresponsive to touch...resulting in waiting 6 months for sony ericsson to decided i was to have a warranty replacement instead

that rubbish experience meant i decided to bite the bullet and go for my first contract (and brand new) phone - a HTC TyTN II on T-Mobile Flext 25 W'n'W. This has, so far, worked pretty much perfectly. I've upgraded the firmware to windows mobile 6.1 thanks to TLR's rom cooking, and theres an unbelievably huge array of software and freeware that'll do almost anything you want it to, and more. sites like modaco and coolsmartphone also massively help the windows mobile experience by providing a vast resource of hundreds of peoples knowledge - whereas with symbian i ad great trouble finding a useful community site and then people who had the same problems as me

...

[Guest markdotpeters5]

Yeah I should have elaborated. The app store is great, but app updating causes me no end of headaches.

I constantly have to remove apps from my phone, sync with iTunes, then re-sync the new ones to get them updated.

Other than that, it's fine though.

[Guest Confucious]

Never had that problem - everyone has updated flawlessly!

[Guest markdotpeters5]

Never had that problem - everyone has updated flawlessly!

Yeah it does seem to just happen to some unlucky people - of which I am one!

If I manage the apps via itunes only, everthing's fine. It's just if I download them on my phone, it doesn't keep in sync with itunes.

Still an awesome phone though :lol:

[Guest Boinng]

I know it spoils the story a bit, but I'm another happy iPhone customer with Exchange sync (and/or push) working perfectly. I'm not sure I've heard of anyone having a problem with it, it "just works" :lol:

Admittedly it doesn't support tasks, but everything Apple have implemented (mail, contacts, calendars) works perfectly, and it's a pleasure to use.

[Guest paholman]

I don't use Push email or Exchange, but I'll provide my experience with Synching.

iPhone and iTunes synching with Outlook, I've had no end of trouble.

1. I had to purchase Outlook 2003, as my 2002 version that came with some of my old Windows Mobile devices just didn't work with the iPhone

2. It doesn't just work, well not for me anyway, after a many days experiencing software hangs synching Contacts, killing Outlook and AppleDeviceManager processes, it suddenly just started working, no idea why, and has been synching ever since. Perhaps it was the later version of iTunes that did it. God knows

3. I can no longer Hibernate my laptop, and 5 times out of ten, can't shut it down either. This is because of the connection between iTunes and Outlook which never seems to die, even after exiting Outlook and iTunes, and disconnecting the phone. There's always a rogue process there that either slows my laptop down to a near halt or prevents it from shutting down - If I don't load iTunes, it's shuts down and hibernate fine.

Nokia and PC Suite synching with Outlook - Where do I start?

Atfer numerous posts on the Nokia Support Discussions pages, I still never got to the bottom of it. Synching either wiped both my phone, and Outlook Contacts list, or adding duplicates/triplicates in both of them

WM and ActiveSync, yes, it had it's issues, but compared to the above, it was far more stable.

After years building up Contacts, Bookmarks, and Calendar entries on Outlook I need a device that can use all that data.

Numerous WM devices have managed to inherit all that data fine (a few hiccups, but nothing too major), but as soon as I moved away from Windows Mobile , my synching problems began and are still haunting me.

You can do more with your device using iTunes than you could with ActiveSync, but I take back all I said about ActiveSync. With the amount of different WM devices out there, it does a damn good job.

Edited November 4, 2008 by paholman

[Guest Boinng]

I have to admit I'd never entertain using anything to sync with an individual copy of Outlook on a regular basis - I had years of hell with UIQ (Symbian) devices never quite managing that trick. Proper Exchange sync all the way for me - which, in my experience, the Iphone does just as well as WM.

[Guest chucky.egg]

Interesting discussion.

I've been a WM user for a long long time now, but recently moved to Symbian because I was so frustrated - not with the OS, but with the handsets.

I was unable to find a small device which had both good performance and good battery life. I'd spent over £1000 in 12 months looking for the "right" handset, I'd tried Standard and Pro (prefer Pro), tried different manufacturers etc. I opted for the E71 in the end because it was about the right size and weight, it's very fast and the battery lasts for more than 18 hours (3-4 days comfortably for me).

Since going to Symbian though I've been looking at sync'ing PIM data.

1. I can sync with multiple Exchange accounts, but my Work requires a PIN lock after 15 minutes! Don't want that.
   
2. PC Suite just plain ol' doesn't work!
   
3. RoadSync (3rd party EAS client) is nice, but not $50USD nice IMO
   

I'm now sync'ing via Google Calendar (to keep my personal calendar out of my Work one). Automatic one-way from Outlook, manual two-way from my device.

It seems to me that a generic, device agnostic, PIM aggregator service would be a sure fire winner. Point everything to a central PIM store, and decide whether you want one-way or two-way sync for each "client". It needs to support multiple PIM clients (Outlook, Exchange, Entourage etc) and multiple device types (WM, S60, iPhone, Java, XP, Vista etc)

[Guest Confucious]

I synch with my SBS 2003 Exchange server - The iPhone is better than WM as it allows HTML emails! The iPhone also synchs with Gmail and Yahoo mail no problems but not Hotmail which I use quite a bit.

Nokia synching was not good but for email www.seven.com helped for multiple exchange accounts and other email accounts.

[Guest chucky.egg]

Hiya Confucious,

You mentioned Seven before, but it looked to me like it only does emails? Can it do calendars too?

For me calendar and contacts are more important than email.

[Guest Confucious]

It is only email unfortunately. I used MfE to synch my calendar and contacts with my SBS and Seven to synch to my work exchange email only and other email accounts.

Contacts worked OK and my calendar is not that complicated....

[Guest Metoo]

I synch with my SBS 2003 Exchange server - The iPhone is better than WM as it allows HTML emails! The iPhone also synchs with Gmail and Yahoo mail no problems but not Hotmail which I use quite a bit.

Ah, the wonderful iPhone HTML Mail client. The one that has serious phishing vulnerabilities by obscuring spoofed domains, and that acts as a total spam magnet by blindly downloading all images embedded in mail. I can do without that, thanks.

Edited November 5, 2008 by Metoo