It’s been about a month since my wife and I ditched our HTC Mogul Windows Mobile smart phones and their super cheap MS discounted service plans. We switched from Sprint to AT&T and went with the ever popular iPhone.
It wasn’t until two or three days later that we realized what a leap we had made in capability and reliability. I have to be honest and and timidly say that I went away from my Employer, Microsoft, and Windows Mobile in favor of a competitor. I had a lot of problems with Windows Mobile. A lot of that can be blamed on the hardware, but blame lies with the software as well. Windows Mobile is not the most stable smart phone OS in the world. I sincerely hope that 6.5 and 7 eventually smooth out and fill the gaps. When that time comes, I’ll consider switching back. Until then, I have to say that the impact of the iPhone may only just now catching steam.
I have yet to have a person pick it up and not covet the sexy little device. Beyond the sleek case and funky apps, just what is it that makes the iPhone so damned good?
Rock Solid Operating System
So far, the iPhone has been incredibly stable. With the wealth of first and 3rd party apps, it’s amazing that it works as well as it does. I have about 3 pages of apps loaded on it and I would say that quite a few of them I have already grown dependant on. The phone is not an afterthought, it’s integrated into the package and when you stop to think that no matter what else it does, it’s a phone, it should do that exceptionally well.
I think that this fact may be the genesis of the problems with Windows Mobile. Windows Mobile extended a PDA OS to also work as a phone. In other words the phone is merely an application on a device meant to manage contacts and keep up with your appointments. The core of the OS still maintains those roots.
Solid Ecosystem
We all know about the app store, but that’s just the icing on the cake. iPhone accessories and iTunes’ music and video store only extend the capabilities of an already amazing device. You can pretty much do anything with it.
Best Browser in the Market
Let’s face it. With most sites not truly catering to mobile devices, you need a device that can competently render a regular website. While there are a few dings in the iPhone armor, like flash, it’s light-years beyond the competition in this area.
Can the iPhone be Beaten?
I think so. Microsoft, Google and RIM sure as hell hope so. In order to accomplish this the charter should be pretty simple:
Start Over.
I am pretty sure this is Microsoft’s plan with 7, it’s a whole new code base. No backwards compatibility should be expected. Start by making it a kick ass phone. If that means placing some serious requirements on the vendors, then do so. If you want a touch screen interface with only a few buttons for specific tasks, then make it that way and don’t let the vendors extend it with ridiculous options that only make it messy.
Build the ecosystem around Zune, make sure that it’s a no brainer to manage the phone with Windows natively. Don’t make the user go and download and install ActiveSync and a whole bunch of .net packages separately. Make it dead simple.
Last but not least, make it sexy. I don’t mean understated lines like the Zune, I mean so sexy you just can’t live without owning one.
I guarantee the E&D folks at MS and the smart people at Google know all of these things. If you aren’t already using an iPhone, do you intend to? If you are, would you switch to Microsoft or Google to the right device? Sound off….
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Thanks for the thorough writeup. I tend to agree with it all for the most part.
It seems that the iphone will be the king for awhile….