Philoking.com

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….

With my new job at Microsoft, I had to let go to one of my woobies. If you don’t remember the woobie, it was the little blanket the kid wouldn’t go anywhere without on Mr. Mom.

My woobie was a Blackberry 8700G. I have used Blackberries since the original pager like one and when I had to give mine back to Supervalu, I knew I had to get something to replace it.

After looking at Blackberries and their ridiculous off contract prices, I decided to go Windows Mobile (in salute to my new employer perhaps) and get a Motorola Q 9m.

My key considerations for a new device were pretty simple:

• I must have access to my email remotely
• I would like a decent mobile browser
• Chat and Mapping are a nice to have
• Fast Internet and the ability to tether to a laptop

Odd that I chose a music centered device when music wasn’t a key concern, I know! I should also add to the confusion that my most used computer is a laptop, a Macbook Pro laptop to be exact. This review will take two angles: How good is this as a phone and how easy is it to use it without locking it to a PC.

The Phone
So far I am very pleased with the phone. The call quality is great and it’s very well suited with features. With the optionally installed Windows Live Search this phone really shines. I have used it to get directions and movie times so far and it worked great. The OS is a little slow, but not so slow it’s unusable. My Blackberry was definitely snappier though.

I wish they had not used dark red to mark the alt numbers, it makes them a bit hard to see in dim light. Other than that the keyboard is a little rough textured and that makes it pleasant to thumb type. The other buttons are well laid out and the OS makes smart use of the soft buttons to make them quite contextual to the task at hand.

The Lilliputian flash memory card has a pretty hard to access door, bested by the nearly impossible to open audio jack door. (luckily I don’t intend to use this as a music player)

Other than that, with a nice rubber sleeve this phone has a nice form factor with a big bright screen. I am not in awe by this phone to say the least, but at $260 on contract, this phone is a good value.

Using it without a PC
One thing the Blackberry excelled at was using it untethered. I never once had to connect my 8700G to my computer unless I was charging it via USB. It handled everything fine.

I was disappointed that Sync on the Mac didn’t play nice with the contacts on this phone like it did with my Razr. I assume that’s a Windows Mobile issue, not hardware or Bluetooth compatibility. My email was super easy to set up and works just fine. There are no free chat apps that I have found so for that I am still looking.

I am happy that Bluetooth file transfer works great for transferring ringtones and other files back and forth with the Mac.

So far I am getting along just fine. I did install the ActiveSync software into my Windows XP Parallels install, but I have not really had a need for it yet. At least that does give me an option for contacts if I need to import some in bulk.

Summary
Overall I give this phone a 3/5 stars. I am not thinking it’s close to one of the best Windows Mobile devices out there. It seems to suffer from an underpowered CPU, possibly a RAM deficiency and of course Verizon always does their part to make it less than it could be.

I’m pleased with it, and I don’t think I will find myself pining over my Blackberry, but I am sure I will keep my eye out for a killer deal on something better if it comes along.