Yesterday, Microsoft launched their new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7. As a former enterprise network administrator, and Windows Mobile user, I can tell you that Microsoft does have a place in the smartphone world. Redmond fell asleep at the wheel on their mobile development over the last 6-7 years and let RIM and Apple come in and essentially run them out of the mobile game. With Apple’s “fenced in” strategy, many power users who resist that model were left with few viable options in the way of hand-held devices. Google acknowledged this opportunity in 2005 by purchasing Android Inc. It wasn’t until October of 2008 that we were able to purchase the first available Android device. According to a report released by the NPD group, Android accounted for 33 precent of the smartphone sales last quarter. For an operating system that was only released two years ago, that is an impressive figure to say the least.
Andy Rubin, vice president of Engineering at Google, was quoted recently as saying the following regarding WP7:
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On a smaller scale, the relative beginnings of the smart phone(PDA) industry have gotten started similarly to the progression of the PC market. Two of the same major players are involved, taking familiar tacts, and there is a third open-source alternative headed up by a new major player that didn’t exist during the PC’s early days. Does anyone find it incredibly interesting that three of the largest, most influential technology companies (i.e. Microsoft, Apple and Google) are now in control of the smartphone/mobile operating system industry? This fact tells us so much about the future of technology and where we can expect to see the biggest leaps made over the next 5-10 years.
For those of you who paid attention while Microsoft and Apple divided up the computer industry 30 years ago, the similarities should be pretty obvious. Out of the three companies Microsoft entered the ring first with Windows Mobile and sold their product as software that could run on any manufacturers hardware (to a certain extent). Apple later came to market with a more user friendly and consumer appealing product that was a hardware/software combination, the iPhone. A good deal later, an open-source alternative was released that offered a more developer friendly platform and could save the corporate and consumer markets millions(billions?) of dollars, Android.
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I’ve been testing a Windows Mobile 6.5 ROM on my HTC Touch Pro for about 3 weeks now. So far, it seems much faster and considerably more stable. It could be that I’m using a stripped down ROM without the carrier bloatware, but my phone feels very responsive.
Most applications that worked on Windows Mobile 6.1 also work in 6.5. One thing that seems to be missing though, is the built-in VoIP compatibility. While it may seem innocuous that one application, which very few people used, is suddenly not part of the new mobile operating system by Microsoft; I see a much bigger issue.
With the advancement and refinement of “Voice over IP” technologies like the SIP protocol…we are right around the corner from not needing to rely on old phone infrastructure (like analog phone lines) for having voice conversations. It finally looked like the stranglehold that phone companies had on us was about to be over with.
With the majority of new cell phones coming equipped with a wi-fi connection, and applications like Skype or the built-in VoIP support that Windows Mobile 6.1 had, you could make a call from your cell phone [over a free wi-fi connection] completely bypassing any major phone carrier’s network. With the right phone and enough wireless network coverage one could potentially cancel their cell-phone contract and stop paying ridiculous monthly fees. Well, as they say: “If it seems too good to be true…”
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This wasn’t an official announcement, but there was some wording on the Microsoft Partner Program site that read:
“Partners: If you have a subscription to MSDN or TechNet, you can download Windows 7 RC now,” ……..”Otherwise, you can download Windows 7 RC starting May 5, 2009.”
The download section for that site did not list Windows 7 RC as an available download. At least not publicly. So, I would expect Windows 7 RC to be available to torrent on or around Cinco de Mayo. I really hope this operating sysytem will be a suitable replacement for XP. Obviously, Vista just didn’t cut it.
Read More Here.
Researchers at Standford University are building a brand new mobile operating system from scratch called Cinder. Philip Levis, a Stanford assistant professor, explains that building a mobile OS on top of a platform like Linux which is built for large systems, is a bad idea because those platforms are not tailored to the requirements of a mobile device. Apparently, work is being done to make it compatible with the G1 handset. One very interesting feature is the ability to increase the amount of power that is being used by an individual program, providing more performance. Cinder’s power management system should allow for much better battery life as well. I cant wait to try the first public build of this OS.
Yesterday, Microsoft launched their new mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7. As a former enterprise network administrator, and Windows Mobile user, I can tell you that Microsoft does have a place in the smartphone world. Redmond fell asleep at the wheel on their mobile development over the last 6-7 years and let RIM and Apple come in and essentially run them out of the mobile game. With Apple’s “fenced in” strategy, many power users who resist that model were left with few viable options in the way of hand-held devices. Google acknowledged this opportunity in 2005 by purchasing Android Inc. It wasn’t until October of 2008 that we were able to purchase the first available Android device. According to a report released by the NPD group, Android accounted for 33 precent of the smartphone sales last quarter. For an operating system that was only released two years ago, that is an impressive figure to say the least.
mobile, operating systems | admin | 
October 12, 2010 10:39 am | 
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