back to article Microsoft names the day for iPhone come-back punch

Handsets featuring Microsoft's first come-back to the touchy-feely iPhone are due to hit retail stores on October 6. The company is today expected to promise that phones running Windows Mobile 6.5 will hit retail stores around the world on that date. In a parallel move, meanwhile, the long-awaited Windows Marketplace for …

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  1. Myopic Aardvark

    An interim update....

    ...planned for 7 months ago? That's some Gallifreyan planning there.

  2. Grease Monkey Silver badge
    Happy

    Service pack 1?

    But surely nobody with any common sense will buy until SP1 is out.

  3. RichyS
    Gates Horns

    Too little, too late.

    That is all.

  4. Rich Brown
    Thumb Up

    WM6.5

    Is old news.

    Many people myself included have been running pre release versions of WM6.5 for a long time now.

    In my opinion WM6.5 is not that much more touch friendly than 6.1, better but not great.

    TouchFlo 3D 2.5 running on top of WM6.5 is awesome though, best of both worlds.

    You can have all the WIn Mo apps and the touch interface of TF3D!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    ..see that horse...

    ...up there in silhouette on the horizon?

    yep..thats the horse that bolted a long time back.. you aint gonna catch that one..especially when everyones still got that fetid flavour of your last phone OS in their mouths.

  6. Insane Reindeer
    Grenade

    Oh boy

    Well I would not under any circumstances consider myself a fan in any way shape or form of anything that has ever come out of Cupertino, and I barley tolerate Redmond based stuff. But look, even I can see that the folks from Cupertino have moved the goal posts in a massive way over the last two years, and if anyone, anyone at all, wants to rest the initiative back from them, then they have to stop reacting to what they have done, and go on the initiative.

    I mean hell, this is war. So maybe someone should take sometime to read that little book by Mr. S. Tzu. You know the one, the one written the past part of 1400 years ago!

    Until then, the Cupertino forces will continue to dictate the war...

  7. No. Really!?

    What's the name of the answer to the Jesus phone?

    the Faust (foist) Phone?

    the Lucifer Phone?

    the iWannaB?

  8. Joe K
    Coffee/keyboard

    Hilarious

    I do believe i laughed at every paragraph for half the article before realising it was not a joke story.

  9. adnim

    @Grease Monkey

    Service Pack 1? That maybe a bit premature, it is normally service pack 3 that endows Microsoft software with acceptable stability, so so reliability and a modicum of security.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Fail

    Having used 6.5 for sometime, its nothing but a skin over the older rubbish and slow OS.

  11. Bilgepipe
    FAIL

    The Wow Starts Now

    Wow. I'm so excited, I can hardly stay awake. Windows Marketplace for Mobile, another Microsoft title that slips off the tongue like a skip full of old monitors.

  12. Andy Livingstone

    I'm still fighting

    with 6.1

  13. Dave 145
    Stop

    SP1??

    @ Grease Monkey. WM is possibly one of the most secure OS out there. Have you ever seen a virus or hack on a real smart phone (not including apple as the browser has more holes than a blaock of swiss cheese)

    And you dont buy Windows Mobile it comes preinstalled and configured from maufacture.

  14. Monty Burns

    6.5 is awefull .... why not SPB Shell or alike?

    Anyone thats used 6.5 with its hex and titanium will know that if they look at it an try to be unbiased, its crap. Its still 6.1 just with an attempt to be finger friendly and sadly, something already done far better (imo) by companies such as SPB with Mobile Shell.

    This won't win over anyone MS, the techies will (mostly) stay with WinMo 6.5 or 6.1 and others will go for the phone they were going to purchase already. Status Quo....

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Snoopy

    "Microsoft's My-Phone service, which will let customers back up and sync content such as photos, music, contacts and text messages from their phone to the web."

    Correction

    ...from their phone to Microsoft and from there to your government's spook department.

    What? They actually ARE after me.

  16. Andy G

    @Dave 145

    yet even with all those holes, iPhones have had no viruses! Weird! it's almost like you're excluding the iphone from your statement because including it undermines your argument!

  17. Mark Rendle
    FAIL

    Still miles away from relevant

    Until they provide some form of WPF or Silverlight as the UI layer, and *require* the handsets to have capacitive touchscreens, it just doesn't matter.

  18. whiteafrican
    Thumb Up

    WinMo + TouchFlo

    Got to agree with Rich Brown - I am currently running a WinMo 6.5 ROM on a Touch Diamond 2 (complete with TouchFlo 2.1 - which I probably need to update to 2.5...). But even in its current state, it beats my girlfriend's iPhone 3Gs at just about everything.* It's smaller, lighter, has 2.5x the screen resolution (WVGA vs. Half-VGA), has expandable memory, takes MUCH better pictures (5mp vs. 3.2mp), has genuine multitasking, has the ability to install and run anything I like (without the need to jailbreak it), works with any network I like (not just O2 which keeps cutting off people's data connections), and runs WinMo apps (which are actually useful, cf. all those i-can-haz-pretend-drink-beer-on-my-iphone apps...). TouchFlo is superb and I don't understand why MS doesn't pay HTC whatever it takes to make TouchFlo the default interface for WinMo devices...

    Marketplace sounds useful - though I wonder what it will add that Handango doesn't already have... Perhaps this is why MS is so keen on wooing 3rd party developers?

    ----------

    *[Note that I'm not saying the 3GS isn't a good phone (it's a very good phone) I'm just saying there are better phones out there... but here come the flames from the fanbois anyway...]

  19. martin burns
    Welcome

    Another $AppleProductKiller from Microsoft eh?

    Looking forward to when we're all using Microsoft SmartPhones, as they're bound to do it so much better than Blackberry etc and achieve market dominance in a matter of weeks.

    So anyway, how's the Zune coming along?

    http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/08/ignite-show-jeff-veen-on-great.html

  20. Dustin 1
    Stop

    One thing missing from the iSheep communicator

    Is a stylus. And 50K stupid, timewasting apps dont make up for it. WinMo 6.5 is not the iPhone competitor OS some would think. Its a framework that a phone manufacturer should build on, and only HTC has really done so. WinMo 7 will be the competitor, and we wont see that until next year sometime. And for the fools that say too little too late. How many markets has microsoft forced its way into and taken over market share? There were WiMo phones before iPhones, and apple jumped in...... Why do Mactards say that no one should bother to compete with the Holy Apple Divinity? Its retarded, only through competition do consumers see benifits. Grow up, stop worshiping a hardware designer who ripped off styles from an appliance manufacturer.

  21. Daniel 1

    @Bilgepipe

    I've got to agree, 'Windows Marketplace for Mobile' is the sort of name that gives cancer to kittens. Never mind, in three months time there'll be three different stores: 'Windows Marketplace for Mobile Home', 'Windows Marketplace for Mobile Enterprise' and 'Windows Marketplace for Mobile Platinum Unlimited'. They'll all offer the same three applications (A calculator, Pong, and a thing for delivering your horoscope), but they'll each have slightly different pricing structures and terms of use.

    Dave seems to think Window Mobile is incredibly secure, but couldn't we turn that statement around, and claim that the only reason it's not vulnerable is that not enough people use it for it to be a worthwhile target (or are the Windows apologists the only people who are allowed to use that sort of logic)? How he can claim that Safari is insecure, when Windows Mobile 6.5 essentially ships with a copy of IE 6 is beyond me, however.

  22. ThomH

    Lost the business market to RIM...

    ... now trying to foist it's unloved OS on consumers? I think Insane Reindeer has the right point; a defensive play with a worse product isn't going to work when they're starting with a negligible market share and actual consumer antipathy.

    Furthermore, Microsoft's software-only business model works only if the integrated software+hardware providers are charging substantially above commodity prices. But in the mobile world, handsets are heavily subsidised, so that isn't the case. The result is that even were the Microsoft OS something other than a gaffer tape and bits of string mess, consumers would still attach the experience of the badly designed handsets that carry the Microsoft OS (which may well be a subset) to the OS brand itself and opt for RIM or Apple or Nokia next time. Word of mouth also still counts in this market.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    In related news...

    Cresta Cola was pleased to announce the impending launch of "New Cresta Cola". All the great taste of Cresta you've come to loathe in a new bottle. Spokesperson PO Lar-Bear said, "You'll be seeing Cresta everywhere soon. People won't be able to get enough.".

    Spokespeople for Coca-Cola and Pepsi were unavailable for comment at the time of going to press due to laughter induced comas.

  24. Giles Jones Gold badge

    Eye of Sauron

    The Eye of Sauron is so firmly focussed on the web that it has been missing what has been going on in the mobile world.

    Why it is Microsoft can't seem to produce multiple products at the same time?

    IE, Zune and WinMo seem like pet projects that get started and neglected. In fact the Zune is probably for the chop.

    It's a no-brainer that Microsoft should have build Zune on WinMo and updated the interface. They could have then sold the Zune and sold the OS to be used in phones. Of course the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing.

  25. barth

    My WinMob phone crashes once a day

    and is generally a pain to use.

    count me out.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Yawn?

    Yawn.

  27. Eric Hood

    refunds for customers

    I read a complaint by an android developer this week and he said the app refunds were a pain in the arse as you could change your mind up to 24 hours later and it was common for him and his friends to see an app refund 23.5 hours later. The processing fees for this are destroying their profits. This is sending them back to the iPhone.

  28. Stuart Duel
    Pirate

    @ Dustin 1

    I don't see, hear or read of Macintosh users/converts/evangelists/fans crying for an end to competition? We love competition and it's coming from the bright young things, not that old thieving dinosaur you so admire.

    On the subject of Apple's App Store, a cursory look would reveal a plethora of highly useful and powerful applications for medical, scientific, business and personal development. There's also stuff ranging from pointless and trivial to recreational and educational. So far from having "50K stupid, timewasting apps", there's a probably more really useful tools available to install than could fit on a score of iPhones.

    Finally, regarding "How many markets has microsoft forced its way into and taken over market share?". The answer to that is simple: None for a good few years. And we can thank more honest competition for that.

  29. Goat Jam
    FAIL

    Microsoft, always the followers

    "Touch is expected to be fairly limited in Windows Mobile 6.5, with version 7.0 touted by Microsoft as offering the full touch- and motion-based answer to the iPhone."

    I find it hilarious that MS have been in the smartphone market for a decade or so now and they and their "partners" have produced nothing but wave after wave of drab, barely functional lookalike phones to a largely bored and disinterested market.

    As usual, as long as MS are selling their crap they see no need to do anything special or make it cool or interesting for their users.

    Now the iphone has arrived, and all of a sudden the company with the 10 year head start is scrambling to play catchup with the new kid on the block.

    6.5 will be a FAIL in short order at which point MS will frantically point towards winmo7 as being the next great saviour only to find that it is just another FAIL.

    MS and FAIL go hand in hand. If it weren't for the Windows Tax and their Office lockin MS would be a footnote in history by now.

  30. Goat Jam
    Stop

    @Dustin 1

    Dude, you need to "bing" for "Microsoft Invincibility Myth"

  31. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Microsoft? Compete with the iPhone?

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

    ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

    hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah.

  32. Ty
    Jobs Halo

    Funny

    Most of the posters here are slagging off WM 6.5 and at the same time using XP or Vista!

    Funny.

    You realise the iPhone is just a mobile Mac and Snow Leopard is just as far ahead of your Windoze crud as iPhone OS X is ahead of WM right?

    doh

    *rolls eyes*

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    @Dustin 1

    Strange - one of the main reasons I chose the iPhone is *because* it works so well without a stylus. I can type emails far easier on the iPhone than I ever could on my Windows Mobile PDA because the keyboard doesn't require a fidley stylus.

    Windows Mobile needs to take a leaf out of their book - at the moment they seem to be half a decade behind the competition (either Apple, RIM or Google) and rely on phone manufacturers to cover the mess that is Windows Mobile with eye candy (some of which I have to admit looks quite nice).

    Wow, never thought I'd use the angel Jobs icon (i hate Apple as a company) but the iPhone does actually work well...

  34. nashguy

    IWindows mobile 6.5? I can hardly

    wai...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

  35. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

    Not interested..

    All the Windows variants appear to be compliant with the same standard: insecure and always designed for bigger hardware than sensibly available - even if that hardware is perfectly adequate when running something else.

    It's a bit like buying a 2CV which looks like Porsche on the outside, and then adding a foot worth of concrete for stability.

    And no way to take the handbrake off..

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    And?

    Mark Thomas has been preaching for years about the nasty little business deals between companies like BAE and the government.

    All this stuff goes on and the DTI just turns a blind eye to all the shady goings on...

  37. Dustin 1

    Response

    @Stuart Duel

    My use of the term Mactards does not apply to all users of apple products, only those that live and breath the hype without question. Most users of Apple products that I know are intelligent and are highly proficient users of many platforms, great programers and musicians. On many a forum you hear the chorus of Apple fanatics crying foul any time a product of similar capabilities or functionality steps up to the plate to get some market share. Always with cries of rippoff and stealing. Therefore one can construe from that type of 'vocalization' online that noone has the right to deploy similar capabilities and compete. Apple did not invent the GUI, who ripped off what now? I do not admire any company and how you gathered that is beyond me. Also, who are you calling a dinosaur? Apple has been around since the 70s. If Apple didnt buy NeXT, where would it be today? But thats right. Only Apple is allowed to purchase and rebrand existing products, put an animated and shiny theme on it......and have it called innovation...

    As far as the number of useless apps out there, I guarantee that they outnumber the useful and non redundant apps. I was eluding to app count as a selling point over functionality. I have a few WiMo apps for time wasting at all times, but counting them as a selling point is pretty weak.

    For the market share bit, yes it has been some time since MS has taken CONTROLLING levels of market share. But it does still gain market share here and there across many different markets. MS has many products in the enterprise for the backend. Great Plains for accounting, Sharepoint and Groove for collaboration. Xbox, despite its faults enjoys a healthy market share as well.

    @Goat Jam

    I do not entertain fantasys that MS is invincible. Any company can fail, for a number of reasons obviously. MS appears to have relized that they have been slow to react on customer concerns (specifically the home consumer based concerns), wants and needs. Thier primary focus has always been to the majority of thier install base...Corperate IT. Time will tell if they have made the process and focus changes needed to remain profitable and relavent.

    @AC The days of being limited to using a stylus for keyboard funtions is long past. You can use any number of different touchscreen keyboards if you wanted to do so and most recent WinMo devices do include them. There is no doubt that the iPhone has both a better touchscreen and an interface to match. As much as those features give you, using your finger to write notes as opposed to a stylus is like the difference between using a GIANT novelty pencil as opposed to a regular pencil. Much less accurate or efficient. A stylus gives me better functionality for my personal needs. I am also far from dependant on the stylus though. I only use it for scrawling notes (which I can do much faster than I can type, reguardless of physical or virtual keyboard) and playing certain games which would be less fun without the speed granted by the accuracy of a stylus, Atomic cannon being such a game.

    Any impression I gave of the iPhone being a BAD product was inaccurate, I just don't have an appreciation of it in use. I always grab my girlfriends iPhone and play around with it....... and i can tell you AC, it does work well, but it does lack some features which I do appreciate more. One being that I can do whatever the hell I want with my Omnia, not what someone tells me I can.

  38. mrweekender
    FAIL

    @Dustin 1

    The use of the word Mactard makes you sound like a childish prick.

    Using your own R&D department from company 1 to build an OS for company no 2 to then market and sell is not really re-branding especially if you happen to be CEO of both company no 1 and no 2.

    And lets face it, it's not even in the same league as what Bill (I like to steal other peoples ideas then make a shit load of money out of them) Gates did with QDOS. And lets not forget the subsequent bullshit MS shills have written to try to make out that 'genius' Bill (Harvard dropout) Gates was the designer of the first PC operating system....

    Shut up - tool!

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