Posts by IT specialist 107 publicly visible posts • joined 6 Oct 2009
Remember late last year (2009) when Microsoft's 'Danger' division tried to upgrade a server, but accidentally erased the data of about 1 million Sidekick phone users in the USA? Then it was revealed that Microsoft had no back-up for the data.
Microsoft has a bad history with unreliable online services. Now they let anyone access your Hotmail account. You'd be made to give your data to Microsoft.
The Windows Phone 7 Series (WP7S) website must have been running on a Windows server, which is why it collapsed and fell down in a heap. Can't trust anything these days.
The 'Service Unavailable' sign was probably there to give people a taste of what the Windows Phone 7 Series services will be like.
Tweaking the User Interface isn't going to save Microsoft.
Windows Mobile 7 will result in Microsoft's market share losses accelerating. What it will do is decimate the market for current Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. At the same time, the new platform will not attract OEMs, and it will not attract developers. Without either of these, the platform is doomed.
The Zune music player demonstrated that Microsoft can make a decent product that matches the competition, but when it arrives years late to market, and the competitors (Android / iPhone) are already established, the product will fail.
Why would anyone buy a Windows Phone today, when the current OS and apps are soon to be discontinued, to make way for Windows Phone 7?
This Toshiba runs Windows Mobile 6.5. It doesn't look like it'll ever be upgradeable to 7.
People who buy Windows Phones now will be left with obsolete handsets that come with no new software.
It will be a monumental failure, because it hasn't got the OEMs and ODMs on side, and it hasn't got the software developers on side.
There are only 2 handsets in the making, one from HTC and one from LG. Developers have already abandoned Windows Mobille, which is why there's only a pitiful 700 English apps that work with WM6.5 on Microsoft's Mobile Marketplace app store.
Developers are angry about Microsoft plans to lock down Windows Mobile 7 and make it a closed platform, where you can only buy apps from Microsoft, and not any 3rd party. Microsoft will have a vetting and approval process of apps.
Microsoft's profits can only go downhill in the years ahead.
It's latest profit depended almost entirely on consumers buying Windows 7. But consumers are going to move to more mobile devices. In a few years, the touch-screen phone will be the #1 client for accessing the net.
It's also very possible that tablet / slate devices will become very popular as personal computers for the average consumer. The smartphone / smartbook / slate market is out of Microsoft's reach. The company made catastrophic decisions 5 years ago that made it miss the bus in mobile.
Microsoft will not be able to get back into the consumer mobile game. You can't be 5 years too late and then come to market with a nice copy-cat product. Windows Mobile 7 is going to be another disaster, just like Zune.
Because Microsoft has ceded the next generation of computing to Apple and Google, its profits can only go downhill from here.
Just about all the developers have abandoned Windows Mobile, so few would have noticed the SDK appear and then get withdrawn.
Microsoft is expected to unveil its totally new phone OS in February, with a developers' conference in March. I think everyone will wait and see if the new platform has any chance of success before diving in.
It's truly astounding how Microsoft Office keeps getting more and more bloated, to extraordinary levels, making everyone purchase more powerful PCs just to run the thing.
Remember, this is only a word processor / office app. It's not calculating weather simulations or 3D renderings. It's only doing simple office tasks. Yet still it keeps getting bigger, for nothing!
Microsoft made fundamental mistakes that kicked it out of the mobile game three years ago.
Windows Mobile is already a dead platform. It makes no money for Microsoft. Handset OEMs are phasing it out. Developers deserted long ago.
The only reason it is still in the stores is because Microsoft keeps throwing money at it, in a vein attempt to revive it, refusing to believe that the patient is already dead.
Microsoft is holding all hopes in Windows Mobile 7. However, when it is released it will have the opposite effect, and kill all hope. Windows Mobile 7 will have a very short life in the market, before Microsoft admits defeat and officially gets out of the consumer mobile phone market.
When the netbook market moves from x86 to ARM, that is, when Smartbooks become popular, then Microsoft loses. There is now no doubt that this will happen.
Microsoft has a leaky bucket, and the smartbook market is another hole in Microsoft's bucket (smartphones are another). Microsoft retains its desktop monopoly, but its mobile devices are dead.
Ballmer is not stupid, but he doesn't have a very good grasp of future technology. He must not have had much time to read technology magazines and websites, as he has missed every new technology of the past ten years.
Microsoft needs to give up in mobile and stop spending billions on this losing game.
The game is already over for Windows Mobile. Microsoft lost. Now it must move on and concentrate on its other enterprise divisions
Hey, IBM is still around, 20 years after losing the PC game.
In the 1970s, IBM had a monopoly in mainframe computers.
In the 1980s, IBM blew it, and gave the PC business to Microsoft
In the 1990s, Microsoft expanded its PC monopoly
In the 2010s, Microsoft blew it, and gave the mobile era to Android and iPhone.
So both IBM and Microsoft can join the club of computer companies that failed to judge the next era of computing, when the hardware downsized and the world changed.
However, to this day, IBM still retains its mainframe monopoly, and even has the Department of Justice on its tail regarding monopoly laws. Microsoft still retains its PC desktop monopoly, and IBM has shown Microsoft that it's possible to hold a monopoly for 40 years or more.
The #1 phone OS is still Symbian. Developed by Nokia, which also makes handsets.
If Microsoft doesn't want its own handset, then why did it buy Danger Inc, a year or so ago? Danger's expertise was mainly in hardware. Pity Microsoft let it rot, in fact, turned it into one of the biggest fiascos, when Microsoft accidentally deleted the personal data of 1 million phone owners, and kept no back-up.
Yes, Microsoft bought the expertise to make its own handset. It's Microsoft's 'Plan B', when all the phone OEMs have deserted the debilitated Windows Mobile platform, it can make its own Microsoft Phone without upsetting anyone.
Microsoft's Windows Mobile is a complete train wreck, and one of the biggest debacles in computing history (eliminating Microsoft's place in the next era of computing... mobile).
We've seen Microsoft claim to support formats in the past, while working to break compatibility and fracture those formats.
Look at Java, and MPEG 4. Microsoft supported them, but then came out with its own versions that weren't 100% compatible with everyone else's.
So now Microsoft may support SVG. See it first before you believe it.
Seems they used a 16-bit integer for the date on Windows Mobile. That would allow a device to have a 16 year life span.
Windows Mobile developed in 1992 as Windows CE (it was released 2 years later). Now its 2010. Exactly 16 years. Bam! It's lights out for Windows Mobile.
Microsoft didn't so much lose its mojo. It lost its mobile.
Now that Microsoft's Windows Mobile has been completely knocked out of the mobile handset scene, we'll see cascading effects crashing through Redmond.
For example, soon there'll be more people accessing the internet from mobile devices, rather than desktop/laptop PCs. The Internet Explorer web browser only exists on its failed Windows Mobile platform, which is now out of the game.
That means the future of web browsing is Webkit (eg Safari, Chrome, and many other browsers are based on Webkit).
The other thing worth mentioning is that Microsoft played hardball in the industry. It played nasty. As mentioned in the article, it threatened OEMs with withdrawal of their Windows license unless they played the One Microsoft Way.
People haven't forgotten. PC companies, now becoming phone handset makers, are rushing straight to Android. They remember Microsoft's past behaviour, and don't want this repeated in the mobile scene.
It's interesting to watch the demise of Windows Mobile. Every analyst group has different methods of compiling data, but it all leads to the same conclusion about Windows Mobile... the end is nigh.
Look at that last graph from AdMob, and see how Windows Mobile's internet usage is already near zero, and declining rapidly. No wonder the business users and software developers have already deserted it.
On the same graph, you can see Android on the rise to become the 2nd most popular OS. I think Android will match iPhone's net usage in the next year or so. Android and iPhone are the winners of the new era of mobile computing.
Don't you think things have gone too far when a telephone network provider can dictate which search engine you use? It's time for government intervention to reign in mobile telcos who have gone too far, trying to control what content you use, rather than giving you the choice.
As I read this, there's a logo for Google's Android, with its little green Android character. I had this horrible thought that it looks a bit like Ballmer, with its smooth chrome-dome head.
Microsoft is still playing dirty. Still not supporting open standards. Refusing to adopt HTML 5, in an attempt to make the web work with its own Internet Explorer browser, and look bad on everyone else's browser.
I'm surprised that Microsoft is continuing this nasty strategy. Soon, the most popular client for accessing the internet will be the mobile phone, where Microsoft has failed and is out of the game, and where Webkit browsers will rule the internet. Microsoft's Internet Explorer can only keep sliding further into the abyss.
There were some defects with this phone. One major one was the pink camera defect (Google hd2 pink camera for more info). HTC had stocked up on the handset, ready for launch. Then came the news of this defect, and units being recalled. Yes, there is now a software fix, which the user must install on the phone. But this issue caused the disruption to supply.
It'll be a while before HTC can replenish stocks. In that time, there will be an Army of new Android phones coming our way, which are much more exciting for most consumers. Among them, the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Android phone, and the HTC Passion (similar to the HD2, but running Android).
There were faults with the phone. Apart from being hobbled by its Windows Mobile operating system, constantly needing restarts, all of the HD2 units had a defect with the camera that put a large pink spot in the middle of every photo.
So, you can see HTC had to quickly recall all of those faulty units that it had stockpiled ready for launch day. This caused supply problems (notice that supply problems were mentioned by Vodafone). HTC has a software patch for the camera problem, but it's not easy to install, and must be retro installed on all units.
Vodafone has just given up in frustration. Besides, there will be a myriad of new Android handsets on the market in the coming weeks, which are more appealing to consumers.
I thought it must have been Microsoft's 'Pink' project released early.... a mobile phone that turns everything pink.
But if you want to remove the pink spots from the HTC HD2 camera, wait 'till you read the convoluted procedure to fix it:
To fix the HTC HD2, you must have a Windows PC running Vista or 7. XP users, Mac users and Linux users will have to put up with pink photos forever. Step 2 is to synchronise your Vista7 PC using Microsoft ActiveSync. Then transfer the .exe file from PC to HD2 using a USB cable.
Aghhhh!!!! Just give me the Android version instead. A HTC phone called the Passion in the US market, and the Bravo in the European market, will be released in January. The Passion / Bravo will be a much nicer unit.
All Windows Mobile phones are bad. They all need a stylus pen, even the HD2, as most of the apps aren't finger friendly. The OS is designed for the stylus-driven Pocket PC, not a telephone. This interface belongs in the 1990s.
If you're reviewing the HTC HD2, you should mention that the camera defect still has not been fixed, which puts a pink circle on every photograph. The phone is pretty buggy, needing restarts every day.
And there's no point buying a 'smartphone' if you don't have any applications. The developers have fled Windows Mobile, and have gone to Android and iPhone. If you look at Microsoft's app store, there are very few new applications coming. It's mobile app store is a ghost town.
There was a survey in InformationWeek (a few days ago) that said that Windows Mobile is now losing the business market, falling to just 24% in the enterprise. Blackberry and iPhone are now used more in business than Windows Mobile.
So don't recommend any of these phones. The Windows Mobile platform will be axed in the next year. But don't worry, the HTC Passion will be out in January, running Android. Also Sony-Ericsson has made its final Windows Mobile phone, the X2, and its next phone, the X10 will be Android.
Remember the October 2009 Microsoft data loss, where Microsoft erased the personal data of about 1 million Sidekick phone users in the United States. Emails, contacts, calendars, photos, erased.
Microsoft managed to recover a bit, but not all the data. I'm surprised the media hasn't followed up on that story. Microsoft has a long history of outages and data loss. I would not trust the Borg with any data.
Everyone is evil.
Microsoft is evil. Imagine if Microsoft controlled both the desktop PC as well as the mobile cellphone. Microsoft wants to control the formats and standards that underpin the web, thereby controlling the internet. A recent example is its reluctance to embrace the HTML5 standard. Thank God Microsoft doesn't control the cellphone too. At least that means there'll be someone else... another big player for competition.
Apple is evil. Apple wants everyone to use its iTunes store. Apple wants to control what applications run on the iPhone.
Now Google is also evil, as it operates behind closed walls, and like a piece of meat to the dogs, it throws some code over the fence every now and then.
Is there anyone who's not evil, who's cellphone we can use? Maemo maybe?
Only days ago it was revealed that the HTC HD2 suffers from a camera defect known as Pink Aura. Now, in the same week, we have Sony Ericsson pulling the Satio.
At least Sony-Ericsson is recalling the Satio, and not continuing to sell defective units. I'm not sure what HTC will do about its HD2.
Just one more fault to add to the long list. The HTC HD2 has a defective camera. The problem causes a pink aura over the centre of every photo.
But you don't have to believe me. Just Google the following words:
HTC HD2 camera pink
You'll find many accounts of this defect in the HD2.
I wouldn't think that Microsoft would do something so low as to pay HTC to keep the Snapdragon processor away from Android. Would The Borg do such a thing? Besides, the next HTC phone, called the HTC Passion, will be out soon. It's got the Snapdragon. And it's running Android. Hurray!!!
The SMS bug is actually a long-standing networking bug. WinInet doesn't allow the applications to set a reasonable timeout on the connection. Programs can get stuck, and unable to connect to the network. Then they must be restarted, and they see the network (hence the earlier reader's SMSes flying out when he restarted the phone).
This is old, PocketPC code that hasn't been updated. It's appalling.
Windows Mobile is by far the worst mobile OS out there. Its direction lead by Steve Ballmer. I can see its market share declining even more than it has already. WinMo version 7 next year is just going to be more pain. You won't be able to upgrade your current phone to it.
If you're thinking about buying a smartphone, buy ANY platform but Windows Mobile. Palm. Android. Maemo. Anything else is better.
The volume bug is caused by the mismatch between Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system, and the 'Sense' user interface that HTC has bolted on top, to cover up Microsoft's ugly OS.
They all come with the SMS bug. I don't know if it'll ever be possible to fix these, as it's a difficult procedure to upgrade Windows Mobile phones, and is also dependent on whether your mobile service provide will allow you to. It's also unlikely that these phones will be upgradeable to the next OS, Windows Mobile 7, which comes out next year. There are enough differences to make it incompatible with current phones.
HTC will soon release a top-end Android phone, called the Dragon in some markets, and called 'Passion' in others. Best to avoid anything with Windows Mobile and get the Android version instead.
It's kind of embarrassing to see Microsoft open this app store with so few apps to show. Developers have deserted it.
It's embarrassing to see Microsoft's WinMo marketshare keep dropping every quarter, while the overall smartphone industry is rising. How long can this keep going for?
Business users should realise that this is the end. You'd have to be nuts to commit your company to write in-house apps for Windows Mobile. You can already see the general migration of business apps to Android and iPhone.
Yesterday, the Telecoms Korea newspaper said that Samsung was to discard Windows Mobile. It even had detailed graphs and statistics acquired at an analysts' meeting.
http://www.telecomskorea.com/market-8281.html
Today, Samsung does a backflip, and now says it will retain Windows Mobile. Did they upset Microsoft or something? Did they have to make it sound not so bad for Redmond?
Android - Bada - Winmo, That still leaves them with 3 operating systems to design for, which will increase the design headaches for them.
Symbian and Windows Mobile are the two phone platforms that have a falling market share. Both were designed for use with stylus pens, rather than multi-touch. Both need to re-engineer their interfaces for multi-touch (HTC placing a cover over Windows Mobile in an attempt to hide WinMo as much as possible doesn't count).
With 45-50% of the mobile market, Symbian has some falling space. Its huge market share provides some padding, and allows it time to sort itself out, and improve the interface to be more touchy-feely.
Windows Mobile, on the other hand, is in a death spiral from which it cannot recover. WinMo's market share is falling very fast fast, but with just 8.8% market share (current Canalys estimate), WinMo is about to splatter on the tarmac. Most analysts, including Gartner, expect Microsoft to withdraw from the mobile market in 2010 or 2011. Windows Mobile is dead, so it's no wonder Microsoft can't find many developers to write applications for its deserted Mobile Marketplace.
Although Windows Mobile is now finished, with no hope of revival, Symbian will soon have another competitor eating its lunch. That's the Linux-based Maemo phone OS. Both OSes have the same mother (Nokia), and Maemo is the preferred child. Being Linux-based, Maemo will probably receive more love from the open-source community.
T-Mobile is probably getting closer to Google and Android, after its disastrous experience with Microsoft. Last month Microsoft lost the data of about a million 'Sidekick' phone users, with the end result that Microsoft got off scott free, while T-Mobile's good name was dragged through the dirt. Also, Microsoft's 'Windows Mobile' is a platform that the public no longer wants and has rejected (it has fallen to 8.8% market share, and still dropping).
The platform which has created public desire is Android, so it is predictable that T-Mobile would join the Android bandwagen.
I thought it was bizarre, that HTC said it will make this a Windows Mobile phone, even though the public all wants Android, for the stated reason that HTC needs to "take care" of Microsoft and Windows Mobile. Crazy stuff.
The only explanation I can think of is that Microsoft is paying HTC to make it. If Microsoft is paying, then that beats Google's Free OS model.
We already know that Apple's upcoming 'Slab' tablet device, which is basically an e-book reader and media-playing tablet, will run the iPhone OS. Therefore, we can deduce it will have an ARM processor, so it won't be x86 at all.
It makes sense. ARM will give it better battery life. iPhone OS will allow it to be a multi-touch screen interface. It could only run iPhone apps instead of Mac OSX apps, but that probably doesn't matter for an e-book reader anyway.
I've suspected for some time that HTC and LG are being paid by Microsoft to continue offering Windows Mobile phones (that the public doesn't want). Why else would any phone maker go against the obvious trend away from Windows Mobile, and do it at a time when Windows Mobile's percentage of smartphone sales is shrinking? I think money has got to be involved, and it sounds more like Microsoft coming to the aid of the handset makers.
Windows Mobile is failing, and it is inevitable that it will be discontinued in consumer smartphones. It's currently on life support, and no aid to the handset makers is going to save it.
It's great to see all this competition in the mobile space. Google is pumping out the Android updates at amazing speed. It wasn't long ago we got 'cupcake', and now they've already got Eclair 2.0 finished.
On the other side, we see Microsoft languishing, like a bird with broken wings, flapping around but unable to go anywhere. Unable to bring out updates to Windows Mobile in any reasonable time frame. Unable to incorporate digital zoom, gestures, or even multi-touch at an OS level. Unable to attract developers. It's obvious to all that Windows Mobile is already dead.
So the interesting thing is that we're entering a brave new world of internet everywhere, in the palm of everyone's hand. It's a new era, and Microsoft has no part in it.
The excuse that it was Sun servers and Oracle databases, "that Microsoft was unfamiliar with" is just buying the Microsoft PR damage control spin. Microsoft purchased those servers 18 months prior. Why didn't Microsoft employ someone who understood it?
I think only Microsoft could get away with spinning the truth like this. Imagine any other company that lost your data, and said "it's not our fault, as we were using Sun and Oracle branded equipment". Lost your data because we didn't employ anyone who knew how to use it.
Microsoft was wilfully negligent with the data security of 1 million customers. It didn't follow standard back-up procedures, which has nothing to do with the brand of server used. Then it tries to weasel its way out of responsibility.
At the same time, Microsoft is trying to convince the public to use its Azure and 'My Phone' cloud storage. If Microsoft followed wilfully negligent practices, and didn't bother backing up, who knows how it runs its other services. We really don't know.
Microsoft is behaving in a very sneaky way.
It doesn't want you to know how many users of its mobile phone platform had their data wiped out. Some reports quote Ballmer as saying "It is not clear there was data loss."
Microsoft is trying to make out there was no data loss, but as this Reg story says, customers' photos, notes, to-do lists have not been restored. So where is that data?
By not coming clean about the extent of the data loss and why it happened, Microsoft is painting itself to be a very untrustworthy company, especially in the mobile phone and "cloud" business.
Yes, this is what's known as 'The Microsoft Tax', which makes every new PC more expensive than it should be. You have to really search around to find a pre-installed Linux PC, to avoid paying the Microsoft tax in the first place.
Dell used to be in bed with Microsoft, but it's good to see Dell being a bit more independent these days, offering some Linux netbooks, and choosing Google Android for its mobile phones, rather than the moribund Windows Mobile.
This is a Microsoft issue, not a cloud issue.
It's panic stations inside Microsoft. Its 'Windows Mobile' OS is plummeting in marketshare, going from 25% a few years ago down to 9% today.
When management is in panic, it makes rash and stupid decisions. Microsoft pulled staff away from Danger, and reassigned them to help save Windows Mobile. The Sidekick phone, and its 1 million users, were essentially abandoned.
Expect Microsoft to make more panic decisions for its dying Windows Mobile platform.
Security problems seem to follow Microsoft like a swarm of blowflies.
The explanation given, that a "system failure that created data loss in the core database and backup", actually tells us nothing. Microsoft has an obligation to come clean and tell us what really happened to cause this debacle.
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