Windows Mobile 6.5, we wanted to love you. We wanted you to come along and wash away the past, whisking away all signs of the antiquated 6.1 we’ve grown so tired of ragging on.
We went into this review with the full hopes of emerging with a generally positive outlook. Sorry, Windows Mobile 6.5 – it’s just not going to happen.
General:
![Screen shot 2009-10-06 at [ October 6 ] 9.58.13 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-06-at-October-6-9.58.13-AM.png "Screen shot 2009-10-06 at [ October 6 ] 9.58.13 AM")
Take a Buick Lasabre. No, no, not a cool one from the late 1950s. Take one from the early 90’s, like the ones they use on cop shows. Now, strap a spoiler on it. The Lasabre is Windows Mobile. The Spoiler is all of the stuff 6.5 brings.
6.5 brings along a handbag of wonderful new features, and proceeds to strap it on top of the same hot mess we’ve known for years. The most shining example of this is in the overall design: a very small chunk of the operating system (namely, the home screen and the start screen – more on those later) has been overhauled for finger-friendliness. If you actually want to do anything, however, you’re straight back to using the stylus. Want to type? Stylus. Want to navigate the settings screens? Stylus. Want to do just about anything outside of launching an application? Yep – grab that stylus.
For reference, we tested Windows Mobile 6.5 on two versions of the HTC Touch Diamond – one without carrier branding, and the other as AT&T’s Pure.
The New Stuff in WinMo 6.5:
Windows Mobile 6.5 isn’t without it’s tricks. Here’s some of what it brings to the table:
- New Start Screen: The leak of WinMo’s new “Honeycomb” screens was one of the first signs that a new build was in the works. It gave people a lot of hope for the unborn release; by staggering the icons, it gave the oh-so-antiquated homescreen a fresh new look while making it more difficult to tap the wrong icon.
- New Internet Explorer: They’ve revamped the engine, opened up the screen real estate, and have worked to better embrace web standards. Has it helped? We’ll talk about this a bit later (Short answer: Not really.)
- New “Today” home screen: Looking to bring some level of standard across their mobile devices and their media devices, the new Today screen is very much influenced by the overall UI design of the Zune. Scrolling over each label (Pictures, music, getting started, phone, voicemail, clock, text, e-mail, calendar, and favorites) of the Today screen grants the user a small inkling of functionality (tapping the “music” label, for example, starts music playback – which just about everyone does accidentally the first time they use the OS).
- New lock screen: Trivial as it may be, this is actually one of our favorite aspects of the new OS. Rather than just providing a single unlock icon and a torrent of details in the open, idle space, Microsoft now provides a series of unlock icons based on alerts. If, for example, you’ve got an unread text message waiting for you, an unlock icon with the number of unread texts will be thrown right below the standard unlock icon. If you slide this icon, rather than the standard icon, you’ll jump directly to your text inbox.
The Interface:
![Screen shot 2009-10-06 at [ October 6 ] 9.58.26 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-06-at-October-6-9.58.26-AM.png "Screen shot 2009-10-06 at [ October 6 ] 9.58.26 AM")
As mentioned above, two major UI elements have seen changes here: the Start screen (where all of your apps are kept), and the Today screen (the first screen you see whenever you go to use the phone). Compared to Windows Mobile 6.1, both are wonderful, wonderful improvements. Compared to any other phone, it’s still pretty terrible.
First, the design flow itself. We’ve shared this phone with a few mobile newbies, primarily to see how quickly they could pick it up. Each and every one of them was initially confused as all hell by the Today screen/Start screen setup, thinking that they were just two versions of the same thing.
Nearly all of the competition has moved toward making applications the priority, putting them in full view as soon as the phone is unlocked. Windows Mobile is built around this idea of having a “Today” screen that serves as a launch pad, tucking the majority of your applications away in the start menu. People seem to be expecting the flow they’ve come to know from other handsets, and thus interact with the handset accordingly. This, of course isn’t Windows Mobile’s fault – but it’s worth noting: nobody we shared this handset with found themselves immediately comfortable. It is by no means intuitive. You can hand a friggin’ child an iPhone or an Android phone, and they’d figure it out in a few seconds.
“But no!” cries the WinMo crowd, “Windows Mobile isn’t made for children or lay people! It’s made for the business folk!” No. The complexities of this interface by no means improve its usability for anybody, much less those using this for business.
We can sum up the entire problem by pointing out one flaw: Let’s say you want to move an application in the start menu. You tap-and-hold an icon, expecting it to allow you to drag it to a new location. A menu pops up, with just one option: Move to top. You can not rearrange icons manually here. At all. If you want to move one icon to a specific location, you get to move every other icon arround it. This is an incredibly obvious use case, and it was not addressed. This lack of foresight extends throughout most of the OS.
The big glaring flaw: Typing sucks. Horribly.
![Screen shot 2009-10-06 at [ October 6 ] 10.03.20 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-06-at-October-6-10.03.20-AM-377x630.png "Screen shot 2009-10-06 at [ October 6 ] 10.03.20 AM")
Look – in a market now completely flooded with touchscreens, a huge chunk of which do not tote a physical keyboard, there’s one thing you need to make rock on your handset – or in this case, your OS: typing.
Typing on Windows Mobile 6.5 is an absolute miserable chore. How bad? Every time we sat down to review this thing, we got so frustrated with the keyboard that we had to stop. We. Hate. This. Keyboard. Typing on this keyboard is like sewing with your feet. Even with a stylus (do not even TRY typing without the stylus. You can not. Your fingers will hit every button except the one you intend to hit), an awkward lag between letters and the overall clunkiness made us want to rip out our hair. If nothing else did it, typing in Windows Mobile 6.5 immediately killed the entire OS for us.
Mobile Internet Explorer 6
![Screen shot 2009-10-06 at [ October 6 ] 9.57.38 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-06-at-October-6-9.57.38-AM-376x630.png "Screen shot 2009-10-06 at [ October 6 ] 9.57.38 AM")
Hurray! Huge Internet Explorer overhaul! That means it’s great now, right?
No. It still sucks. Yes – it’s marginally faster than it was before. Hell, we could probably say significantly faster and not be lying. It even adds smooth panning and scrolling! But it’s still a hot, hot mess. Pages render incorrectly, pages stall. The interface feels like it was designed by someone in 2002 taking a good guess at what would be popular in 2009. One good thing we can say about it: we’ve yet to see the browser crash, which inherently means it’s a big step up from the last iteration.
Immediately after testing, we bolted straight back to Opera. Fortunately, HTC was nice enough to provide Opera right on the handset. Other manufacturers, pay attention – you’ll probably want to do the same. If your manufacturer didn’t think to provide you an alternative, get to it quick. The only time you should spend in Mobile IE 6 is the time required to download another browser.
Windows Mobile Marketplace:
![Screen shot 2009-10-06 at [ October 6 ] 9.58.43 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-06-at-October-6-9.58.43-AM.png "Screen shot 2009-10-06 at [ October 6 ] 9.58.43 AM")
We’re only going to touch on this lightly, as this isn’t a 6.5-exclusive feature. While it’s making its debut on 6.5, it’s expected to roll out to 6.1 and beyond in the coming months.
It goes without saying: Windows Mobile needs an app store. Just about every major competitor, from Apple to RIM to Palm to Google, has an app store of their own. Windows Mobile is very much last to the party here – was it worth the wait?
To be honest, yes. It’s one of the few places that Microsoft didn’t.. well, that they didn’t screw up horribly. The interface in the Windows Mobile Marketplace is an obvious attempt at replicating the Zune-esque UI of the homescreen – and while they sort of fall short in the aesthetics department, it’s generally good elsewhere. They’ve only got a few hundred apps, as far as we can tell – but considering that it’s day one and Windows Mobile has had a few thousand apps available through other means for years now, we expect that number to rocket.
All account purchases are handled through your Windows Live ID, and can be charged to your credit card or, theoretically, your carrier bill. As far as we know, however, no carriers are currently supporting it.
![Screen shot 2009-10-06 at [ October 6 ] 9.58.54 AM](http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Screen-shot-2009-10-06-at-October-6-9.58.54-AM-180x300.png "Screen shot 2009-10-06 at [ October 6 ] 9.58.54 AM")
Conclusion:
Windows Mobile 6.5 is a spit and polish job on 6.1 – nothing more, nothing less. It’s a means of holding people over until Windows Mobile 7 – at least, we hope that’s all it is. Every single change in Windows Mobile 6.5 feels like it was made by a team of homebrewers or modders, rather than a huge corporation with truckloads of money to blow on one of their flagship products. Absolutely NONE of it seems like it was made with the rest of the OS in mind; one screen will be finger friendly, the next will require a stylus, and then back. One will be packed from edge to edge with gorgeous gradients, and the next will fall back on WinMo 6.1’s terribly archaic visuals.
If your manufacturer offers an upgrade path from 6.1 to 6.5, take it. The changes, while somewhat trivial and not executed nearly as gracefully as they should have been, do improve the experience.
If you did not like Windows Mobile 6.1 (or if you’ve never used it), we honestly would not recommend purchasing a Windows Mobile 6.5 phone.
What we liked:
- The new lock screen, with its context sensitive locks, is great – probably our favorite across all of the smartphone platforms, actually.
- Windows Mobile Marketplace, while by no means snazzy, gets the job done and ought to fill with apps fairly quickly
What we didn’t:
- Internet Explorer is still absolutely terrible
- The design flow of the entire operating system has felt antiquated for a very, very long time now; at this point, it’s just absurd.
- We hate the keyboard. I would walk to someones houses and talk to them before I attempted to send them a text message on this
- The rest of the operating system
I think this time android gonna kill window mobile for real …
WinMo 6 supports joysticks. It is similar to nokia symbian joystick os. Old 6.1 apps are designed for this, and not for touch, so half OS looks archaic.
The new applications, esp. third party, will come with touch friendly only.
I meant it supports joystick or arrow keys.
So it can be used for low end phones later on.
Nope.
Things cellphone buyers care about:
1) How cool it is
2) What it costs
3) Stuff you can do with it
.
.
.
999,999,999) The operating system.
WinMo 6.5 is indeed a bit iffy, however since it’s skinned to buggery, runs under UI shells on most good HTC, etc handsets and therefore looks awesome it just doesn’t matter. At all.
Android on the other hand looks like arse in its current form which is why it has had to be skinned by HTC to give it the “Ooh shiny!” factor.
Nokia just release the same clunky OS and still piss all over everyone else in terms of sales except in the US where they gave up in disgust a long time ago.
Go figure.
LOL your dreaming Idiot. You mean WM will destroy Iphone and Google Android. Google is good for web browser is all that company good for.
Good luck with your toy phone. WinMo is not for everyone.
True.Windows Mobile is for stupid & dumb only.
How’s your mail synch and mail app in toyOS?
I can’t speak for any other toy OSes, but the mail app on my iPhone is pretty spectacular. Syncs perfectly well with my company’s Exchange server.
Push gmail and the option of Exchange? Yeah I’m pretty happy with the email in my Android phone.
I like having a browser and keyboard that are practical to use too. I had a lot of this on my first-gen iPhone too (ok exchange was patched in later).
Ahahahahahah, not even a nice try. iPhones have integrated quite well with Exchange for awhile now. Also push e-mail of all types works perfectly. You are seriously trying to defend this archaic POS Windows Mobile? Really? I feel embarrassed for you. Maybe you should actually read the review before you post next time.
Orly? Last time I checked, it was unable so synch between ms outlook
Vygantas: Are you for real? I think you might just be pulling our leg.
Anyway, I sync my iPhone with my company’s Exchange server, and have synced it with three other companies’ Exchange server where I’ve worked. I got push email, contacts, and calendar from Outlookfrom all four places I’ve worked.
Seriously Vygantas, if you truly believe it isn’t possible, you are just straight up wrong and need to look into it.
I guess you could say it’s a toy. I do have lots of fun with it (as well as get work done… hell, I’ve even done development in a pinch from my iPhone, haha). But what does it say when a “toy” is kicking Windows Mobile’s ass so hard?
Funny thing is I disagree. I’ve been using a 6.5 phone for a couple of weeks now and it’s actually pretty awesome. i just wish it had a capacitive touch screen. and deep integration with google voice.
Is this the real Michael Arrington??? If so, I am confused. It’s a VERY bad review, and it constantly uses “we”, so I thought that’s the TechCrunch opinion. But the boss loves it?
We write in the collective when it seems to be the general feeling of those involved in the review; in this case, the MobileCrunch team.
That said, we have something like 15 writers throughout the TC network. There couldn’t possibly be such a thing as “the TechCrunch opinion” – just the prevailing opinion of the writers involved.
I thought a TechCrunch author’s comment is supposed to be highlighted green or something. Arrington’s comment isn’t highlighted…looks (and sounds) like an imposter.
I agree with Paul’s broader point, though. This is a scathing review of the OS, and there’s nothing here to suggest that some within your SMALL organization are not only satisfied with it, but actually *like* it. (particularly an advanced mobile user like Arrington).
You excoriate the OS in your review, but if, even among your 15 staff, there’s dissent, it should have been mentioned, even if only in passing.
Would all 15 writers confuse “its” for “it’s”? Or is that because it’s 15 writers and 0 editors? ;)
Check out the HD2 then – it addresses almost all of WM’s own shortcomings, and then some. Heck, there’s even a capacitive screen. Pre-ordered mine already… http://www.htc.com/uk/product/hd2/overview.html
The HD2 is looking pretty hot.
Trust me, it’s garbage. We’re with Greg on this one.
To put it kindly, this review is not all that great. You should grab some clues from Ars Technica, who refrain from saying something like “this phone OS sucks”, even if it does.
Then again, if its purpose was fanboy bait, then it worked just fine.
Microsoft failed to make a coherent operating system?
Color me shocked.
My favorite part is the registry. For some reason, bluetooth hangs and a third party registry editor was the only way to get it to turn on/off.
I say *was* for my two WinMos (a flip and a slider) as both of them have since been sacrificed to save my sanity.
I love my iPhone. Period.
I still have a WinMo 5.0 phone on Verizon; I drop it intentionally from time to time hoping it will break.
5.0, 6.1, 6.5, X.X… Windows Mobile is a FAIL.
HTC is the only reason why Windows Mobile is still alive. Good hardware and stunning software like TouchFlo 3D. Without HTC Windows Mobile was already dead!!
My favourite, you ask? (allright you’re not asking but I’ll tell you anyway):
HTC Hardware, the openness of Android, tha UI of WebOS and the Apps from the iPhone.
Samsung? Motorola? Hell, Toshiba? Windows Mobile is the greatest smartphone operating system and everybody but you retards seems to realize it.
You are so right! Everyone hates WinMo for reasons that don’t exist. At least, you need a freeware program to do what you want. MarketPlace is OK, but I still use freewarepocketpc.com for most of my apps. Name ONE thing an iphone or android can do that WinMo can’t. Just try.
Sounds like you really hit the nail on the head with the car analogy. Maybe Mr. Softy needs a lot of fresh blood in there. People who use modern smartphones.
they do. & all of ‘em use iPhones.
But the HTC HD2 will own us all :
http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2009/10/06/one-more-htc-hd2-preview-with-video-heading-to-the-us-in-q1-2010/
Looks like some awesome hardware. Same about the OS.
*shame
HTC do a really good job of keeping you away from the Windows Mobile UI… You can easily use the more recent ROMs without every seeing a Windows Mobile element. In fairness, Windows Mobile is a very capable OS, it just looks pretty poor and isn’t as intuitive as, say, iPhone and Android is out of the gate.
But, stick the TouchFLO system from the Leo on, and it’s amazing. For me, the ROM from the Leo (HD2) that’s been floating around the interwebs, actually outshines the iPhone and Android on many levels, couple it with the HD2 hardware, and you’ve got yourself some competition…
Just my opinion of course.
I wouldn’t buy a Windows Mobile phone that hadn’t been through HTC. I just wish MS would get behind HTC a bit more with advertising.
Windoze has always been such an extreme disappointment :-( The only feature I every enjoyed about my Windoze Mobile from many moons ago was the ability to terminal service. The constant rebooting, weak web browsing, snail-paced processing, and over all lack luster feature set continue to make it nearly as disappointing as Vista!
I used WinMo for yrs. It sucked. It was slower than my Treo and the Treo processor was at least 3x slower. I have an Android now. Very happy.
Well, Windows Mobile…
Soooooo 2006…
That good old time when people loved to use a stylus, when Windows would kill the PalmOS…
They even launched a Treo with it…
MICROSOFT WOULD THINK!
We have fingers and we love them… bad typing such be punished with prison.
And also: MS always stealed the good things from other OSs to build Windows for desktops… WHY FUCKING NOT DO THE SAME WITH THE MOBILE VERSION?
#FAIL!
When the ceo puts Apple down at every opportunity, and the ex-ceo publicly refuses to have any Apple products in his house, how is their company ever going to be open to seeing how things really _should_ be done? The fish rots from the head downwards after all.
Frankly none of this surprises me any more. One of these days they may just get lucky with something new of theirs being outstanding in its field, but I’m not holding my breath.
The piles of money in Redmond are too high for the decision makers to see past, they don’t know what people really want. Hey MSFT, feel that pull on the back of your shirt, it’s Android catching you from behind because you’re no longer fast, nimble or creative, and even money can’t seem to get you to build something great. It’s time for the sole goal in Redmond to be simply this: “be like Apple, in every way.”
WinMo6.5 is a stop gap OS. WinMo7.0 is going to be the real deal.. but I am sure what TechCrunch’s review will be like.
I totally agree. Microsoft always tries to copy Apple, and this time is no different. Once again, Microsoft did a pitiful job of trying to copy Apple’s innovations and creativity.
HA HA Yeah right copy apple so your saying Google Android does not copy junk Iphone joke innovation too??? hahaha Also when is apple going to add another basic feature? they added basic copy & paste and video recording haha windows mobile already has those features for over 4yrs now. Seems like Windows Mobile is the one with the true innovation ahead of Junk Iphone.
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Frankly, I don’t understand why Microsoft doesn’t just turn development over to HTC. Unlike Microsoft, they do a spectacular job.
For me, I’m off to get an Android Hero.
I have a WinMo phone (with a custom 6.5 rom), and yes, it sucks as a modern mobile OS. So much so that I boot into a hacked custom Android build.
To be fair to MS, it’s not them that sucks, it’s just that the foundation of WinMo is old as hell. There was once a time when WinMo was a attractive platform — back in the PalmOS days — but now there’s no point in devoting so much time into upgrading it’s current form, and that’s exactly what happened. MS put very little resources into upgrading it properly.
With the release of Windows 7 and Zune, and the recent glances of Courier, I have no doubt that WinMo7 will be worth using, if not great.
I have to disagree that it’s not MS that sucks. Apple would never in a million years have ever let something as substandard as 6.5 out into the market, let alone 6.1. It’s hacksville gone crazy. How can this ever be considered a professional product? Moreover, a professional product from one of the richest and largest companies in the world today. I am simply staggered that any company of their ilk could ever release something as shoddy as this and think that it was in any way okay. Unless they really think that it’s great. In which case I simply hold my hands to the heavens and walk away, shaking my head as I go.
You never owned a Lisa then, or a Mac III.
Wow..Lisa and Apple III!? Seriously? Next time try and pick an example more recent than 25 years ago, please?
I mean, that’s like me saying “of COURSE Win Mobile sucks, look at Windows 1!”
@Wraithe
You’ve never used the original iPhone, then. :p
(BTW, he said the Macintosh III, which was made in 1993. Still old, but not as old as you think.)
Or a new generation Shuffle.
No such thing as a Mac III.
perhaps you mean an Apple III.
-Mart
This shows how users of Apple are out dated LOL… WM wins again.
I don’t work for MS, but all the articles point to the same thing, that is, that they developed 6.5 to have a mobile brand until WM7 is released. Like I said, the foundation of WM was developed during a time that had significantly slower specs. During that time WM was okay.
I have no problem saying that WM sucks today. I can also say they were stupid for developing WM6 — which was also a very minimal upgrade to WM5. Even back then they were stretching that OS too far. But to say that MS sucks, isn’t true, what will you say when they make a mobile OS (WM7) that is on par with the quality of Windows 7, Zune, and Courier? You’re basing your opinion on software that is past gen.
It was either extend WM6 again, or go through a dead period where they cut all contact with phone manufacturers.
“Even with a stylus (do not even TRY typing without the stylus. You can not. Your fingers will hit every button except the one you intend to hit), an awkward lag between letters and the overall clunkiness made us want to rip out our hair.”
Surely you just had a cursory look at the options and conveniently forgot to align your screen from the System menu.
Once you complete that process, there’s no such problem.
Why should you have to “align your screen”? I don’t have to “align my screen” on my iPhone. It just works.
That’s why I ditched WinMo a couple years ago. Much like the desktop OS, you always have to dink around with it to get what you need. I don’t have time for that crap.
you have to calibrate because WinMo phones use resistive touch screens as opposed to capacitive. it’s the hardware manufacturer that dictates this characteristic, not MSFT.
i really don’t know if you can blame MSFT for this when it’s the hardware manu’s who choose the touch technology.
and this is coming from someone with an iphone.
One thing this article fails to mention – this keyboard is specific to HTC devices – not ALL WM6.5 devices will have this same keyboard. WinMo supports pluggable keyboards so there are several other options out there. The keyboard should not be the “death nail” for this OS, especially when it can be easily changed.
i think for a device w/o any keyboard, the failures of the onscreen keyboard = nail in the coffin for the os.
what else is it good for then if you can’t properly input data/commands?
would you buy a laptop with a keyboard that only worked 50% of the time and when you hit the A key it recognized it as a the S? imo, input is a HUGE part of the OS and its failings. or atleast IMO.
well my point was on WinMo you can change the soft keyboard to a variety of other choices, so the one that came with the device is not your final and only choice.
To be fair, even though I can’t stand Windows Mobile, it does have other text input methods than typing, like quite good handwriting recognition.
The above screenshot of the keyboard is the ‘default’ for the on-screen keyboard. The mode is called ‘Touch Input’ and it is supposed to make it possible to type one-handed with your thumb while the device is craddled in your palm. Under a non-disclosure, I have been testing the HTC Touch Pro 2 with WM6.5 for the last month, so I am intimate with this feature. Now that it is public, I can talk about it. The ‘delay’ that is referred to is because you can hold a key and after a short delay, you get a pop-up that lets you choose one or more alternate characters. For example, hold the ‘e’ for a moment, and a pop-up allows you to choose the grey 3-character shown above as the first choice, along with 6 different ‘e-type’ alternate characters. Just lift your thumb to select the first choice, or glide over to the one you want to lift. The other feature of the ‘Touch Input’ mode (at least on the Touch Pro 2, is that the device gives a slight vibration as it types each character (this is an option that can be turned on or off).
That being said, the default ‘Touch Input’ isn’t the only choice. For stylus typing, it would be much better to use the ‘Keyboard’ mode as there is no ‘delay’ between tapping the character and it showing up on the screen.
So if typing ‘killed’ this OS for the reviewer, then perhaps he/they should have tried the other modes.
I wonder if the author tried any of the other included keyboards, like the phone keypad or the Compact QWERTY which are both better for larger fingers on smaller screens. He probably didn’t notice any of the other input methods either. Character recognizer is one of my favorite default input methods.
That said, the QWERTY touch screen keyboard is EXACTLY the same as the touch screen keyboard on the HTC Hero. I agree, it sucks, but it is not the fault of Windows Mobile at all.
Has the author tried typing using a Touch Pro 2 or ATT Tilt 2? Those devices have by far the best hardware keyboards on any mobile device!
I’m not a fan of Windows Mobile and Microsoft, but I disagree with TechCrunch conclusions and comments. I don’t like this kind of sensationalist and non-impartial review.
I tend to believe that the only reason to write this kind of review is to grab more clicks or get money from marketing agencies behind Microsoft competitors, paying to spread bad news about new products. (this seems to be a terrible common bad practice in USA now a day).
TechCrunch is loosing their credibility totally with such kind of unprofessional job.
Dude, get used to it. ALL TechCrunch articles are like this, which is why hardly anyone reads them.
After spending the last couple of years on a Palm Treo with Windows, I don’t think that I could ever use another Windows Mobile handset again. Its beyond horrible and I can’t believe that I paid like $300 for the piece of sh*t. On the other hand, I absolutely love my Zune and its interface. Its odd how MS Mobile gets so wrong while the Zune progressively gets better and better. As for phone, I’m looking forward to dropping the Treo handset and picking up an Android-based HTC Hero from Sprint next week.
Seems to be anything with the word “Windows” on it gets the touch of death from Microsoft.
I’d say this is the Microsoft way.
Release an ill-conceived, even rushed product (especially one where competitors are making a fortune) to market only to follow up with a product that seems vastly superior to its predecessor, although it may be average to its contemporaries. People, amazed at how much the new one is, happily buy it because “now it’s better!”
Microsoft became like an enormous ocean liner years ago. Once the ocean liner gets started in one direction it takes for ever to even make a slight change in course. (one hears the sound of a fog horn in far distance)
:: crossing fingers and hoping for an iceberg dead ahead ::
I don’t get it. Why do people keep buying anything from Microsoft? They are famous for their lack of innovation for many years now. The last product that was somewhat good was probably XP – back in 2001 … and even that was not a true innovation, rather what Windows7 is for Vista: cleanup of the former mess (WindowsME, Windows2000).
Even when being very very generous I couldn’t possibly find any truly remarkable thing Microsoft did the last 10 years – and still people buy their products like candy.
Look around what others did:
- Google’s Android, their 1st os – brilliant
- Mac OS X – pretty much defines what’s next in Windows
- Nintendo Wii – cool new concept
- iPhone/iPod – just awesome
- Google Search/Maps/Earth …
The list is endless but I fail to find anything from Microsoft to add. They are just there because … well … because they have been there before.
XBOX/XBOX360 (even with the red ring of death)
Please help me, what again was the innovative part of the XBOX/XBOX360? The crashing? The multitude of hardware problems?
You’re right, without innovation products just aren’t worth buying… I must have been distracted by something shiny.
Have to disagree, Win7 is an ENTIRELY NEW kernel. Not a “fix” of Vista. It looks like Vista, yes, true, but the chrome is not the car.
FWIW – speed-wise, Win7 blows Snow Leopard out of the water, easily. Boot time, application load times, everything; seconds faster on a less powerful machine. Oh, and it doesn’t hang and lock up every damned time you try to wake it up from sleep, unlike Snow Leopard.
That’s not to say there couldn’t be improvements, because by the standards of today’s hardware EVERY major OS is crap.
I’m not sure that you are talking about the same Windows7 that I saw. Fine, they might have written a new kernel – to fix the crap they caused with Vista. I still fail to see anything innovative here.
Forget that I don’t see how Windows7 is significantly faster than Snow Leopard and I seriously don’t care for a second more or less boot time – I work on my laptop, I don’t boot it 10 times a day. I don’t even remember when I switched off my laptop the last time.
But even if it would be a tad bit faster – what’s so innovative about it? It’s on par with XP, a 8 year old os. It’s slower than Ubuntu, in boot and in application load time.
Regarding the sleep: as long as pretty much any laptop with Windows runs of of juice when put to sleep for more than a day while a MacBook can stay in the same mode for days and still have power left to work an hour or more this whole function is void anyway. And I have yet to experience a hang when waking up a MacBook from sleep.
So tell me, what’s so innovative about Windows7 that let’s it shine?
I know they were initially blowing smoke about an all-new lightweight kernel, but in the end didn’t deliver that. Shock. It’s a (mostly?) fixed Vista (like it now has drivers vs. when Vista shipped) with a couple of changes to the taskbar. None of the performance tests have shown any great improvements.
That said, Snow Leopard has a bunch of plumbing changes that will handle multi-core scaling very nicely and new developer APIs to take advantage of that, but it’s not an “exciting” upgrade for Leopard users, thus the $29 price tag, I think. I have seen dramatic improvements on rendering that implies much better kernel handling of thread-to-core mapping, but again, if you’re surfing and checking mail, it’s snappier but not in-your-face different looking.
FWIW, I’ve never had Snow Leopard hang/freeze my machine whether it was waking from sleep or whatnot. Have you seen this on an actual Mac(Book) or some knockoff that got tossed together? I’ve certainly seen my work Dell hang on wake / dock / undock, but that’s another story.
I’m not sure if it’s you or Thoralf that deserves the ‘Stupid Fucking Fanboy’ award for your posts on this subject.
It’s really too close to call.
Mark A: I find that when someone starts to stoop to ad hominim attacks they have run out of intelligent things to say.
Why get so worked up over people’s opinions?
Grrr! Someone disagrees with me! They are stupid and fucking! Rawr!
Switch to decaf?
“They are famous for their lack of innovation for many years now.”
Sure, that’s why they’re in the top 5 most innovative companies as voted by Business Week readers.
Come back when you actually know what you’re talking about, son.
I loved my winmo phones….for the first couple of weeks…until they became slow, unresponsive, buttons started breaking (yes I know, the hw vendor and not MS,) and the entire device froze….repeatedly…day after day….
A cell phone with a battery that lasts 2 hours tops after 3 mos of use is pretty useless….not to mention unresponsive touch screens and poor rendering of web pages.
I’m now an iphone convert – which I said I’d never be because of its lack of keyboard. But, they touch typing does improve, it ‘learns’ how you type, and it’s a great all in one – well it sucks as a phone and for email but other than that… :)
Maybe next time you can review it from planning/meeting/working/business perspective?
Also, most HTCs comes with Opera Mobile anyway.
Thanks, my sentiments exactly! WM is for business, not entertainment.
Really? And what does the iPhone lack for planning/meeting/working/business? Have you even seen the business apps for the iPhone?
Granted, it might be kind of hard to notice them with your head stuck in the sand…
And before you call me a fanboy, know that I am a happily MS-centric developer, and was considering a Mac before I started using the RTM of Windows 7. Also, I have used WinMo phones for years (in business situations) before switching to iPhone and being very satisfied that I wasn’t missing any business functionality. Have you experienced both sides of the issue (i.e., used both devices) and made an informed decision?
I use both devices and Apple’s built-in stuff is barely usable. WM’s built-in apps work just fine, as plain as they may be.
No list of your appointments and tasks on the home screen, it also doesn’t seem to mark important tasks over minor ones, alarm that barely sounds, no built-in Office program, etc. etc. etc. I can use the iPhone but not for much business! Maybe I will check the App store for business apps, but I really did have to go back to other phones after trying to use the iPhone for business. It simply didn’t work the way I needed it to out of the box. WM does, even if it, supposedly by listening to all of you, “sucks”.
Now for music and vids, iPhone is clearly better and WM sorely lacking.
I’m rather surprised at what I see here. At one time I sold WinCE devices, (iPaq, Cassiopeia and one other I can’t recall) in the 2000-2001 range. Even back then it did poorly against PalmOS. The Cassiopeia’s were sales killers, I stopped showing them to customers because it’d kill a WinCE sale right there. Looking at what has been shown interface wise on more than a few sites now it appears that astoundingly little has changed. I guess it’s fortunate that MS has the money to toss at it because no other company could have done so, for so long, and not corrected the myriad of frustrations with the OS.
Uh, and where is Cassiopeia today?
Exactly.
Ill stick wiht my iPhone. Just like the rest of windows software. It all sucks….consitantly
Kind of like your spelling and grammar?
Couldn’t agree more with Thoralf Will. There has been massive innovation in this industry from other companies and Microsoft has done nothing but chase tail.
The strategy of running circles around Microsoft will kill them eventually. They suffer from too much cool envy.
But overall, I’m with Thoralf. I don’t understand why people continue to buy in to the Microsoft racket.
Juxtaposed against the Verizon – Google announcement today this is especially tough for Microsoft – http://bit.ly/5smxR. But Microsoft is still innovating hard and overall today’s announcements are going to be a great thing for consumers as everyone triples down on investment in innovation.
So one of the biggest problems with WinMo is the One Push email/One Calendar limitation.
WinMo users have been begging for years for a change on this front but M$ refuses to listen.
No multiple push ability = FAIL
“LeSabre”
It’s amazing that people have so much hate for the only mobile OS that for years was the most robust and usable for REAL WORK, NOT JUST ENTERTAINMENT. You don’t need to carry your laptop around in most cases, just load what you need into Office Mobile, etc. It’s true it was never good for goofing off(entertainment features are lacking) but then some people need their smartphones for work first. You can also buy apps to enhance the entertainment.
Speaking of apps, before people got all caught up with App stores, there were and likely still are plenty of free and paid WM app vendors that can be found online.
And remember that WM already had features people wished Mobile OSX had out of the box the first time around, copy and paste and background tasks to name some. An office program and a better calender like WM’s would have been nice for business users also.
I’ve used both iPhone and WM(haven’t used Android yet so I can’t comment on it), and I would still use WM if I needed to do serious business.
Sorry but the much more reliable and used os for business cases is certainly Symbian.
Symbian itself is pretty much outdated as well (and Nokia has realized that, unlike Microsoft who tries to keep riding its dead horse) but it is probably still used at least 10 times more often on business phones than WiMo.
This could be true overseas but Symbian never took hold in the US for whatever reason. I will still use WM for serious business, the apps are much more robust and there are many more of them. Every time I look at Symbian apps, I see a few that are overpriced for what you get(I have a Nokia phone too, LOL). I look on Handango(or a similar site) for WM apps, I see a wide range from free to expensive and you have much more choice. Although the new S60-5 phones seem to have better built-in options, but apps are still expensive.
MSFT does need to overhaul WM but it always came though for me when I needed it for business.
@Stephanie C.- What did you do when you had to connect to two Exchange accounts or more than one calendar?!
My situation is different from many. I don’t work for a corporation, I’m self-employed. So I didn’t use Exchange. I did read your comment about “No multiple push ability = FAIL”. I mainly just used the data connection with “pull” periodically to check for email. I’m on AT&T with a data plan so that worked for me.
And all my calender events were entered into an app that color coded business from personal. I never really needed more than one calender when using that app.
@Stephanie C- I’m self-employed to but I work with several different groups and many different email systems. I so wanted WM to be more than it is… but sadly it is not. It is the classic Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, etc Lock-in.
I’m done with WM and proprietary systems… I’m thinking it will be a WebOS or Andriod for me next time. At least I will be able to have more than one calendar.
Here’s the problem. Yes, at one time, years ago, WinMo was pretty much the only choice available for serious work. To this day there are some WM apps that have no equivalent on any other handheld. However, just like PalmOS, WM has completely stagnated. The OS has not improved for years. It still has quirks it had back in WM5. It is a usability nightmare. My last WM handheld (6.1) took hours of configuring and installing 3rd-party apps before it was really usable. Worst of all, in a world where competitors are pumping out OTA OS updates every few months, which install on current models, Microsoft’s business model of coming out with a point release every couple years, and requiring you to buy a new handheld to get it, just doesn’t fly anymore.
There is really no excuse for why WM has come such a short distance in such a long time. It isn’t like MS is short on resources. Even RIM, who is pretty stingy with the updates themselves, is faster to refresh the OS than MS. In the time between WM6 and WM6.5, Android, WebOS and OSX mobile were developed from the ground up. They may not be perfect, but MS has had a decade head start on them, and not a lot to show for that. If MS even wants to stay in the mobile game, they need to take a page from Palm’s book, just dump the legacy code, and start over from scratch. That said, I really don’t think at this point they have a hope. Apple has a vice-like grip on the hearts and minds of their followers, so nothing Microsoft can do will ever lure them away from the iPhone, and Android is starting to win a place in the hearts of both geeks and device manufacturers. WM is just too far behind now, and MS is going to need something a lot more radical than 6.5 to get device manufacturers to pay that licensing fee, when Android is free, and in many ways a more capable OS.
Lee- your synopsis is spot-on. I’m looking forward to the “Sholes” reviews.
Lee, I agree with everything you said, except for one thing. An OS is composed of many subsystems. There is nothing wrong with most of WM, so I don’t think it is necessary for them to throw it all out and start over. The problem is with the user interface of the built-in utility programs, and possibly with the UI support libraries as well.
With WM 6.5, it looks to me like they went about half way towards modernizing their UI. I’m as disappointed as everyone else that they didn’t go all the way. But, I don’t think that they are as far away from getting it 100% right as most everyone seems to think.
After many years in the tech industry, one thing that I’ve learned is that it is always a mistake to count Microsoft out. If a product line is important to them–and Balmer has repeatedly said that mobile IS important–they’ll keep at it and keep at it until they get it right.
You know, I just haven’t gotten the impression that Windows Mobile IS important to MS though. They have had years to fix some simple problems, like the ringer unexpectedly ceasing to function if the phone is on too long without a reboot, and they just haven’t. I could go on for hours with little problems the OS has, and has had since WM5 or earlier.
Do these little problems mean they actually have to start over from scratch? No, of course they don’t. The reason I suggest starting over isn’t a technological one. The reason I think they just need to start over, is because if the code is so hard to manage that it takes two years to get from 6.1 to 6.5, then they clearly need to rethink the whole thing from a management perspective.
Windows Mobile has always been developed at a glacial pace. Maybe that is a code management issue, maybe it is a priority issue, but the simple fact is that no one, even Microsoft, can survive in the current smartphone market if it takes you two years to respond to what your competitors are doing. The market just moves too fast.
Just look at the past two years as an example. When 6.1 came out, Microsoft, rightly, did not see the iPhone as a threat, because you couldn’t install apps, could not connect to an Exchange server (without disabling security), couldn’t even cut and paste. In the time it has taken Microsoft to update half the UI for 6.5, all of that has changed, and now the iPhone is eating into their marketshare. Even worse, in the lull between 6.1 and 6.5, Android has come out of nowhere, and is now directly taking licenses away from Microsoft at some of their best Windows Mobile customers.
It is just too slow. If it takes that long to make relatively minor tweaks to the OS, then it is time to better utilize development resources. Back when Palm and MS were competing to see who could be slower with OS updates, that might have been an acceptable tactic, because there was no alternative. Google, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be dragging their feet with the updates, and is specifically targeting all the manufacturers who license WM.
WM6.5 is a fantastic competitor to PalmOS Garnet, OSX mobile 1.0 and BlackBerry OS 3.8, but it is like Microsoft hasn’t even registered what has gone on in the past year or two.
I agree with these comments… The OS was planned when available processors were slow and memory was expensive.
The first thing that stroke me when Iphone 1 was launched was that the OS by itself used 500+ MB of the available memory/space…. that time WM was looking to fit into 128/256 memory footprint, so bling, UI and library elements weren’t an option.
For me this was the novelty of Iphone OS… I don’t have one, I find it ridiculously expensive (without the data plan) and bought me an HTC magic (mytouhc I believe). HAve bling with sense UI, have store, have replaceable SD cards, trackball and a spectacular virtual keyboard developed by HTC (I believe) that shows the main letter and the first secondary (just keep the finger pressed like in iphone) so you don’t have to tap on the num keyboard to get a number.
I really do expect wm7 to be a show stopper for the sake of the Windows licence… and I believe that zuneOS bling options atop the ultra light CE engine will be the future of this particular smartphone line…
“Worst of all, in a world where competitors are pumping out OTA OS updates every few months, which install on current models, Microsoft’s business model of coming out with a point release every couple years, and requiring you to buy a new handheld to get it, just doesn’t fly anymore.”
This I can agree with. They do offer updates but only to a few select phones and if yours isn’t on the list, tough luck. That does piss me off.
If only WebOS had gone GSM a lot faster. Who knows how long before AT&T gets anything WebOS? They also don’t seem to be keen on Android. But then there’s always T-Mobile for Android, so that could be the one I try next. I prefer a GSM phone, otherwise I could have gone to Verizon or Sprint since they’re coming out with Android phones.
Have you ever try SonyEricsson P1i smartphone. I used to have P990i and now I have for many years P1i and count me as very satisfied customer. IMHO SE move from Symbian OS to WinMm in Xperia phones was really bad move. P1i has full office suite for free, tabbed web browser (Opera), message suite (SMS, MSS, unlimited email accounts), media player, copy&paste, SyncML for task, events, contacs and email out of box and free. This has been Swiss knife for me as I got it with GPS as well.
Reading the review and all your comments makes me feel good that I own SE P1i with 8GB memory card which is even plenty space for all my work docs, couple of movies and hundreds of MP3s.
Sending back my Touch Pro 2 today.
Ive been using windows mobile 6.5 for about a week. IT SUCKS! You would think microsoft would have done better. I almost feel sorry for them. No matter how hard they try, they blow it.
“You would think Microsoft would have done better.”
Would you?
Wow. Talk about bashing in the comments. Mind you, even I wouldn’t call WinMo a flagship product of Microsoft. WinMo7 *might* be.
What an excellent review – thanks so much. I have a samsung omnia that i despise more every day and was hoping so badly that WinMo 6.5 was going to save me from breaking my contract and going to At&t.
Your review went along way towards making me realize that that is an unavoidable scenario apparently.
Hopefully we see some of the fantastic Zune HD interface make a permanent addition to Windows Mobile 7.
After seeing this review, we’re definitely waiting to see WM 7 before rolling out any Apps for the windows mobile marketplace.
Best line: “Typing on this keyboard is like sewing with your feet”
… So, is Arrington a fan of 6.5, or was that an imposter in the comments?
Hmmmm. Looks like Iphone for me . . .
http://www.traderbots.com/stocks/Stock.aspx?symbol=msft
I love this product. Thank’s for your reviews
With Goomeo the Winmo will be unique !
http://www.goomeo.com
Very much disagree with the assessment that the keyboard sucks. I actually prefer the keyboard on my HTC phone to the iPhone on-screen keyboard.
The auto-completion/word detection is much better. Plus I can quickly switch auto-complete on/off as well (don’t have to go to setting as in a Android for example). When hitting ’shift’ I SEE that the letters are capitalized (iPhone just highlights the ’shift’ key). When holding a character it gives many alternate relevant letters and numbers, thus no need to switch to a number mode just to enter a single digit.
In this department I definitely think that the iPhone has been out-innovated. Did you guys calibrate the screen (as you are supposed to during first startup)?
Nice review. I Like It. I was in search of it. I come across this link, gonna share to you. WinMob of 4.95$ and one another store 14.95$. Click on the prices to check.
http://www.justcompareit.com/s~q-Windows-Mobile-6.5.aspx?ag=3
“do not even TRY typing without the stylus. You can not. Your fingers will hit every button except the one you intend to hit”
…you keep forgetting that at least 50 percent of the population tend to have NAILS. no need for any stupid stylus, and accuracy is extremely high — as long as the phone has a resistive screen, that is.
well get a phone that has built in Qwerty keyboard. which is better than using virural keyboard which is why iphone virtual keyboard sucks!
How many languages does a fixed keyboard support?
One, and that sucks.
Multitouch on iPhone is the bomb. In fact, using Jadu Teleport operates Windows via remote desktop better then Windows itself, with multitouch goodness and certainly better then the native, crappy RDP client that comes with WinMo.
Its pretty sad when the native WinMo platform doesn’t even come close to managing its own parent OS “Windows” as well as a third party.
Wake Up Microsoft!
LOL… I laugh all these idiot Iphone users. Windows Phone beats Iphone anytime. All you Iphone look at your phone has good looking and Iphone is good for only use has a App phone ha ha how boring. It not how the phone looks idiots. It how it the phone performs is what matters. Here reason why Iphone will suck even longer.
1.) Iphone Battery is welded in which is a joke has how can I ever swap battery if my phone dies out? Do I have to look for a stupid plug outlet if I am middle of no where? Big dissapointment also is that Iphone battery runs out quick.
2.) Iphone can’t expand more storage space because it is built in the Junk Iphone. What will happen I used all my Internal Storage space storing my music, photos and other files? It does not even have a MicroSD slot for me to expand further. Windows Phones can expand storage space on the fly using (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 40 gigabyte)
Also cost purchase the MicroSD is very affortable.
3.) Iphone can’t even open many Apps at once hah ha Very sad. Windows mobile can open many Apps at once.
4.) Iphone does not even have Flash built in to the crappy Iphone web browser safari ha ha what a joke has 90% of the website are Flash base. So using the Crappy web browser on Iphone is useless. Windows Mobile works well with Flash and Java.
5.) Iphone is a personal phone and NOT a Business phone. Iphone are for teen and people with little knowledge which is easy for them.
Windows Mobile is great because it is use for personal & Business use and also expanding further in technology. Why do you see many Big Companies like Sony, HTC, Toshiba, Sony, LG, Samsung uses Windows Mobile on there phones.
Iphone is a Joke like I said all the hype on the Iphone is just it good looks but it can’t perform better than windows mobile.
So yes Windows Phones Wins.
iPhones aren’t perfect. But so aren’t Windows Mobile phones either.
The drawbacks you mention don’t really affect me personally. All I know is I used Windows Mobile phones for years for business and personal use, and after using an iPhone for two years now I am way happier with the iPhone.
You can talk about this, that, and the other thing all you want, but frankly iPhone is winning the smartphone race. MS is lagging far behind. Maybe Windows Mobile 7 will make the difference.
Iphones are perfect of how it looks and adding apps is all the Iphone is good at. In real life Iphone is a Junk phone. It useless in Business it just a personal phone. Windows Phone are both personal and business. So dont be jealous why I wrote of Iphone lack of features. Which is true to the point. Useless and No it not winning the smartphone. Windows Mobile is winning still has it shows Big Major Companies like Sony, Toshiba, HTC, LG, Samsung, Palm uses windows mobile has they know it will perform way better in Business and personal use. Iphone is just a App phone is all it can do. Boring…. has Windows Mobile has Thousands of Apps already before big clunky Iphone came out 2yrs ago. Funny is when Iphone comes out new feature windows phones already has it ha ha ha shows you who is demand in mobile technology.
Steve: Can you tell me why it is useless for business? You make a lot of claims, but it doesn’t seem like you can back them up. And nowhere did I say I was jealous. I’m not sure what I should be jealous of.
Oh, and it might not fit into the nice little fantasy you have going on, but you might like to take a look at these links. They clearly prove you wrong.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=1163
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2007/12/14/canalys-symbian-apple-iphone-already-leads-windows-mobile-in-us-market-share-q3-2007/
http://gizmodo.com/353408/iphone-smashes-windows-mobile-and-motorola-in-4q
Geez Iphone never perfect. It just totally a Junk Phone which is useless to use. It good only for buying apps how boring has windows mobile has thousands of Apps that are Free before Iphone came out.
Please install an antivirus on your WinMo first. :P
I don’t see the problem with Windows Mobile. I love how easy it is to cutomize, as there are a ton of .cab files out there to do anything you want. Typing can be a bit tricky if you’re trying to use your fat thumb, so use your fingernail.
I like it.
Check out why Windows Mobile beats Iphone
See the power of Windows phones.
http://www.youtube.com/user/thewebmogul
Xbox is the only division at Microsoft that “gets it”. R.I.P. WinMo.
haha has your Iphone exploded yet? if so Bye Bye Iphoney. LOL
Ya the RROD shows that they really ‘get it’.
ha ha has your junk Iphone exploded yet? or has it added any basic features to date yet? maybe apple will cough up more lack of features for the junk iphone. hahahha
Check out why Windows Mobile beats Iphone
See the power of Windows phones.
http://www.youtube.com/user/thewebmogul
Hmm, they got prettier icons!. Windows Phones, sorry Windows Mobile, I mean Windows CE, yesh this PocketPC things still sucks no matter what you name it today
Sorry, but on first screenshot it is SPB Mobile Shell, not the WM 6.5.
Hey everyone check out this link Why Iphone is a Junk Phone. Has any Iphone fanboy phone exploded yet? ha ha ha Give up has Widows Mobile is winning in the mobile business.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/08/12/yet-another-exploding-iphone/
Man, you got to be dreaming. Give it up! iPhone = 75000+ plus apps. Windows Mobile has how many? Oh, that’s right. Less than 280? WHAT!? Yep!
WM has way more than 280, look on Handango or MobiHand to start.
A woman with a pretty name like Stephanie should own an iPhone. Give me a break!
I do have an iPhone, but I don’t limit myself to just one phone.
Look, there are a million good reasons to bag on WM. Lack of app support isn’t one of them. Where is the iPhone software that will let you load Garmin Mapsource maps? How about the iPhone app that will let you load blueprints in DXF format? Is there an iPhone app that will sync with Quicken Premium 2009? What about a client that will run Flash apps full screen?
Oh that’s right, there isn’t an app for any of those things on iPhone, but there is on Windows Mobile. Counting the number of apps is a masturbatory exercise in fanboy worship. What the apps can actually DO is far more important than how many there are. 1,000 flashlight apps, and another 1,000 soundboards don’t do anyone any good, but they let you rack up a higher number of apps.
LOL your Iphone is just all hype! WM had Apps before that junk Iphone came out 2yrs ago also great about WM apps are free and more usefuk apps than what junk iphone apps offers. It not the apps that makes the phone great idiot. It how the phone performs and Windows Mobile wins in that category for personal & business use. Iphone is weak in phone performance.
Check out why Windows Mobile beats Iphone
See the power of Windows phones.
http://www.youtube.com/user/thewebmogul