Microsoft's Cell Phone Operating System Lacks Key Functionality

If I say PC and operating system, some of you will probably respond associatively: Windows and Microsoft. If I say cell phone and operating system, most of you will probably stare at me. That's really not a problem. The critical differentiating feature for cell phone operating systems is not it's name but rather what it can do for you. In previous notes, I have presented the idea that the smartphone is the next PC and will have great relevance for healthcare, pathology, and lab medicine. What users should now be looking for in their cell phones is nearly the same, or better, functionality than their PC.

My Palm Pre browses the web so efficiently that I can read email and search the web without any sense  of being inconvenienced. Despite its best efforts and having been in the cell phone OS business for a long time, Microsoft still can't seem to get this right. Some of the details were revealed in a NYT review of a Windows Mobile phone (see: Another Try for a Windows Phone, but It’s Still Clunky). Below is an excerpt from the article:

If you’ve never heard of a Windows Mobile phone, or never particularly cared what kind of software runs on your phone, prepare yourself. In the coming months, Microsoft will release a steady drumbeat of ads intended to make you want a device powered by its software....Windows phones have been around for years, mostly competing with BlackBerrys for the allegiance of business users. But while BlackBerry crossed over into the consumer realm with more user-friendly phones, Windows Mobile remained in its corporate cube, because of devices that could be so frustrating to use that few people would choose one without a corporate mandate....For much of the last year, Microsoft has been saying that its new mobile software upgrade would significantly simplify the user experience. And the upgrade does simplify things, but not much. Instead of poking around with a stylus, Windows now features icons that are big enough to hit with your fingertip. That helps you navigate the phone’s software menu and interact with various programs, but when it comes to the one application smartphone owners use the most — Web browsing — it falls far short....But unlike the iPhone or the Palm Pre, a Windows phone still lacks a multitouch screen, so you can’t pinch and pull the display to a chosen size. Instead, you press buttons and sliders in a scheme that sorely lacks precision....Likewise, instead of simply connecting you to a free Wi-Fi hot spot, Windows forces you into a three-step decision tree that would make a technician’s heart sing, but would strike fear into the heart of just about anyone else who just wants to log on.

There's a lot that's wonderful about the current crop of smartphones. Although I am very fond of my Pre cell phone from Palm, I recently purchased an iPod touch, which is an MP3 player that lacks cell phone capabilities. However, it can connect to the internet effortlessly using W-Fi so I can still place VOIP calls anywhere in the world using a Skype application that I have downloaded and installed. It is quite a remarkable device.

For me, the greatest feature of my Pre is being able to effortlessly surf the web with the essential enabling element being hand-gestures such a "pinch" or "pull" interpreted by the device's touch screen as a zoom-in and zoom-out. Similarly with the Pre, I can change applications, still keeping all of them resident, with a finger-sweeping gesture on the screen to the right or left. The review of Windows Mobile above provides further evidence for me that Microsoft is still wandering in the wilderness. Fortunately for us, there are cell phone OS developers who understand the web and the need on the part of users for a friendly user interface in order to surf it.

Comments

[John A Hamilton]

I am starting to see Android as one of the main contenders next year. Motorola has just moved from Windows mobile into Android.

Flexible web based operating systems are much more adaptable to phone hardware and the user's application of it, especially when compared to windows mobile architecture.

Microsoft's model is make the OS and force the phones to use it, when web based model is the opposite: make an OS that works for phones.

I see these new platforms (webOS, Android) as the key to revolutionizing our handheld computing.