Trev wrote:
iPhone v. Windows Mobile market share: http://www.edibleapple.com/iphone-tops-windows-mobile-in-worldwide-market-share/
Interesting bit:
Microsoft, in its zeal to get Windows Mobile onto as many phones as possible, is left with a phone OS that no one wants to use, and more importantly, one that developers don’t want to code for. Developers, who have long been getting chump change for their apps, are starting to see that they can make quite a bit of money developing programs for rival platforms such as the iPhone. Compounding the problem is the sheer number of devices that run Windows Mobile. If I’m a coder who wants to develop for Windows Mobile, which phone specs will I be using when I sit down and try to hash out some code? Will the phone have an acceleromator? Will it have a touchscreen? How big will the screen even be?! The questions are endless, and the headaches for developers numerous.
Gee, sounds a lot like developing for any platform that runs on arbitrary hardware, particularly with regard to game development. The toughest part for developers on the iPhone is the perception that everything should cost 0.99 USD (too much for a song, in my opinion, and probably not enough for a decent application). I've resisted buying music from iTunes because you can only download the song once, despite the fact that Apple keeps a complete history of your purchases and authorized playback devices. With apps, however, you can purchase them once and download them as many times as you want to however many devices you own.
I use my iPod Touch and iPhone 3G for browsing the web on the toilet and in the car and talking on the phone, although I prefer my old Motorola SLVR (w/ iTunes, which I never used) for the phone bits.
I'd love to have an iPhone. They are pretty cool looking and there's probably nothing that works as seamless and smooth as the iPhoneOS...
...but really, for a phone these days, MMS, I mean sending picture messages? That's a big one for me, though I'm sure for others they never use MMS at all.
...As far as that article and programing for Windows Mobile.. eh.. there are tons of programs out there by "bedroom" coders. There is no way you can compare the # of Windows Mobile apps to iPhone apps ( YET ;-) )My favorite IRC app, for example, on my phone is zsIRC. It's one guy and you can talk to him right on the forum of his site. The IRC app is awsome.
That said there are just so many apps I have on my WM6 phone, some that I could probably find if I got an iPhone and I 'jailbroke' it. But I don't want to deal with all that.
Then there are just the hardware limits. With WM6 you obviously have more than one choice of phone.
My phone I use for MEDIA, oh yeah!! I use orb.com a lot which works for the iPhone too, but if I want to bring movies with me I use PocketDivX and throw everything on MicroSD cards movies, music, whatever. (16GB on one of those little cards, it's just amazing).
The iPhone is a music phone and I think the lack of a memory card slot is another big miss for me. I just use my phone for too much media.
I'm as big an MS basher as they come, but really WM6 "just works" and there are tons of Apps and phones to choose.
The iPhone is obviosuly here to stay for a LONG time. Hopefully though they will add some of these features that a lot of people want and make it a complete solution. I keep hoping they anounce a 3rd generation phone soon.
Although despite most plans for smart phones having unlimited data, providers still implement and charge exhorbitant prices for SMS messaging. SMS needs to die.
I'm on ATT and the data package I have includes unlimited SMS/MMS. I don't know if SMS should die, but SMS prices need to die as they're rediculous. Before I got my data plan ATT changed their rates to 15 cents to send and 15 cents to recieve! That's crazy.
