While many mobile enthusiasts were excited for Microsoft’s release of the Windows Mobile 6.5 software, critics have panned the unofficial answer to the iPhone as under-developed.
While the operating system contains several new features, security devices and comes alongside the release of an application marketplace similar to the App Store, the release has been labeled as a disappointment.
New features include a completely new user interface, with larger icons and a new “Start” menu. The changes are designed to make touch-navigation easier, along with new colours for text to make reading easier on the eyes.
“Customers are telling us they want a seamless, integrated experience over the three screens in their life; the computer, notebook and mobile phone. Our next step is in breaking down those walls,” Alex Stewart, Microsoft’s local consumer and online manager, said in a statement.
Other features include advanced web-browsing, new security features and the ability to publish photos from the handset to Facebook, MySpace and Flickr through the new My Phone service.
My Phone has been designed for users to back up contacts, calendar entries and other data including photos. A Windows Mobile phone can synchronise with the My Phone service at any location, while it also offers remote wipe and locking features.
Perhaps the biggest release with Windows Mobile has been the new Windows Marketplace, the newest entry into the smartphone application market.
The Marketplace launched with just 250 applications, but the company says this number will grow as more developers have their apps approved. Prices range from $3 to $30, with many apps also available for free.
One feature not seen in other app markets is the ability to refund an app a user doesn’t like, but so far the feature is limited to just one refund per customer per month.
So far the only phone to hit Australian shores with the new software is the HTC Touch Diamond2, with Telstra offering a number of plans. And while the Marketplace is live, it will only be available on WM 6.5 handsets in November.
But reviews have not been kind to the new software.
“Windows Mobile 6.5 isn’t just a letdown – it barely seems done… It’s an interim product and a vain attempt to hold onto the thinning ranks of people who still choose Windows Mobile despite not being somehow tethered to it until the tardy Windows Mobile 7 comes out, whenever that may be. And it won’t work,” Gizmodo wrote in a blog post.
Greg Kumparak from TechCrunch wrote that a number of small inconveniences, such as not being able to move application icons and new typing methods, ruin the new OS.
“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.”
While tech blog SlashGear found that the OS was faster and more stable, it still said it “leaves us hungry for Windows Mobile 7 simply because that OS promises the revolution Microsoft’s platform so badly requires”.
“Windows Mobile 6.5 still falls short of a knock-out blow against webOS, Android and the iPhone.”
The poor reviews are not a good sign for Microsoft, which has been falling behind Apple in its share of the mobile OS market. While Nokia’s Symbian holds about 50% of the market, iPhone comes in second at 13.7% with Windows Mobile holding just 9%.
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
