The Future Of Windows Mobile

A lot of people have been asking me this very difficult question: What is the future of Windows Mobile? Do you think it will die in a few years(about 2)? And other questions that are about the death of Windows Mobile. On this post I will say about my thoughts of the future of Windows Mobile.

Back in 2002 when I got my first Pocket PC, running Windows CE 3, one of those old HP Jornadas Pocket PCs, I felt in love with that amazing OS. It was just like my Windows 2000 that I had on my PC, but on a very small device, with a lot of new possibilities. For sure Microsoft done a very good device on that time.

Back in 2005, I got a Palm T|X instead of a better Windows Mobile device. I really enjoyed the Palm OS 5, but there was a huge problem... The programs weren't so great and full-featured as the Windows Mobile ones, but ok...

At the end of 2006 I've said NO to Palm OS and bought a HP iPAQ Hx2490b and felt great with being back to the best mobile OS I ever seen. Many things were improved at the OS, the style was pretty different, new tools, new programs and a very nice framework, from the desktop world to your mobile, that made the applications a lot more awesome(.Net Compact Framework).

After some months I decided to have a device that I really liked to have back in 2001, but I couldn't because it was so expensive... The great HP Jornada 720, that came with Windows CE 3.11(aka HPC2000), so I got one form eBay and I heard that there was a very big community of people on the internet that have this device too, even on modern days, on a site called HPC:Factor, remember that it's still alive and very active with news and programs that are still being developed for this platform, it's just like XDA-Developers but for the old HPCs. I still use my HP Jornada 720, as an alternative laptop, since I have the Cisco 350 board that I attach to it and I can connect to my home Wi-Fi network, also I have Linux installed on it too(dual-booting with Windows CE) so it's just like a laptop, but smaller and with a touch-screen.

In the year of 2008 I got my first iOS device, a iPod Touch 3g 64GB, I really liked iOS, it's great and have a lot of great things that blow your mind, but I just liked it for a while... With some months you see that it's pretty much the same every time, the applications are the same, the style remains the same, different from Windows Mobile, that you are always looking for a new ROM to flash, new great applications, new modifications to make your WM rocks even more, but iOS is so closed and static that makes you hate it in about 4 months.

Let's jump to something new... In October 2010 I got my first Android device, a Motorola Milestone(aka Droid), it's a great device and I loved Android so much on the first months, then I started to see that Android wasn't that all that you think before you get one... The interface isn't so awesome as the iOS one, the applications doesn't have great controls(for developers) like iOS does, also it's a bit slow, don't forget that the built-in applications aren't very nice, then you probably will need to get a third-party application for things like viewing photos, watching videos and listening to music, basic things for every smartphone user.

At the Christmas I got an iPad, but the sensation was a bit different, since it's a tablet. So I'm still in love with it...

Yesterday I really saw that the way that Android is going it won't be so promising, so I've made something that a lot of people said that I was crazy: I got a HTC Touch Pro2 from eBay(the unboxing video is below this post) and switched back to Windows Mobile. In the first 10 minutes with it I've flashed the Simplicity ROM. Seriously the new 6.5.3 touch-friendly interface is the best thing I ever saw on Windows Mobile, also the HTC Sense is just amazing! So I'm proud to say that this is the best thing I've done.

But now let's get back to the main focus... After saying this all about the history of my mobiles, I can say that Windows Mobile isn't going to die in 2 years. For sure it will live for at least 10 years, as example the HPCs, that have 11 years since Windows Mobile made them obsolete and we still have a very active community working with those great devices.

Windows Mobile without Sense for sure is pretty crappy, so if you are planing to be on the Windows Mobile world for some more time, get an HTC phone that you can flash a nice custom ROM that comes with the new Sense UI(that was made for the HD2).

As everyone can see based on the XDA-Developers forum, the Windows Mobile is still a lot active, a lot of ROMs being developed and a lot of happy developers saying that their applications are great at Windows Mobile, so this says it all that Windows Mobile has a very big and nice life as the newer technologies try to beat it.

Microsoft is pretty doing the same thing that Palm done when they released WebOS and dropped all the support for the Palm OS. This is the great mistake from Microsoft, now they have a OS that sucks, and abandoned the best mobile OS ever! It would be a lot better if they had released Windows Mobile 7, instead of rebuilding everything form the ground up.

So I finish this article saying that don't matter if you like or dislike Windows Mobile, you can't deny that all their OSes that they use today(don't matter if it's Android, WP7 or iOS) came from Palm OS, that grew and become Windows Mobile, so your OS base is clearly like the WM base.


PS: I've made this article at midnight, so it may contain some errors and crazy stuff :)