U.S. software giant Microsof Monday took a swipe at rival mobile operating systems maker Symbian, saying familiarity with Windows will help it be the standard used in new high-performance wireless devices. “It’s important (for developers and users) to have access to data they are already familiar with in the PC environment,” Derek Brown, director of mobile devices group, told Reuters in an interview. Read the article at Reuters.
Microsoft Banks on Windows to Win Mobile OS Race
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Eugenia Loli
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“It’s important (for developers and users) to have access to data they are already familiar with in the PC environment,”
Yes!, that’s why not to use proprietary dataformats like Word and stick to open standards!
I can think of a lot of familiar things that I don’t like or want.
Sorry to break it to you, but they’ve already won. It’ll just take a bit of time for the rest of y’all to catch up.
Having used both Palm OS (through different versions) and the last 2 versions of WinCE for the Pocket PC, I absolutely prefer the latter. Nothing beats being able to add users to the domain from my nice little spot under the tree by the pond, while listening to my mp3’s and working on a SQL database.
PalmOS is no competition to PocketPC. Palm had it’s day in the sun, but they fell WAY behind…
-G
Symbian does share a lot in common with ALL “desktop” OSes, however this is just the “shell”, and can be replaced. Just as KDE, GNOME, BeOS, and MacOS share a lot with MS Windows.
However this will change for the difference uses Nokia etc will have for it. Toolbars, menu’s even Windows[1]’s hae no use on a mobile phone.
Psions (the device EPOC was developed for) are basicly mini-Desktops(keyboard, 1/2 VGA screen), not like Palm & WinCE devices which are mostly plamtops. WinCE has a few “mini-desktops”, and there would be slight changes in the UI for it.
MS are scared, NOKIA, Sony, etc are all using Symbian, have have little insentive to move (they own big chunks of Symbian each), so it’s lashing out hoppy to scare them over.
Mlk
[1] Logical construct, not OS.
I keep hearing about symbian, but I can’t find a symbian handheld anywhere. On the other hand I see palm and pocket pc devices everywhere (even some record stores are carrying them now). So I really doubt ms, or palm for that matter, are looking over their collective shoulders for symbian.
I keep hearing about symbian, but I can’t find a symbian handheld anywhere. On the other hand I see palm and pocket pc devices everywhere (even some record stores are carrying them now). So I really doubt ms, or palm for that matter, are looking over their collective shoulders for symbian.
Symbian EPOC is an OS made for stuff like handphones. EPOC was once used in Psion handhelds; which are discontinued. Symbian was once part of Psion, now a independant subsidiary. EPOC as it is today, isn’t competition with PocketPC and Palm OS for PDAs, but for handphones. (Nokia, Sony Erricson and so on have chucks of Symbian shares, so I would doubt PocketPC nor Palm would displace EPOC)
Symbian handhelds – try looking at the nokia 9200 range. I support symbian and hope it is a success, after all they were wise enough to include Opera as their default browser
As a Psion 5mx owner, I’m fairly familiar with EPOC. I like it. EPOC is a full 32-bit multitasking OS with a bundled graphical shell. It’s not just a GUI. EPOC is proven and stable — something that I would want running my phone. Imagine needing to call 911, but being stopped dead by a blue screen!
Symbian handhelds – try looking at the nokia 9200 range. I support symbian and hope it is a success, after all they were wise enough to include Opera as their default browser
I wouldn’t exactly call Communicator more of an PDA than of an phone. It has a lot of PDA functions, but nontheless, I would caterognize it as “phone” as oppose to “PDA”.
As a Psion 5mx owner, I’m fairly familiar with EPOC. I like it. EPOC is a full 32-bit multitasking OS with a bundled graphical shell. It’s not just a GUI. EPOC is proven and stable — something that I would want running my phone. Imagine needing to call 911, but being stopped dead by a blue screen!
Normally for blue screens to happen, you would have been running some complex applications. Which I doubt would be a problem for a phone; how complex can a application for a phone be?
Anyway, don’t take me as a PocketPC nor EPOC supporter. That T800 model Sony Ericsson is coming out with seems mighty interesting
“It’s important (for developers and users) to have access to data they are already familiar with in the PC environment,” Derek Brown, director of mobile devices group, told Reuters in an interview.
Isn’t this proof that MS are trying to leverage one monopoly to create another?
I agree in that Businessmen will like to show Powerpoint presentations and use Execel etc (a guy in the office has a PocketPC based PDA/Phone and very nice it is too).
Ultimately the Phone/PDA combos are going to be aimed at the consumer market and most people are not going to give a toss about Windows “compatibility”, in fact it could work against MS given Windows reputation for crashing. We expect windows and it programs to crash, we expect phones just to work.
However Symbian have been producing PDA OS’s for 15+ years and they are very mature in both low power and stability – I have 2 EPOC based devices and I’ve yet to see either crash.
One way Microsoft got their monopoly is by being cheaper than rival Operating Systems (the was a ong time ago though). This is one area where MS will not be able to help their licensees unless they do some serious subsidising. The Biggest 5 Phone makers are backing Symbian and many others are planning to use it. Nobody else can touch their sales figures, PDA sales are minute compared to the Phone market, Palm sells 7 million a year, Nokia sell 5 million a week.
Palm is playing catch up but once PalmOS 6.0 appears they should be there, (PalmOS 5.0 appears to contain little or nothing from BeOS).
>I wouldn’t exactly call Communicator more of an PDA
>than of an phone. It has a lot of PDA functions,
>but nontheless, I would caterognize it as “phone”
>as oppose to “PDA”.
It’s both, but a Phone/PDA instead of a PDA/Phone.
If you were to compare it in European PDA Sales figures it has something like 50% of the market.
>Normally for blue screens to happen, you would have
>been running some complex applications.
A simple program can have bugs if it’s not well programmed, Don’t think phones are simple things however, they are highly complex devices running highly complex operating systems, they are quite probably more complex than PCs – never mind PDAs!
>Which I doubt
>would be a problem for a phone; how complex can a
>application for a phone be?
The Nokia 7110 used to crash when viewing WAP pages – so bad in fact you had to remove the battery.
Normally for blue screens to happen, you would have been running some complex applications. Which I doubt would be a problem for a phone; how complex can a application for a phone be?
No, blue screens aren’t a function of code complexity. I can produce a blue screen with a single line of code! But the more code there is, the more there is to go wrong. That’s why I prefer a simple tool when the chips are down.
The difference between a simple phone and one with a full PDA is the operating system. A basic cellphone doesn’t even need an OS — it can be hard-coded to do just what it needs to do. With a limited number of possible command iterations, it’s possible to fully debug something like this. OTOH there’s no hope of shaking all the bugs out of Windows CE, never mind the applications!
One way Microsoft got their monopoly is by being cheaper than rival Operating Systems (the was a ong time ago though).
This pearl of wisdom needs to be repeated in several other threads! Microsoft got to where it is today by offering truly superior software at attractive prices. But now they don’t. Any sane consumer would see that as a reason to turn away from Microsoft products.
Psion are now targeting other markets (boo, I’d kill for a Revo with a 1/2VGA full colour screen, USB and a proc that could play Quake), but look at almost ALL of the next-gen nokia phones, the ones that have JVM’s etc, they’ll run EPOC. As well as the 9xxx range. So will the next-gen Erricson(sp) phones, and it’s released PDA/Phones.
re: Imagine needing to call 911, but being stopped dead by a blue screen!
The nokia 91xx (the latest, can’t remember the number) had/has some big ass bugs, and DOES crash. I believe thou. the phone and the PDA are indervidual units, so the PDA can die but the phone will live on.
re: The Nokia 7110 used to crash when viewing WAP pages – so bad in fact you had to remove the battery
The Nokia 7110 is just crap, or a drop my phone too ofton.
re: Microsoft got to where it is today by offering truly superior software at attractive prices.
I’d disagree, they got where they are today by offering a reasonable product at a reasonable price.
Does it follow that the OS that works fine on your 17″ CRT will be just as usable of a keyboard-less and mouseless device with a max screen size of 3″ x 5″?
I don’t think that logic makes sense. Handhelds are different than desktop PCs. Why does MS think that just taking a Windows desktop and shrinking it is the right thing to do here?
That’s exactly what I’ve been trying to say in the thread above!