One of the biggest things that makes the iPhone so successful is their App Store.  Other phones are now following that lead and either have or are working towards having their own store.  Microsoft has finally decided to get into the application market and now we get to see their futile attempt to be competitive.

One nice thing about it is the interface and general layout of the Marketplace but this is not what will make it or break it, it’s the prices of the applications.  The iPhones App Store is very market drive and as a result developers found that sheer volume of an applications sale justified lower prices. Windows Mobile has about the same amount of applications available for it but with substantially higher prices.

Whether it is Palm, Apple, Android or Windows they need to have a good application store to be competitive.  If they do not make their stores attractive to developers and customers alike they are destined to be a flop.

Check It Out> Engadget via Pocketnow

I tend to be a pretty tough critic of Windows Mobile but even I have to admit that the new unlock screen looks really good.  It might be a blatant rip-off from Apple but at least this time around they improved on an idea.

Check It Out> PocketNow via Business2.0Press

We will put this in the category of probable but unlikely, Windows Mobile 7 screenshots have been leaked.  Thanks to a tipster over at wmpoweruser, there are 2 “screenshots” of WM 7.

If you look at the pictures you can see there are some discrepancies between them.

• At the bottom there is a battery meter, in one picture it is on the right side and the other it is on the left.
• The signal, battery, volume graphs do not match. Graphs in picture on the left have 9 levels and in the picture on the right there are only 8.
• The button on the bottom (middle) appears to be a menu, it is a different size in each of them.
• Top left , the 3G logo’s have different sizes
• Signal strength meter, in one it is at the top and the other the bottom
• Font types and sizes are different
• The picture on the right has the clock in 3 different locations, the analog time says 12:15 and not 12:23 like the other 2
• The tasks icon has an abnormal box around it that is not on the other boxes

I seriously doubt that these are anything more than conceptual designs leaked to make people create more buzz about Windows Mobile.  Mission accomplished.

Check It Out> wmpoweruser

Microsoft is starting to ramp up the marketing machine but this time it looks like they are doing something right.  Watching this video actually makes me want another Windows phone and I have been pretty vocal about how much they have been sucking compared to the competitions phone.

Apparently Microsoft released the beta of Windows Mobile 6.5 to their employees starting 3/9/2009 so we should start to see quite a few public leaks to torrent sites soon.  Maybe Microsoft will be able to do a dual release of Windows 7 and Windows Mobile 6.5?

UPDATE:: Since posting this I have had several people contact me and let me know that possible Beta builds are already out on torrent sites as well as the XDA forums.  Whether or not they are alpha or beta remains to be seen but one thing is interesting is that many people say that it is faster than previous versions of Windows Mobile.

Check It Out> Neowin

I have to admit that I am not a fan of Windows Mobile and I really dislike the honeycomb interface.  Today however Long Zheng has an excellent post explaining why it is actually a very efficient interface and an intelligent design.  Microsoft does spend a lot of money on research to try and find the best way to do things but somehow they just can’t appease the critics.

The round-ish design of the Honeycomb menu does make sense as it allows them to display 10 menu items instead of 9 even if 2 of them are only partially shown.  Peoples fingers are round (last I checked) and it is likely that it makes it easier for the user to select a button.  It still doesn’t help when the overall device is sluggish and the devices are not easy to use.

Check It Out> istartedsomething via wmpoweruser

Steve Balmer the CEO of Microsoft announced earlier this week that Windows Mobile 7 will be released next year.  This does not come as a surprise to anyone that pays attention to the Windows Mobile news but when you step back and look at the economy and mobile market is this a wise thing to do?

Microsoft delayed Windows Vista for an abnormally long time and I am sure they learned their lesson that it is foolish to delay a major OS update for such a long time.  But at the other side of things is it a good idea to rush out another version too quickly?  I am actually not talking about Windows Mobile 7 here but actually version 6.5 which is set to release in the last half of this year.

Currently Microsoft spends $900 million a year on Windows Mobile and under normal conditions that might be acceptable.  By “normal conditions” I am not talking about the economy but the state of the cell phone market.  So many different companies are introducing high-end phones that are impressive and Microsoft keeps bringing the same OS with a different skin on it.  Microsoft really needs to take their mobile OS more seriously and stop re-skinning it.  $900 million a year just to release a new skin for it seems excessively high and I am sure they could get it done for $1 million if they gave the guys over at Deviant Art a shot at it.

The only way that Microsoft will be able to maintain relevance is to follow in Palm’s footsteps and dump the old OS and start from the ground up…. with Linux.

Check It Out> WMpoweruser

Windows Mobile 6.5 was announced today at the Mobile World Congress and to be honest it looks like the Zune interface.  Getting the Zune team in on their design was a good idea but it is not going to bring new customers in.  People will look at the interface and then look at the competition and swiftly buy the better looking phone (the competitions).

To make things even worse for Microsoft they decided that they want to continue their endless campaign of confusing customers.  They no longer want you to call their devices “Windows Mobile Phones” they now want people to call them “Windows Phones”.  Is it just me or shouldn’t Microsoft figure out a naming convention and stick with it?  They just decided that they were going to call Windows on the Desktop “Windows 7″ and people are calling the OS on phones “Windows Mobile 6.5″.  So what is the problem here? Apparently people are supposed to just call the mobile operating system Windows 6.5.

Microsoft is one very seriously confused company and does not understand their consumers.  They said today that they think people want their phone to have a similar interface as their computer and they are 100% correct.  The only problem is that customers want their DESKTOP interface to change to be like the iPHONE!!!!!!! Simple and easy to use is far better than confusing with a million options.

Microsoft understood their customers better with Windows 1.0 than they do with Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 6.5.  Please listen Microsoft.  You do not have to give people thousands of options to give them an operating system they can use.  Leave the kernel and the other base components alone and just make a SIMPLE shell!  No I do not mean a re-skinned shell I mean a new shell.  If you actually did this for your mobile OS and your desktop OS people would stick with you and not jump to your competitors so fast.

Microsoft of their own doing has Terminal Cancer and is not doing anything about it.  They could go to a cancer specialist but instead they prefer the acupuncture guy down the street that works out of his basement.

Check It Out> Technologizer

Last month some screenshots from Windows Mobile 6.5 were leaked that were starting to show some promise.  Today additional screenshots have surfaced that show a few new components of the OS including Media Player.  Neowin has done some comparisons of them that show the earliest leaks were original albeit very rough.

One of the things that is becoming evident is the new leaning towards the Honeycomb interface but personally it looks more like a gimick and does not appear to offer any additional functionality.  The skin will attract a few people but when it comes to users they are going to dislike it for the reduced functionality and it’s less attractive appearance compared to the competition.

Check It Out> Neowin