Windows 7, iOS and Those Shooting above the RIM

A month after its release, the Windows Phone 7 has been stricken with low sale in terms of the rest of the market. To combat this, they announced on Black Friday that consumers could buy one Windows Phone 7 device and get a second one free. The phones retail for around $200. Many have said this was just a typical lowball day-after-Thanksgiving sale. The lackluster sales say different. The whole thing is completely reminiscent of Microsoft’s last mobile move with the KIN.

What’s The Pros and Cons of Windows Phone 7?

The few pleasures a user can get from the new Windows mobile operating system start with its speed. The ability to pin things to the startup screen is nice if you don’t mind the look ( ie. child’s play thing). The Zune integration was expected, but does not go unappreciated.

So what happened? Well, the lack of multitasking is more than just a mild inconvenience. It was the biggest pain with the Twitter app. It has to refresh every time you come back to it after leaving to do something else. No copy/paste action tends to be rather annoying too. Trying to access the Marketplace can freeze it up too. So as a day-to-day, the phone isn’t bad. It is defiantly not for power users. Microsoft went with a “glance-and-go” functionality on this one.

The iOS 4 Months Later

For starters it should be noted that Apple came out with an update last week: iOS4.2. The most significant portion of the update unifies the Apple OS across the board. Ipod, iPad, and iPhone are now all rocking the same OS. Aside from this you get a few new things like AirPrint, AirPlay, along with some add-ons and small mods.

Now, there have been a few comparisons made between the iOS4 and the Windows Phone 7. Brandon over at Pocketnow.com has even posted a video showing the two side-by-side. For those who missed the issues with the rollout of the iPhone4, there were antenna and screen issues with the device itself, the issues with the OS itself were minimal: a few holes in the multitasking in terms of functionality, no flagging feature or full text search in mail, and the app management seems to be a bit cumbersome. Multitasking will forever be Apple’s mobile platform claim to fame.

Just don’t install it on the 3G or 3Gs. There have been issues reported even though it is supposed to support them.

RIM Puts It All In Motion

The award-winning Blackberry comes to us from Research In Motion since 1996. The RIM OS is still king of the messaging game in many people’s opinion. It derives its core from the native support of corporate email. The RIM OS 6, made the otherwise business feeling of the old mix with consumer flavor. All the improvements can be viewed here.

RIM is still a no-nonsense way of managing information with sms, BBM, emails, social networks, PM’s. Once they get their multimedia experience above par, iOS will be given a run for its money. The Canadian boys a RIM are the only ones that have the software, hardware and the carrier tech all brought together in a solitary deliverable. They also knew that running your finger over 3 inches of glass all the time to get things done is not the way to go.

What About Google?

Of course. Why on Earth would I skirt away from the internet Superpower? Android was purchased by Google in 2005. There is no way I would leave this topic without touching on an OS that was on smartphones whose sales ranked first in the US in both the second and third quarters. Java, Java, and more Java. What’s not to love about an operating system with 12 million lines of code?  And who could scoff at all the apps? 100,000 and counting. The idea and functionality deserve all the praise they receive. The thing that worries me about such diversity is that the future support for devices which have unknown app versions and obscure code mods and are not guaranteed. This whole movement poses a potential nightmare for IT administers that are left trying to manage the mobile infrastructure of such a array of devices, mods, app versions, hacks, and the inconsistent updates and releases of new software.

As uneasy as a contorted, twisted and tinkered OS makes me, I do feel obligated to say that it works both ways- in that fixes are open to all too. Meaning, if there is a bug on the official OS, anyone can go, find it, fix it, and share with the entire community. Still, in many ways Froyo is viewed as a “we-want-an-iphone-but-hate-apple” response that is extremely flexible, but not as polished.

By Jon Ryan of ReversePhoneLookup.com

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