Comments on: Android vs. Windows Mobile

By: John

John — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:54:05 +0000

I’m about to end my 3 month experiment with Android. My HTC Dream was my first smartphone, and I discovered several insurmountable drawbacks: 1- virtually useless, not to mention illegal, voice dialling capabilities. How is it that in 2009 a new phone can’t be used without user interaction on a touch screen? Yes, I found some free apps that helped a bit (TopVoiceControl), but it was a huge step below my 6 year old Samsung phone. 2 – Google calendar, contacts and email sync? Forget it….I got tired waiting for my ‘conversations’ to get loaded over the network in Google mail…if you’re out of network signal, you have no email. Brilliant. I ended up with a workaround using POP accounts, but it wasn’t true synchronization. Also, any calendar entries made on the phone couldn’t be synched with my Outlook desktop. For business users, Android is barely usable. So for all the anti-Microsoft chat I’ve heard about WinMo, it’s GOT to be better than Android…..

By: Robb

Robb — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:21:07 +0000

As for WinMo vs. Android. The only thing I can say about it is the following (if it hasn’t been said already)… WinMo has exchange and as for people like me that have to have a contact manager database that is accessible by me (and ONLY by me) then you have to keep WinMo active. Yes I could sync with a virtual server on the internet somewhere but how secure would that info really be? Also there are other people in my company that have to have the same database and the same access. When you set online PIMs to share they share with EVERYBODY. That is the main problem with android, it is not geared for a secure sharable database company wide between multiple users. I personally like that there are more OS’s coming out for PDA/cell phones but the main drawback is company wide scalability. The only choices we really have are WinMo or Google and I personally don’t want my customer’s information so easily accessed by someone that should not be viewing it. Unless you want to learn how to program or change your servers to linux WinMo is the ONLY choice we have. Unless you want to TRUST your private information with EVERYONE else! And yes, you can pay a service for syncing with multiple phones but then that defeats the purpose of having a server to keep your PIM’s secure.

Just my humble opinion as a Net Engineer and a database engineer….

My final thoughts…

Until there is a secure way to share between ACT, Outlook, & Notes, I will be sticking with WinMo!

By: donivem

donivem — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:11:17 +0000

I’ve had a win mobile 6 HTC/Verizon device for over 2 years.. honestly it was a piece of crap… the UI at best is mediocre…

By: Islandboz

Islandboz — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:31:31 +0000

Try using SPB Mobile Shell on Win Mobile, and you will have a great user experience while still having the power of Windows for all the other serious stuff ;)

-Islandboz

By: gamikzone

gamikzone — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 21:08:28 +0000

I have and htc touch pro ive been using it for quite a while i love it because i have the ability to run android and windows mobile on it thx to custom roms and xda develeopers i can do this really the only reason why people say windows mobile sucks is because they dont know how to work a bit withit.

By: Xamastrok

Xamastrok — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:09:11 +0000

This interesting discussion has made it clear that neither WinMo nor Android are perfect at the moment, but rather that they address different needs.

So, the business, corporate user who is dependent on MS Outlook, with or without exchange server, has to use Windows Mobile. Period.

The average user will much prefer Android, since it’s modern, ‘hip’, good looking, reliable, fast, easy to use, lots of apps, etc. No question about that either, however some important Android omissions out of immaturity, like the lack of divx support.

The advanced average user will be divided. Should he go for the much promising Android, which however does not offer many customization options (no even a file explorer out of the box???), or should be opt for WinMo, which may be ugly and dated, but which has registry, file system, and feels more like a PC operating system to play with?

The super geek with be happy with both! He can load custom roms easily to both Wino and Android :-)

In my opinion Android is still immature, and right now I would rather go to for WinMo, since I belong to categories 1 and 3. But Android has a lot of potential and could become the super OS catering for any type of user.
Windows Mobile has a lot of potential too, if Microsoft decides to put an effort on it, and redesign it from scratch.

By: ITnavMan

ITnavMan — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:20:42 +0000

Long time WM user. In a corporate environment (with Exchange on the backend) it configures easily and just plain works. Many of my favorite apps run nicely on WM, at least until they replaced live search with Bing (aka the most useless search/decision tool on the planet).

I love the iPhone interface. Unfortunately, I live in rural MN more then 2 miles from the Interstate — therefore no iPhone.

I’m excited about the Droid. I have configured several of them. So far the integration to Exchange has been good. It doesn’t have all the Outlook fields, including a few important ones. But the platform keeps getting better.

By: Malaysia Classifieds

Malaysia Classifieds — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 13:45:12 +0000

Im big fan of Windows Mobile since their first PocketPC times. Have always keep updated on their device. But lately feels really frustrated with their updated and function, especially since iPhone enters the market. Im still using WM phone now, but just decided to purchase and HTC Android powered phone after seeing it in action. Now my vote is for Android, Google again killed Microsoft!

By: Brian

Brian — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 01:14:23 +0000

After trying android 1.5 and eclair on the sdk i believe it is making great progress and for stock systems definatly beats winmo. however after 2 months of tweaking every part of my omnia including loading actual win95 through dosbox, running multiple rdp’s, installing after market shells (liking spb mobile best) I would have to say you can do alot more with winmo if you take the time and know how to disect and rebuild properly lol. Android is great rooted, winmo doesnt need to be rooted. so in the long run isnt it just a argument between win and linux? (even though you can emulate either on either)

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 19:50:50 +0000

I have the Droid as well as a WinMo 6.5 phone. Let me know when I can place a call on a Droid while driving simply by touching my headset and giving a command (android requires you to 1.turn it on 2.unlock it 3.choose a contact to call – all while driving). The droid phones are fast and fun but they are terrible as a business tool. They do not even work well for entertainment do to the lack of syncrynizing with the pc in an intelligent mannar. The android operating system is a better OS but it still makes for a poor business phone. Ultimately it will mature into a full blown device that does not require us to store personal data online (businesses should never do this) in order to function. Like I said the droids are fun and fast but are still lacking basic features whereas WinMo has the features but is slower and not as “hip”. They both are incomplete solutions.

By: Varial

Varial — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:27:17 +0000

fail article! haha

By: Nicolas Bouliane

Nicolas Bouliane — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:38:59 +0000

Enderx is right. Apps or not, Windows Mobile was a sluggish, unstable joke of an OS. No matter how much effort I put in my Windows Mobile phones, they would always end up being awesome phones with poorly designed interfaces.

Windows Mobile is old, slow, ugly and is a computer engineering nightmare.

Can’t wait to compare it to Android!

By: enderx

enderx — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:45:12 +0000

The phone was always freezing, and it had a horrible UI, even with all the new interfaces I put on it, it didn’t match the look and ease of use of my G1.
With android, I have never had to reboot my phone to fix a problem besides when I flash a ROM wrong, and it is 10x faster in general. The market is also really nice, and I can find tons of apps that actually work, and see the reviews of them.
As a beginner developer, I can say that android is a lot more friendly to beginners. There’s tons of documentation out there, and they went out of their way to make it as streamlined as possible. I had the full version of Visual Studio, and I still found it very hard to even compile a game for wm, much less make a good one. With android, I have developed a game in Eclipse, posted it on the market and gotten over 2,000 downloads so far, and user feedback. This is something I never would have been able to do on windows mobile.

One last note – the windows mobile marketplace is horrible. I used it for a bit, but there’s almost no good free apps, and all the priced apps are overpriced. It’s not a good store at all.

By: enderx

enderx — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:38:51 +0000

I have had a windows mobile phone for about 3 years. My earliest was a cingular 5125 or something (wm 5), then I got the lg incite (wm6.1), and finally a touch pro (hacked it to be 6.5). Now I have a g1 (cyanogen4.2.5), and I have to say it blows all wm phones out of the water.
I used to regularly reboot my phone because it froze too much. Despite there being tons of apps out there, it is nearly impossible to find the good ones, and I often ended up with tons of apps that didn’t work or were complete crap on my phone.

By: roy

roy — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:30:47 +0000

I think the point on running apps from SD is that Android will import the files to the main memory to run an app while WM can run the app using the SD, preferably a class 6 card, as an extension of main memory. This is a strong advantage, especially for larger apps, but I think Android will see this in the next major update if not sooner.