Windows Mobile 6.5 and Windows 7 are made by the same company, but you’d never believe it. While Windows 7 is striding ahead, making improvements the world has been crying out for, Windows Mobile 6.5 is struggling to keep up with the mobile competition.
Microsoft’s mobile development teams aren’t completely clueless though. They only have to peep across the hall at what the chaps in charge of Windows 7 are up to for a spot of inspiration. Read our five lessons Windows mobile can learn from Windows 7 after the jump.
1. Keep it simple
OK, Windows Mobile 6.5 has a new ‘Honeycomb’ app launcher, but beneath the surface, those fiddly menus and awkward dialogue boxes are still present. It’s far from finger-friendly, whereas Windows 7 has already embraced multitouch, gestures and general finger prods in place of precise stylus taps and mouse clicks. If that’s possible on a PC (where touchscreens are rare) surely it’s a no-brainer to pack it into a mobile phone.
2. Sort out multi-tasking
Windows 7 is much quicker than Vista for many reasons, but one of them is that it handles multi-tasking in a smart way. It doesn’t bother to calculate graphics behind other windows (if you can’t see them, what’s the point?) and generally makes much better use of the memory it’s given. Meanwhile, Windows Mobile continues to keep apps running in the background after you switch to a different one, regardless of whether they actually need to be fully active or not. Surely Microsoft can give this a little more thought.
3. Make it backwards compatible
The word on the web is that Windows Mobile 6.5 will only work with new hardware. That’s fine if you want to fork out for a new HTC Touch Diamond2 or Touch Pro2, but what about all the loyal Windows Mobile fans with older handsets? The Windows 7 team have the right idea. It’ll be possible to upgrade to the new desktop OS from Windows XP. You won’t need to upgrade through Windows Vista, and what’s more, it’ll work on pretty much any hardware.
4. Build in better media functions
Windows Mobile 6.5 has no new media functions. Yep, that’s right. None. No Zune-style MP3 player, not even a re-skinning for Windows Media Player. Nada. Meanwhile, Windows 7 is ploughing ahead with new streaming technology that uses the PC as a hub to manage media being sent to devices around the home, transcoding different file formats, so it won’t matter which device you want to send music to. Windows Mobile could pull that off easily, or at least stream native formats using Wi-Fi, but there’s not even a hint of it. Hell, even the iPhone and iPod touch can control iTunes on a Mac or PC using Wi-Fi. Would it really be a stretch for Microsoft to do the same for Windows Mobile and Windows Media Player?
5. Sort out the browser
Mobile internet is an ultra-important part of modern smartphones, but Microsoft’s lagging behind. Windows Mobile 6.5 comes with Internet Explorer built in, but it’s so clunky and sluggish manufacturers are bundling alternative browsers with their Windows-powered phones straight out of the box. HTC has started including Opera as standard on some handsets. Meanwhile, Windows 7 includes Internet Explorer 8: a complete top-to-bottom re-think, with innovations such as different menus (with larger spacing) for anyone using it with a touchscreen device. Are you listening Windows Mobile team? The guys across the hall are making better use of touchscreens than you are! Hang your heads in shame.
