Mary Jo Foley speculates that with the arrival of Distinguished Engineer Len Kawell that Microsoft will be gearing Windows Mobile to the MID form factor. She gets this from Kawell’s bio on the Microsoft site. I’m not sure how much you can really get from this. I’m sure Microsoft investigates lots of things.
I’ve blogged a couple times about how Microsoft appears not to have a strong solution for the MID offerings–particularly on the low end. Vista may work, but I’m not sure how well considering the limited hardware. Still, I like the Windows approach because it will enable people to run “real” apps.
Using Windows Mobile, might be a nice option for some MIDs, because it’ll give people a reasonable and familiar feature feel for heavy phone users. For notebook/desktop users, they may feel a little restricted.
Here are a couple reasons why I think Windows Mobile will have a challenge on the MID form factor:
* First, graphics. Whatever OS is used on the MID form factor, it needs to provide graphics capabilities that ISVs can leverage which are at least on par with those on the iPhone. If you can’t create swipes, fades, and the like, forget it. Vista and XP have an edge here.
* Second, Windows Mobile may make sense when you think of a feature to feature comparison with what’s currently out of the box in the iPhone (essentially the leading MID device on the market along with the iPod Touch)–but does it reach the level of apps that can be created with the competing Linux-based MIDs? See, it’s not just the iPhone’s OS X that’s competing in this space. If CES is any indication, there will be many Linux-based MIDs. It makes sense, because the OEMs can create a nice MID-friendly shell.
* Third, the browser. A MID needs a real browser experience. This is going to be a challenge whatever OS Microsoft picks, but it’s worth mentioning. The iPhone shows that this is a must.
* Fourth, the developer ecosystem. Apple is going full speed with its developer program, even though it’s plenty restrictive for my taste. Microsoft has the edge here. Whatever OS it builds, it should leverage its developer contacts. My guess is this is easier to do with a WPF-friendly OS, but maybe Mobile can pull this off. It seems like it’ll have to be doing lots of duplication, which means it’s going to ramp up slower, still leaving the iPhone as the premier platform for the near term–let’s say a year or two.
* Fifth, a compelling SDK. I’d give the iPhone the SDK edge here whether compared to Windows Mobile, Vista, or XP–unless Microsoft also bundles in speech and similar technologies. But still, Microsoft has a weak touch and accelerometer story at this point. It’s not all about the screen. Microsoft has lots of experience with alternative UIs, so I imagine they can catch up, but it’s worth mentioning. The iPhone has an interesting developer story though which is going to inspire a lot of creativity.
So here’s the $64,000 question for developer: Which platform do you develop for now? A Linux MID? A Vista-based MID? A Windows Mobile device with the hope of making it upgradeable to a MID? Or the iPhone?
Seems like the iPhone has the edge to me for now.