TEN REASONS WHY WINDOWS MOBILE IS STILL THE BEST!!!

During the course of my gadgeteering travails, I have often been mocked at for being a Microsoft/Windows/Windows Mobile aficionado, owing largely to the commonly prevalent notion of inferiority of the Gates’ family of operating systems to the competition in the market. While Apple’s Mac OS has been touted (disputably) as a far superior operating system when it comes to computers, in case of mobile phones there are plenty of other alternatives which are oft represented as better than Windows Mobile OS. Herein lies the genesis of ridicule to anyone who tends to prefer using WM as opposed to the other options.

Being a die-hard fan of WM, I have finally decided to set the record straight for all the detractors and finally put down my top ten reasons why WM is far superior to the alternatives, namely Blackberry, Iphone, Symbian, and Android. And unlike all of you who criticize WM based on preconceived notions, I have used the other OS’s and then formed the basis of these reasons.  So here goes:

1.      APPLICATIONS: A lot has been written about the choice of applications available for Iphone and Android in the respective app stores. Well, anyone who bothers to check the facts would know that the world’s largest application collection is available for WM. Unlike Iphone and Android, Microsoft has not tried to monopolize the app stores, and thus apart from WM marketplace, there are thousands of apps (both free and for sale), available all over the internet. This is so because unlike Symbian, BB and Iphone OS, Microsoft has encouraged developers by sharing software development kits (SDKs) and WM builds with them, something now being emulated by Android.

2.      OFFICE MOBILE: When it comes to business use, WM is far ahead of all other OS’s. With native office mobile suite comprising of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, creating, editing and emailing office documents works like a charm. While there are third party solutions for Android, BB and Symbian such as Dataviz and Quickoffice, these have inherent issues including limitation of features and need to convert documents from native format to compatible formats.

3.      FILE MANAGEMENT: Few operating systems provide the facility to manage files on the phone using a file explorer same way as one can on the computers. WM allows one to manage and explore files using a native file explorer while Blackberry and Symbian have incorporated this feature in recent releases. Iphone OS and Android of course do not allow for these as of yet.

4.      EMAIL & PIM INTEGRATION: No other OS integrates and syncs the emails and PIM data as well as WM through its exchange activesync functionality. Exchange allows for over the air (OTA) synchronization of emails, contacts, tasks and calendar entries between your laptop, server and phone. You are even allowed to search all the email on your server through your phone!!! While blackberries come close using their proprietary push mail and blackberry enterprise servers, Android, Iphone and Symbian are left to the mercy of third party applications which attempt to bridge the gap by providing exchange integration, albeit in a shoddy manner with many a misses. Of course the competition realizes that it needs to provide an Exchange solution just like it needs to provide an Office Mobile substitute if it seriously seeks to continue the pretense of being a superlative smartphone, yet they remain outfoxed by WM’s excellent implementation of this solution.

5.      HANDSETS: Other than Symbian, no other OS provides such a large range of handsets to choose from. WM has not gone the Iphone or BB way i.e. retain use of the OS to its own handsets, but has instead made the OS available to all manufacturers. This has not only been good for Microsoft’s business but has been a winning proposition for the consumers who are faced with plethora of options from manufacturers such as HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Acer and HP. A natural corollary of this has been the wide variety of specs available to the consumers ranging from hard keyboards, hi-res touch screens, processor speeds, multi-band connectivity, cameras and multimedia capabilities. This is in sharp contrast to Iphone and the blackberries where the consumers are necessarily compelled to live with the inferior specs that the manufacturer chooses to dish out.

6.      ROMS: WM is the only OS which has traditionally provided the ability not just to manufacturers of handsets, but also to end users to totally revamp the OS from scratch, including speed optimization, firmware, memory management, customizations and branding and reload the OS on the handset. XDA Developers and Modaco are forums which provide the option for hundreds of such cooked ROMs. The only OS which has followed in this tradition is Android, but being a relatively new player it still has a long way to go before coming anywhere near WM. For Iphone, BB and Symbian, you’re pretty much stuck with whatever crap the manufacturer chooses to dish out!!!

7.      CUSTOMIZABILITY: Even if you’re too scared to flash your phone with an entirely new ROM, WM also offers numerous options to customize the phone, ranging from themes, wallpapers, icons to entire user interface overlays. There are loads of options, unlike an Iphone where you’re stuck with the crappy and crowded home screen, Symbian and BB where you’re stuck with a home screen and UI made by the manufacturer with limited flexibility. Android has gone the WM way, but being a new player still has a long way to go before it creeps up on WM.

8.      3G: It is only WM and Symbian handsets which provide true 3G functionality. Iphone, BB and Android handsets do not provide for video calling as yet, even though we are on the verge of the 4G era. While Android is catching up fast in terms of handset choice and specs, Iphone and BB continue to drag their feet in the wake of easily satisfied customers.

9.      FORUMS: WM leads the space also in terms of forums and communities where you can educate yourself on the OS’s versatility, patch onto latest software, ROMs and builds. Android forums are catching up, while Iphone, Symbian and BB forums still lag far behind.

10.   MULTIMEDIA: Owing to the wide variety of handset manufacturers, WM’s handling of multimedia remains top notch. Symbian phones made by Nokia come close, but the multimedia handling of BB’s leaves much to be desired. Iphone is lame with its restrictive media formats and lack of flash, while Android is still catching up with some serious contenders.

All in all, the above should demonstrate why WM still remains way ahead of the competition. The only criticism I have ever heard of WM, including from tech-sites and magazines, is in the form of vague statements that it is clunky, buggy, etc. There has not been even a single point which has been raised as to what another OS can do and WM cannot.

If I was to pick the closest contenders for WM’s throne, while today it would be BB, the future heavyweight is likely to be Android with Google’s backing and the rapid pace of development and up-gradation in swing.

But the ultimate answer will depend on how WM7 shapes up…and knowing Bill Gates…I know we are in for a thrilling ride!!!