Doug's Mailbag: The Death of Windows Mobile 6
One reader responds to another's assessment of the end of Windows Mobile 6:
I laughed when I saw this comment:
"It's absolute bollocks. This is how they treat 'Windows Phone Classic' users? Remember that whole bunch of 'WP Classic' branding nonsense? Oh yeah we'll proudly support both platforms, kiddies... So now they have hung the vast majority of WM users (5-6.x) out to dry. What a great way to engender loyalty or a desire to switch to a totally unpopular and new mobile platform (WP 7) that has as much of a chance of surviving long term as Palm OS (Or WM 6.x!).
No way, no how. It's Beta vs. VHS time, i.e. iOS vs. Android. WP 7 will go the way of Symbian soon enough. My Zune (remember the Zune?) SHOULD have taught me well enough how MS habitually abandons its core customers without much regard. Next phone will be an Android unless AT&T reinvents its system and offers an iPhone that can maintain a phone call."
If WP 7 is totally unpopular and new, WinMo 6 is totally unpopular and old. Why anyone would be upset about Microsoft retiring a worthless OS is beyond me. Maybe MS should support Windows 98 as well. I'm sure there are a few people dinosaurs that would like that, but why stop there? How about Windows 3.1? That's a REAL classic. It sounds like this guy should go back to a Motorola Razr.
Microsoft wants to wind down support in the next year and a half. Do people keep their phones longer than two years? I own an Android phone, and I can't wait till my one-year mark comes in September and I can get a new discounted phone. As of right now, I'm leaning towards a WP 7 phone. It has the apps that I use, it was the first platform to offer Netflix streaming on a mobile device and I can get a Zune Pass, which blows iTunes a la carte pricing out of the water. WinMo 6 was the pinnacle of why Microsoft got demolished in the mobile space. Let it go.
-Chris
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Posted by Doug Barney on 06/20/2011 at 1:18 PM