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Why Android and not Windows Mobile ?

iso2010

Lurker
May 23, 2010
2
0
Hi guys,

I rely on my winmo 6.0 heavily for daily productivity in business. The hype of Android is attracting me lately. But after searching and comparing the two, I feel that winmo is still my choice for the following required specs of mine:

1. sync only with desktop and don't sync to the cloud as the company's data is confidential
2. sync perfectly and natively with ms outlook
3. in the field I rely heavily on the offline navigation software such as garmin mobile xt. no online data required
4. excel mobile with graphs is winmo killer app. very helpful in analysing and presenting data to clients which can be synced to the desktop and edit it anywhere
5. other small killer apps:
a. auto call record: 2-way automatic in-call recorder (without pressing any button to start)
b. pimbackup: back up all sms. outlook data+sms can be recovered easily

the device I use is the good old htc touch diamond. Other opinions are welcome...
 
I think of Android as being more of a "fun" system than a work system. While there is Microsoft Exchange support, it isn't as full-bodied as it is in Windows Mobile (which is developed by Microsoft).

I wouldn't put my work email on my phone. Other than I don't want to be in touch 24-7, we deal with sensitive information. If they want me to be in contact like that, they'll give me a phone to use.
 
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OK. that's too bad since currently many new devices have android inside... I am hoping that andro can evolve and capture the market segment as "work" system as well. or may be it is more to the direction of apple segment...

Android has Exchange support and email clients galore, but I personally wouldn't purchase an Android phone as a work phone. Work phones to me are Windows Mobile and Blackberry - and play phones are Android and iPhone.

While the play phones can do some of the things the work phones can do, their target base when they started wasn't the corporate drone (like myself) but people who like status symbols and fun.
 
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I think it has been established that winmo is probably going to fit your requirements better but I was wondering why you think cloud email / computing is less secure. Surely the reverse applies.

If, God forbid we were both mugged today and our phones stolen, or more likely in my case I left it in a pub. Your phone has your email stored on it, I just need to change my password and all mine are gone from that device.
 
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First of all I would like to say that, based on your info, it is obvious that you need something tightly integrated into a Microsoft environment, and another Microsoft product will have an undeniable head start. You kind of answered your own question with your requirements description. :eek:

I think of Android as being more of a "fun" system than a work system.
OK. that's too bad since currently many new devices have android inside... I am hoping that andro can evolve and capture the market segment as "work" system as well. or may be it is more to the direction of apple segment...
I have to agree, Android is nice, but it's terribly clear that its makers chose to not learn from over a decade worth of experience (cough-PalmOS-cough), and that that's the primary reason why it's not very business'y. The stock Android is not bad, but an even bigger detractor is that all the current vendor-customisations seem to focus on bling such as Facebook integration and fancy graphics.

[...]I was wondering why you think cloud email / computing is less secure. Surely the reverse applies. If, God forbid we were both mugged today and our phones stolen, or more likely in my case I left it in a pub. Your phone has your email stored on it, I just need to change my password and all mine are gone from that device.
This is a bit off-topic, but I'll bite -- mainly because I disagree.
Looking at my Palm pda, a thief would not be able to get to my data: I have automated (encrypted) backups, and sync only to my workstation. Taking out the (encrypted) sdcard locks down the pda, and I can send it an SMS to lock and/or wipe the pda and/or sdcard. So I regard my data as "in my safekeeping" regardless of the state of the device itself.
On the other hand, looking at and Android phone, my data is already in the hands of strangers from the get-go, with its reliance on a Google account. True, I can also remotely lock/wipe this device, but oddly enough there's no way to move my my automated (alas, unencrypted) backups to my workstation, and if removed the sdcard remains perfectly readable. There is, I believe, nothing you can do to fully protect the data on a removable (as opposed to built-in, as in the Samsung Galaxy) sdcard from being compromised. :(
That said, the Android is my primary device these days (that is to say, I'm not meaning to "berate you from my ivory tower").
 
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(that is to say, I'm not meaning to "berate you from my ivory tower").

I'd say you were firmly sat on the fence.

Why backup to sd though, doesn't that defeat the whole object?

I've never sent an email from my @googlemail address I merely use gmail to collate and store my work and personal addresses, I can't see why I would need a backup on my phone.
 
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It was quite simple for me, all my home PCs run Linux and...

Android = Linux
Windows = Windows.

If you run Windows on all your other devices, maybe Windows is the way to go on the mobile.

But if you are interested in Android, I'll point out the following...
iso2010 said:
1. sync only with desktop and don't sync to the cloud as the company's data is confidential
2. sync perfectly and natively with ms outlook
Both of these are possible with Android
iso2010 said:
3. in the field I rely heavily on the offline navigation software such as garmin mobile xt. no online data required
There are many offline nav apps available.
iso2010 said:
4. excel mobile with graphs is winmo killer app. very helpful in analysing and presenting data to clients which can be synced to the desktop and edit it anywhere
I believe 'documents to go' should have you covered.
5. other small killer apps:
iso2010 said:
a. auto call record: 2-way automatic in-call recorder (without pressing any button to start)
I don't think this is available, only 1 way recording.
iso2010 said:
b. pimbackup: back up all sms. outlook data+sms can be recovered easily
There are apps to backup texts to the cloud or to your SDcard (which can then be copied to anther storage medium).
 
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I'd prefer mine sync with my desktop and with android being open source it should be the easiest to make that happen. Try getting WM to sync with something besides outlook (which I gave up on years ago). Thats why I'm not using my WM phone anymore, try to get it to sync with anything else. I found it too limited being tied so tightly with outlook/activesync.
 
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The hype of Android is attracting me lately. But after searching and comparing the two, I feel that winmo is still my choice
One size does not fit all. If WinMo suits you better then stick with it.

in the field I rely heavily on the offline navigation software such as garmin mobile xt. no online data required
There's nothing about Android that requires data for GPS nav apps. It's up to the app developer and there are options with locally stored maps. Google Maps Nav is very popular but it's not the only GPS nav app on Android.
 
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Have you read any of the detailed articles recently about Phone 7? It isn't the corporate oriented business OS you're used to. It's heavily aimed at the same audience as the iPhone and, to a lesser extent, Android: entertainment and social networking. Android is still growing, but I think it's going to offer more business oriented functionality in the long run. Take a look at these articles:

Windows Phone 7 preview: Part 1 | Dialed In - CNET Blogs

Windows Phone 7: Don't bother with this disaster | Mobilize - InfoWorld

If nothing else, version 1.0 of Phone 7 appears to lack a lot of functionality. And I believe developers will need to start from scratch for Phone 7. Your existing WinMob apps won't simply work. So in the short run, at least, you'll have far fewer apps to choose from. Given the seeming lack of developer interest (second link), you may be waiting a long time for any major apps.

Whether to put up with that in hopes that 1.1 will fix the bugs, and 1.2 through 2.0 and 3rd party apps come out fast enough to be meaningful, is a decision for each user.


Oh, wait, are you talking about the current Windows Mobile? If it meets your needs, then there's no reason to switch. I stuck it out on Palm OS for a long time because nothing else met MY needs better. But Android is far more powerful and flexible than either Palm OS or WinMob. I have up some things (mostly the powerful calendar) switching from PalmOS, but I've gained far more.

Eventually, WinMob will be a historical oddity, with no support from developers and not much of a user community. But for now, if it meets your needs better than Android, stick with it.
 
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I'm a computer tech so I'm somewhat familiar with just about every popular phone OS out there as I have to support them on a daily basis. I use Android myself and I own an iTouch and used to use a WinMo phone. There is no other phone that so seamlessly integrates with Exchange the way WinMo does. There really isn't. This shouldn't come as any surprise though since both phones are made by the same company. I would expect Windows Phone 7 to have the same kind of integration. You can find ActiveSync on the iPhone and several Android devices though, but the integration isn't the same. The functionality you want can be achieved with an Android device, but there are some workarounds and 3rd party apps you have to depend on. Personally, I would not go back to my WinMo phone. Love Android. To me the workarounds are worth it.
 
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Windows Phone 7 is the only reason I dumped WinMo and started my adventure with Android.

I get the feeling that MS are shooting themselves in the foot in a big way with WinPhone 7. It seems they are ditching a lot of the good features of WinMo6.5 in order to try to compete with the iPhone and Android in their own territory.

The fact that WinPhone 7 has no cut and paste and no multi-tasking cripples the OS from the start and the XBox integration will be a big turn off to corporate buyers.

WinMo 6.5 still has a very firm place in the corporate world alongside Blackberries. It is unmatched for Exchange integration and has some killer corporate features such as a remote desktop client.

Microsoft should be taking the WinMo 6.5 OS and giving it a sensible phone interface (no more tiny x's on dialogs). Instead they seem to be ditching all that is good and starting again with a product in a market sector that is already saturated.
 
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(Off-topic follow-up)
Why backup to sd though, doesn't that defeat the whole object?
I'm not backing up the PIM data (you're right: pointless), I'm backing up the installed apps and their settings (so I can restore in case of a crash or unwanted app update). Although apps exist that will FTP your bookmarks etc. to a 3rd-party web site, I haven't yet found a way to automatically move that backup to my own server. :eek:
 
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Microsoft simply wanted to make an OS that is not slow and in order to do that limited multitasking and that was a mistake.

Removing Copy and Paste is a completely different story, it is like moving at least 10 years backwards.

I bet they will see their mistake very soon but it will already be too as people like me will have already left for Android. In my case it is me and two best friends who left WinbMo within 2 months.
 
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My suggestion would be to go play with an Android for a while. See if you like it. It can do all those tasks you listed, just in new ways. There's a reason why Android has such a ridiculous growth rate...

Did Beta testing for the Winmo phones back in the day, love them, nothing wrong with how they operate,(which hasn't really changed) but got to stay with the times! Android is pretty slick!
 
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