[Advantage X7500, MDA Ameo Upgrading] yetdy:
This post is very long so for those who do not have the patience to read, move on to the next post.

From the beginning, Iphone was not meant to kill WM PPC. It was meant to eat some of the market but it's goal was to get those loyal to ipod to switch to an ipod with a phone + browser and drop thier current mobile devices.

It was and still is a very innovative device. It up the ante across all Mobile platforms. Considering the price, it is very affordable even here in the Philippines where 1 may cost as low as Php 22,000.00 or USD $550.00 as compared to Php 60,000 or USD 1,500.00 for an Athena or Php40,000.00 USD 1,000 for an N95. Being too locked up is the only restricting factor why there is no polifiration of the phone here.

Let's be truthful to each other. The Iphone is a great development but it is not meant as of now for business or hard core users. The WMD on the other hand is not really meant for total entertainment as it really needs a genius or a persistent person to be able to make it work very well. As for business use, this will depend on the company's customization and training to their people. Kindly take note on the word training.

People who do not have the same basic level as we do cannot, will not directly or indirectly understand the interface. They will need training to be able to use it. Not as properly as we do but at least they will use it for whatever purpose it may serve them. We have many WMD users here in the business arena. Most of them are Medical Representatives who are forced by their employers to use the device for tracking purposes. Ask them anything about their WMD aside from making call, SMS or WMP, they will not understand your question or they will flatly tell you that they do not care about it.

Most of the people world over are so used to the generic phone functions of nokia or whatever is available in each other's country. it will be hard for them to move on to devices of higher smartness. My mother is an example. She used to use a nokia 6100 and 5500. We gave here the most basic 6 series s60 platform phone last 6 Feb. She hasn't stopped complaining about the difficulty she has with the GUI of this particular phone ever since.

Iphone used a very good strategy. They have already conditioned people to using the ipod and its variants. They have already achieved critical mass. Then they launched an ipod with a better GUI, added phone features to lure the ordinary phone users, and gave it great hype to lure non hardcore WMD users. The effect is extra ordinary.

For hardcore users, we will never like the present iphone because it is really, an entertainment phone and not something we can tinker to our liking.

At a marketing point of view, we are the real target marget priority of WMD manufacturers. Whatever the GUI of WM, we will most likely stay with WM because we can do almost anything we want on it. On the other hand, people who buy WMD for status Quo purposes will eventually shift to other brands or interface that are currently in fashion.

Suffice it to say that if Microsoft wants to grow the WM market, they have to approach people like us first to learn why and how we shifted to using their products. From there, they will understand how to market their products. Enough of how good their product is over the other. Most good quality products die early because they do not do proper marketing. WM will go the same direction if they do not stop and listen. Comparing themselves to competitors will never help them. They have to look at things from the point of view of hardcore users. I'm surprised the Marketing Director of Microsoft doesn't do this. Very disappointing!