[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] DukeNukem:
I'm not sure that other OS are easier to develop for, but then again I don't think this is the problem; in fact this might be the problem with other OSs. Frankly there are a lot of 'developers' that someone should take away their compilers, for example let’s consider background tasks. I have WM apps that do real time monitoring of something, and if an event occurs, they alert the user (who is rather happy and grateful to be alerted of the situation), now can I move that app to the iPhone or Windows Phone, nope, because they decided that since so many 'developers' have problems with running a task when it shouldn't, that they would fix the problem by simply removing the OS's ability to run apps in the background, certainly one way to fix the problem, but certainly not the only or perhaps the best way to fix the problem. Certainly there was some education presented around apps handling a WM_Hibernate event etc, but I think some user education is also needed no matter what platform is used as you can expect a small battery to run your phone, music, screen, GPS, Bluetooth, Wifi, etc as there are limits as to how much power you can store in a battery small enough to fit into a mobile device. Again the solution from a number of the platform vendors seems to have been to simply drop that capability, and again perhaps not the best solution as it again penalizes those who know how to manage power on their system and wanted to do those things for reasonable amounts of time or in powered situations (maybe this is the domain of a tablet for example, given its larger and can have a larger battery, but it’s not as mobile as a phone for example).

Now Gestures are another area supposedly where Windows Mobile is lacking and I have been spending a lot of time lately thinking about Gestures and what they are and how they are used, and I don't think that most people understand them or what they mean to an OS or app. The reality is a double click is as much a gesture as anything else, but the real issue with gestures is, there has to be a meaning associated with a gesture. Nodding or shaking my head is a gesture, but it only has meaning because there is a previous agreement between people as to what it means. An OS or an App is very much the same, either it knows that a gesture means or you provide it with a way to learn a gesture, but this is actually very difficult to do and really no OS or app is doing this currently.

So ultimately the question is, what is wrong with Window Mobile? Certainly the graphics are somewhat dated, but otherwise whats the problem? One huge problem is the Telco's. The concept of locking a phone means it can be locked to a contract and updating the phone means the contract can be updated (extended), and this is counterproductive to the technology. Telco's really don't want you getting an update as you might not update your phone and hence your contract (extend your contract). XDA is a threat to telcos in that if you update your own phone with the uber cool firmwares the chefs here make, then you are less likely to 'need' a new phone and less likely to extend your contract (you’ll likely keep your contract, but not in a locked in state) . It comes down to a simple question, why do people get new phones, what new functionality does a new phone offer? Some might claim that a new phone is more reliable, possibly (no doubt given in some ways its less capable it should be more reliable), I know my old HTC Universal was pretty good, and my HTC HD2 has been great, functionality wise I'm not sure what I'm lacking, in fact I often feel the newer OS are lacking. In short I don't know why people use other OS's on their phone as I can't think of a killer reason to move away from Windows Mobile other then lack of interest, but that hasn't been a problem yet.

Now how prevent lack of interest from becoming a problem? Developers go to where the money is (and the tools). Windows Mobile has some really good and mature development tools etc, but is there enough reward to motivate them. Certainly folks on XDA should chip in a donation to their favourite chef or two to help motivate and enable them to continue cooking up great firmwares. We need to hear some developer success stories so developers understand that worthy efforts will gain a worthy reward and certainly users need to understand that encouragement is needed otherwise Windows Mobile will lose what interest is remaining (certainly there are forces which are trying to suck away interest from Windows Mobile, so it really is up to the user community to resist and create its own interest). So what do users need to maintain or grow their interest in Windows Mobile?