There’s just no two ways about it. Microsoft just lifted their hind leg and let one loose on the Windows Mobile crowd, and when I say “crowd”, I mean both their customers and their business partners.

The newly announced Windows Mobile 8 platform may have a ton of new features to entice new and existing fans of Microsoft’s mobile OS, but it managed to successfully orphan each and every Windows Mobile Phone in existence, which includes the whole Nokia Lumia line of Windows Phones.

Now before you get on my case about being an Apple fanboy, let me just say that I was a huge fan of  the Windows Mobile platform. Only a few would remember it, but I was actually one of the founding members of the Pinoy Windows Mobile user group which was at its peak during the XDA days (anyone else remember the XDA? that was an awesome phone). While the majority of people were happy with their Palm Pilots and Handsprings, I was evangelizing Windows CE with my Casio EM-500. It may not seem like it, but I am a strong believer in the Windows Mobile platform … well, that was until Microsoft threw the proverbial poo into the proverbial fan.

The Nokia 710 as a whole is a good phone that' sold within a decent price range, if only it was upgradeable to WP8

The route Microsoft took with Windows Phone 7 was the right one to take. The old Windows CE based OS was getting long in the tooth and in order to compete with the likes of iOS and Android, they had to create a new OS that was not only lean and fast, but also had a more cohesive design standard that 3rd party developers can follow. When Microsoft previewed Windows Phone 7, everyone was thrilled, it had a slick UI and the performance was consistently smooth. It looked so good and the plans they had for it were so grand that everyone couldn’t believe that it was a product conceived by Microsoft. Microsoft was even bragging that after Windows Phone 7 has been launched to the public, they were committed to bringing new features to it on a monthly basis.

Yeah, I was pretty stoked about it – I wanted to believe that everything MS was saying were true. The problem was I gave too much credit to a company that can’t even fix their PIM software to accommodate more than one mobile phone number.

Months before the release of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft made an announcement that all of the features they have initially previewed will not make it into the initial build of Windows Phone 7 and that some (not all, just “some”) of the features that were scaled back will be available as an update after a few months. So yeah, Windows Phone 7 launched minus a few features that would have made it up-to-par with the likes of iOS and Android. The wait for the update (dubbed as “Mango”, a rejoinder  to Apple no doubt) was stretched from the claimed “a couple of months” to almost a year. So much for their monthly update.

During the wait for the Mango update, I was using an HTC Mozart, a phone which I was proud to own and was equally happy to use. But the wait for the Mango update was agonizing, the delay took so long that I eventually traded my Mozart for a BlackBerry Torch. Still, I had a soft spot for Windows Phone 7, and when a Nokia Lumia 710 review unit came our way, I jumped on it like melted cheese on nachos. Using the Lumia 710 reminded me why I love the Windows Phone platform: the UI was simple yet gorgeous. I was actually contemplating on purchasing a Lumia 900, but luckily for me, I didn’t push through with it because in one fell swoop, Microsoft has now killed the upgrade path of all phones running Windows Phone 7.

Windows Phone 8 promises a lot of things, but a sense of getting your money’s worth is definitely not in the picture. Buying a Windows Phone 7 device now is akin to investing money into obsolescence. Oh, and if by chance you’re working at a company called Nokia, you know who to blame when the dreaded pink slip should go your way.

Howard

Gadgets and video games are what Howard loves and he was fortunate enough to have dabbled in both worlds professionally. A former Editor-in-Chief of a local gaming magazine, Howard is currently busy jumping from one industry to another, analyzing and writing about all of the electronic toys he loves. His favorite noodles: Pork Leg Bihon.

email: howard@technoodling.netwebsite: http://www.technoodling.net