I’d really like to drive everyone’s attention to my post about the HTC Touch HD as a mobile entertainment device. This post has been killing me in the comments and so it clearly needs addressing. QuicklyBored readers know their stuff, so I’m going to repost the comments and address them. Quality comments guys, I appreciate it.
The first comment I’d like to address was by David. In my post, I talked about Windows Mobile software lacking when it comes to mobile entertainment. The reason being is that it doesn’t have the following that iPhone or Android has, and the software tends to be more enterprise focused. Here are some great excerpts from David’s comment:
“So many problems with the iPhone software, solved in HTC HD. no Java! no flash!” “i can’t share the internet from my iphone, no copy and paste, and in general very limited functions.”
“I can’t download from the internet!”
“Hardware improvements over (iphone):
800/480 pixels (480/320)
3.8 inch screen (3.5)
video-recording (no video-recording)
288 MB RAM (probably 128, or less)
TV -Out (no)
micro sd support (no)
removable battery (no)
5 mp camera with autofocus (2 mp, without autofocus)”
David has it completely correct. As I said before, my beef with the software is more focused on Apps and Games as well as the market supporting this software. The supporting software, Flash, Java and cut&paste are a clear advantage for this phone over the iPhone. Saying this phone is definitely not an iPhone killer sure did boil peoples’ blood.
Another great comment came from Clem.
(re “Apple fan boys”): “You don’t hear them complain about the iphone’s poor camera, lack of video calling, rubbish display reolution or lack of propper GPS navigation software so they will not care that this device has all four.”
Clem addresses the poor GPS navigation which is definitely something I didn’t mention in the post. As someone who is very focused on what fun the phone can provide, GPS is becoming increasingly important. LBS games, apps and geotagging are all becoming a bigger share of the mobile entertainment space. This is definitely somewhere where the Touch HD prevails.
Lastly I would like to point out Jeff’s comment, purely for the 3rd degree burns he left.
“You covered three aspects of the phone and that enabled you to determine that this phone will be zero competition to the iPhone? Have you ever considered a career in market analysis. With hunches like these you’d be worth your weight in gold.”
Haha. Nice.
These are all great points regarding how the HTC Touch HD will truly make for a great entertaining device. Something these comments have yet to address, and what was the focus of my post, is where are my killer apps going to come from?
Developers seem much more keen on making killer apps for Android and Apple. This is by far the most important feature for me. Yes, having a great screen is important, and yes, having a quality camera is nice, but what good are they to me unless they’re interacting with top-notch software. I’ve yet to be impressed by WinMo’s ability to provide quality, UI friendly, entertaining software, but I’m looking forward to it. I’m hoping this quality device will convince creative, fun-centric developers to pay more attention to WinMo.
Since a huge factor for the iPhone is the built-in iPod, how does this phones video/mp3 player compare…last I checked Windows Media was pretty weak compared to the iPod–WMP doesn’t even save what you were playing or your location.
Well, what a lot of people doesn’t know or they completaly ignore it’s the fact that WinMo has been in the market for a lot more time than iPhone, there it’s a big selection of applications for WinMo.
I don’t know what part of “top-notch” applications for iPhone means.
iPhone it’s a great device, but the very first all touch screen device was LG Prada, which it was realised about 5 or 6 months before iPhone was announced. Yeah, they push some phone makers to create better phones, and the interface it’s great and very simple. WinMo interface it’s more complicated, but at the end you can find more solutions for wathever you want to accomplish; however, if they improve the UI, it would be a better interface.
The difference it’s that with iPhone I only have one mp3 player, video player and with WinMo you can chose the best player that meets your needs. But the problem for a lot of people it’s that they don’t want, don’t understand or don’t like to deal with the complication of pushing an extra button or two. With respect to all iPhone owners, but some of them actually are like kids, they like the simple A B C and colorfull stuff.
HTC Touch HD it’s a better device in all aspects, they just don’t want to admit it.
Part of the problem with addon applications is they take more of your resources and they generally don’t work as seemlessly as the built in application. That’s why it would be better if WinMo had a great video/music player built in. Less risk that I get an application that conflicts with other things on my phone and more seemless operation.
This device is going to kill. For those of us not into iPhone it’s an “iPhone Killer”, same for new Blackberry Storm. It is really about what features are important to each user. A camera’s quality may be more important to one person while screen or apps is important to another. That’s why their are so many devices, with different strong qualities, to choose from.
Now for me the HTC Touch HD meets all the things I find important so in my opinion it is going to “kill” everything out now. I want it and that is where the complications come in. My decision is not whether to buy, it’s how can I get it. I’m with Verizon Wireless, which is known for it’s great coverage and lack of products of certain platforms (PPC) upon release.
So if you are like me join my crusade to get this baby when it comes out. Join my groups @:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=39864204714
http://myspace.com/ppcusersdemandverizonlstn
email contact: ppcusersdemandingverizonlisten@gmail.com
forum thread: http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=465317#post465317