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Let me preface this by saying that “I” don’t consider Windows Mobile unstable. For years, all I have used is Windows Mobile and I have not had the trouble that some do. Of course, I don’t throw applications not designed for my vintage Windows Mobile, I don’t push the device past it’s limits, and I take great care to manage the memory of my Windows Mobile Devices. That said, other than hard resets to clear info off phones or PDAs so others won’t have my contact list, I have had to do VERY FEW hard resets on Windows Mobile devices. Dare I say, Windows Mobile is not Unstable, it’s the applications we flood the devices with. Bashing Microsoft for other developer’s applications is something that has just become the “cool thing to do”, I guess. Windows Mobile is not perfect, but it’s not the beast many want us to believe.

Apple has 3rd party applications now. Nice right? Well, iPhone owners are complaining of lockups and having to reset. It could never be Apple’s fault though, it’s got to be the applications. Bad developers, bad apps, it could never be Apple’s fault. So here we are, Apple iPhone locks up… Bad App. Windows Mobile Phone locks up, Bad Microsoft. Hmmm… Ok. Let’s talk about the iPhone shall we?

I have been using the iPhone since 2.0 on and off now and I am impressed. I have had very few lock ups, but I can also say that the only apps I have running are reputable apps, most of which are not free. The only real hang up I’ve had is that Holdem Poker locked up one time. I am a lucky user though, I am reading all over the net about lock up and restart problems with the iPhone. Many of them all point to one problem, 3rd Party apps.

This issue and some others cause my friend, Matt Miller, to post an article today.

As a person who enjoys trying out and using lots of 3rd party applications on my mobile devices I expected issues with some applications because not all developers are created equal and Apple doesn’t seem to be performing much of any kind of actual review in letting applications appear on the iPhone App store. However, I have had way too many experiences where I go to start an application, it appears to load and then I am taken right back to the home screen again. The only way I have figured out how to get the application back up and running is to remove it and then reinstall it on the iPhone. I also discovered that for paid applications you have to “repurchase” the application on your device and then as you go through the process a pop-up will appear that states you already paid for the application and would you like to download it for free. Thus you don’t actually have to buy the application again, but that is the method you have to follow to redownload it. I would think that the iPhone would be smart enough to know which applications I purchased before you have to get to this point and think there is definitely some room for improvement in the App Store on the iPhone.

Head over and read “Congratulations Apple, you made the iPhone less stable than Windows Mobile“.

I agree with Matt’s article, but he has experienced some issues that I have not. Maybe I am just not pushing my devices the way others do. I do what I need the devices to do and don’t experiment much. With the iPhone, I play some games, I read and post to twitter, browse a website or two, talk on the phone a lot, and I have push email coming in all day. I only install the apps I need and don’t really “try out” new things just because I can. Are those that are having problems pushing their devices too far? How far is too far?

Matt also mentions in his article the issue I had where all my iPhone apps disappeared. I won’t repost that snafu today, but here is the link if you want to read more about it.

On another note, the new 2.01 firmware doesn’t help my crappy battery life. The only thing that has helped my battery life is lack of use. Even then, with Push Email, standby battery life is still not great. I can deal with it because I am hope to charge every night and I typically can make it through a day on a charge, in fact, I have only run the battery dead 3x since 2.0 was released.

Chris Leckness (3547 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

Chris Leckness is the Owner/Administrator of Mobilitysite. He is a Microsoft MVP, Mobile Devices and a member of the exclusive focus group, Mobius. Chris runs a Mobilitysite, GotZune, and a few other smaller sites and blogs. His personal blog is chris.leckness.com.