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Windows Mobile vs. Android OS – My Take

Posted by Chris Leckness on Nov 23, 2009

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winmovsandroidI was just reading a great read from James over at JKontheRun on the subject and thought it would be a good time for me to weigh in with my views on the debate. Gil also posted a revamp to his Mobile OS battle recently here and since I have been mixing it up with what I am using, I feel it’s time for me to speak up too.

I have been a avid, almost blind supporter of Windows Mobile since the days of the Pocket PC, so my views are a tad bias, but consider this, I am using an iPhone 3GS right now. Well I am using the iPhone until tonight when I get to my office to unbox the Motorola Droid from Verizon.  I have used the T-Mobile G1, HTC Hero, and I am finishing up a review on the Samsung Moment right now. These are the only Android phones I have used so far and I have enjoyed them a little more each time. I can’t wait to check out the Droid for the next couple days. I will bounce this back and forth with the HTC HD2 as well.

James talks about Android and Windows Mobile based on the major areas that are most important to the bulk of smartphone users. He covers Multi-tasking, Available apps, User interface and Computer desktop integration. Of those things, only 3 are really important to me, the 4th being integration. I often overlook integration since I use Exchange 2007 and all the info I need synced is handled in a 2-3 minute setup for each new device I get.

Multi-Tasking
This is one that gets overlooked often just like James mentioned. It’s just that nobody pays attention to this since WinMo does it so well. This is a feature that many take for granted when using the iPhone too. Jailbreaking an iPhone clears this hurdle, but it’s not the same. Multi-tasking on Android is just as good too though. I would say they are pretty evenly matched in this category.

JK gave WinMo the advantage based on the fact that you can install Windows Mobile apps to your storage card and Android can’t, but I feel like this is another category. I honestly didn’t know this about Android since I am not one that installs a ton of 3rd party apps and never encountered this. This is definitely a big advantage to Windows Mobile. A work around for Android handset makers is to throw more internal storage memory though. How hard/expensive is it to bump it up from 256mb – 512mb on up to the gigabytes?

Available Apps
This is definitely one that gets me started when I defend Windows Mobile. The iPhone has 100K+ apps, the Android store has 10k+ and the Windows Market place has, like… 10? Riiiight. The Marketplace is quite anemic right now, but there is a good reason for this. Just like Apple, despite it’s lack of guidelines for approval, Microsoft is taking time to make sure the apps it presents in the store are tested to work just fine on all Window Phone devices. On the other end though, without jailbreaking, there are thousands of apps that are available that are not in the Marketplace. They are spread out along all sorts of outlets. You can grab them from our store (powered by Mobihand), you can get them from the developers, and several other stores out there. It’s impressive that Apple and the Android community has assembled a good store and some really awesome apps. Among all the great apps, there are tons of useless ones too.  Based on Android’s stores organization and momentum, I give a slight edge to Android. As smartphones make it into the hands of regular, everyday users more and more, the one source for apps concept is important. While many of us don’t mind, my wife, cousin, and mom don’t want to have to go all over the web to find the apps they want to install.

User Interface
Based on the plain Android and plain Windows Mobile interfaces, I prefer Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.5 over Android’s standard UI. That’s without TouchFlo, Sense UI, or another other shell. If you start throwing shells on top, HTC wins with both. Sense UI on the HTC Hero is awesome as is TouchFlo 3D on previous Windows Mobile offerings. There are several after market shells for WinMo too. The only thing there was for Android got a cease and desist from Google from what I understand. But, based on plain Jane WinMO vs plain Jane Android, give me Windows Mobile any day.

I won’t comment much on integration as this is not something I care much about and haven’t tested. I have never synced a Google service to one of my phones aside from Google Reader. I use Exchange for all my needs.

As I have said before, Windows Mobile isn’t broken, it’s just what the users what has changed. Microsoft has been slow with rollouts and this has disappointed many, including myself. I still love Windows Mobile, but their pace has me looking at others more seriously now. I want Windows Mobile to jump back into the game, but it seems that it’s become more popular to poke fun at Windows Mobile than it is to have a phone powered by it.

To sum it up, I am impressed, REALLY IMPRESSED with Android’s progress. It’s become, in my opinion, an equal to Windows Mobile in just 1.5 years. I don’t think there is anything that really stands out other than the timely updates that would make Android any better than Windows Mobile yet. I also think that one of the issues that plagues WinMo will be an issue for Android. Multiple handsets, multiple UIs, multiple carriers = multiple problems. Users will wonder will this phone be updated to Éclair, waiting on carriers to certify/update the version, etc…

Being a strong Windows Mobile supporter and self admitted fanboy, It pains me to say that Android has come up from nowhere to rival WinMo, but it has. Like it or not.

What do you think?

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Chris Leckness (4409 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 has been a big time supporter/user of Windows Mobile since the Dell Axim days when it was Pocket PC 2002. Chris loves Zune, but also owns 3 iPhones too. His personal blog is chris.leckness.com.

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    • andrewreid
      I think is is the APP store concept where the "battle" will be won or lost If windows 7 doesnt pulll something out of the bag on this one it may well be over for MS
      I have a ton eof friends who have the iphone and they LURVE getting together and compairing apps downloading new ones where they are chatting and testing them and sharing them
      Thisreally is somethnig MS need to sort out
      I know a lot of peeps dont want or need another fart emulator but it is the community thing that they have going that is confirming it in the psych of "ordinary2 people

      i use an HD2 and the iphone (and some andriod phones) look old fashion compared with it.
      great comparrison BTW
    • Hemi
      One thing that I find to be an important feature is the ability to internet tether your phone to a laptop. Android and Iphones can't do this without some kind of jailbreak. WM phones have this right off the bat. I'm using it right now actually. To me this puts WM ahead for me.
    • mick
      My problem with Android is its dependence on google for syncing contacts and calender. I have been concerned about google reading my email - they pull data from emails to produce directed marketing. I am becoming more uncomfortable with my data and my client's data being filtered through Google's data mining databases. With WM, I can interface with local outlook and manage my simple requirements without running it through a third party's on-line data tracking.
    • don52NC
      Ah, yes win mobile 6.1pro...
      I just looked at the moto Android phone the other day at Verizon. it was very fast browsing experience ... however I do use the ms apps like excel, and I have been using the stylus for entering any data via the Graffiti interface - which I think is SUPERIOR to any data entry method out there. Nobody has said anything about this... It is the reason I purchased Samsung Expix smartphone. And the Graffiti input box comes up and the bottom of the screen at any chance to input anything. I don't know if Android has anything like this - and every time I show this input method to anybody they are amazed... I don't know if this is really old-school or not but it really works for me. It has been around since Palm Pilot. I can't imagine typing on any tiny kb.. I can input faster by using the stylus than anybody typing...
      Thats my two cents...
    • Being a strong Windows Mobile supporter and self admitted fanboy, It pains me to say that Android has come up from nowhere to rival WinMo, but it has. Like it or not.

      As Market Analyst said, the iPhone did it first -- and by many objective measures (specifically marketshare and applications) and subjective measures (buzz, usability, cooless, etc.) surpassed WM.

      I don't think trying to just replicate the iPhone is a recipe for success, though. Trying to replicate the iPod (or even add better features, like an FM radio) hasn't worked in the Digital Audio Player market. What Microsoft, Google and Palm will need to do is come up with something new (the so-called "killer app" -- or killer model).

      Google has a good start with its Internet (*cough* cloud *cough*) services. Microsoft (and RIM) have a strong start in corporations with Exchange (and BlackBerry Enterprise Server), but those aren't exactly "new", which is probably why Microsoft is also doing more Internet services (like My Phone).

      If somebody wants a free idea (not patentable, of course), consider a killer GPS navigation program with the following features:

      * Maps are stored on your device, so you don't need an Internet connection, but maps and points of interest are automatically updated with the latest when you do have one

      * Typical navigation program features, like automatic rerouting, spoken turn instructions and both text-to-speech and speech recognition ("Find me the cheapest gas station within ten miles").

      * Standard Internet traffic feeds plus crowd-sourced traffic updates (something I came up with at one company and Waze seems to have actually done) overlaid on the maps with audio notifications

      * Weather updates with audio warnings

      * Optional street view when you have an Internet connection to display the actual buildings around you (updated in real-time, of course, as you're driving) (The system would probably download the street views around your destination when you set it so they can display it in real-time)

      Think of it as a combination of the best features of Garmin, ALK, Waze, Google Maps and Telenav. It's not an OS feature, of course, but if you can get an exclusive on that, I think it could move a lot of handsets.

      Steve
    • superlinkx
      Android has been only around for 13 months if you are going by when the first phone came out.
    • Market Analyst
      It was the iPhone that nuked the mobile landscape.

      Now, all phone OS makers are in a race to reproduce the iPhone style interface as close as they can. That includes Android, Palm, WinMo, Maemo. There's a demand for a generic multi-hardware OS, that gives everyone an experience something similar to the iPhone, without being an iPhone or from Apple. I think Android is coming the closest.

      While it's OK to like the WinMo 6.1 interface more than Android's, that older interface can't last, as Microsoft is also in this race to reproduce an iPhone-like experience. By all accounts, next year's WinMo7 will be more like iPhone than it is like WinMo 6.1. That's what the average user wants.

      BTW, shareholders should ask why Microsoft is so slow with those OS updates. This market moves fast. The nimble survive. You can have the best idea in the word, but if you can't execute it quickly, you lose.
    • Ok, I have a few issues with that article on jkontherun. The biggest, though, is how can you possibly ignore web browsing? Web browsing is exploding on smartphones and that is definitely something that WM does not so well and Android's webkit browser does far better. I am definitely highly interested in browsing from my phone, and for that I think Android is miles ahead of WM right now.

      For the rest, it's hard to comment. These are just his opinions, after all. It seems to me that Android's app environment has a better near-term future than WM's (WM's catalog seems stuck on the same old apps that have been around forever - about the only new things that I notice are utilities that try to improve on the tired old interface.)
    • Let's talk about browsing. How can you ignore Opera Mobile, Skyfire and Netfront? :D They aren't the native browser, obviously, but some OEMS (Samsung and HTC, for example) include Opera Mobile as the default browser on their handsets.

      Steve
    • Chris, I'm not surprised that Android could "Catch up to WinMo in just 18 months."

      It's easy to grow fast when you have no backward compatibility to worry about. It's also easy to grow when you don't have any enterprise-level considerations to worry about.

      Both are really cool, but for different reasons. I still see Android and iPhone battling it for the consumer end -- RIM and WinMo slugging it for the Enterprise (with RIM getting a boost from SkyFire, followed by WinMo's Mobile Sharepoint advantage) -- and Palm continuing to churn out commercials with creepy women.
    • You mean RIM will get a boost from Iris, don't you, Ike? While SkyFire is being developed for BlackBerry, RIM purchased Torch Mobile, maker of the Webkit-based Iris browser.

      Steve
    • That is EXACTLY what I meant. Thanks.

      Fingers were running faster than my brain.
    • Wish I could offer an opinion on the subject, but I've neither played around with Android or WM 6.5. Would be great to get my hands on some of the new devices for comparison. I used to play with the iPhones everytime I was in BestBuy or the Apple Store. Looks like I need to drop by the cell phone stores just to play around!
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