No effort from Microsoft on pocket apps?

[JKooL]

As a relative newcomer to the PDA arena, I've been thoroughly underwhelmed by not only the terrible interface and sluggishness of WM2003 on my x50, but I'm also having to frequently turn to 3rd party apps just to get a functioning internet browser, emailing program, functional interface, and now i'm just beginning to find out the limitations of pocket word (more like pocket notepad).

I'm not much of a programmer, but it really seems like they stuck a single programmer in a cubicle for a day and the end result was the handful of pocket Microsoft apps (IE, Word, Outlook) on the PDA. It really feels like Microsoft put no effort into its pocket apps at all, and I feel cheated.

However, I am very impressed at the functionality of 3rd party apps available for the PDA that are leaps and bounds ahead of the MS programs.

Sorry if this has been brought up before. Has WM5 improved on any of this?

[Saklander]

Dito, about the cheated feeling!

But perhaps because of a different reasons:

1) The 2003 (and SE) where in my opinion more "finalized" (of course they didn´t have as good a OS, but one should always demand progress) Namely Activesync and perhaps BT

2) My problem isn´t with MS not developing stuff, but not allocating other software developers resources (like memory) to develop 3rd party apps for WM software... Look at the problems with today plug-ins, many of them are having problems because of this it seems....

So in conclusion, Windows mobile needs more competition! so anybody who has some skills, PLEASE help projects like Minimo,VLC and others that develop stuff for mobile devices!!!!

[ThundaAx]

I have seen definite improvements in WM5 concerning the built-in office apps. Word & Excel are now able to keep more of their formatting from the original PC documents; Excel can now do charts & graphs; WM5 now has a new application - Powerpoint.

[srf506]

This is my $.02 and the opinions here are my own. Feel free to disagree. The problem is the machines are still in Wright Bros stage, well okay, maybe WW1 fighters now. They are still a niche machine looking for a reason. They're like personal computers when they first were introduced. Cool item to have, but no standards, no commonality, and very limited utility for the price. 90% of the people that buy PPCs only use them for PIM functions, surfing the web, games, listening to MP3s and watching videos. A few, use them for some additional features such as note taking and e-mail. Probably what about 80% of the owners of PCs do with them too. Fewer still have actually used MS Developer's kit to write some C+ and VB apps for things they do. A few small, niche software houses have written some applications that don't add utility, but improve the performance of the built-in apps. Until there is a real reason for having one of these things that makes commercial sense, they are not going to have a growing 3rd party software industry. Now, in the last couple of months it appears that Chris has either made an additional effort to search out these suppliers, or there is a surge of them after the Vegas CES show putting products out the door, some companies have attempted to renergize the market and bringing out new product, or some combination of the three because I've been seeing more products highlighted on the front page of this site. It is also possibly due to MS releasing its WM2005 OS and the sudden emphasis on smart phone platforms, not PPCs. Whatever, until industries find a need like Blackberry that this machine can answer, they will always remain non-priority items to the major software application houses.