TechVirtuoso

I finally left Windows Mobile, for Android

June 1st, 2010 at 10:26 AM  1 Comment

For the majority of my adult life I have owned and adored Windows Mobile phones. I remember the first one I saw was from HTC dubbed the Blue Angel. At the time this device seemed way to large and bulky to carry in your pocket on a daily basis so I passed. Soon after, I started to hear about the MPx200 and loved the specs and size. As soon as they became available in my local AT&T Wireless store (which turned into Cingular, and is now back to AT&T) I picked one up and I didn’t look back…. until last week.

I received my previous Windows Mobile device, the Touch Pro 2, last October. Overall it has been a good device and it lasted me over 6 months without a major problem.  An impressive feat considering most devices only last 3  months without my need to seek out a replacement.  I was getting bored with the Touch Pro 2 and Windows Mobile and so I got the choice of a HTC Snap (oh heck no), a HTC Hero or a Samsung Moment. I didn’t particularly like the design of the Moment so I went with the Hero.

I love some of the new features of the new Android device, like Visual Voicemail, push email on multiple types of email accounts and merging contacts/calendars from multiple sources.  All of these items are things I wish Windows Mobile offered but never could find a way to do it.

After using the Hero for a week I am beginning to think the Moment might have been a better choice.  Sense UI seems to cause some problems on the underpowered Hero processor and the on screen keyboard has been hard to get used to.  Some of the features I am surprised that are missing are features enterprises would look for, like enforced security options as well as remote wipe and remote lock.  I know these are available as third party apps but without these features built into a centralized console security conscious businesses will continue to shy away from the Android platform.

If Google wants to continue to pull business away from the Google Apps platform I think they need to figure out how to include these advance security features into Android as well as Google Apps.