THE MOBILE HORNET … for those who get turned on by mobile devices

How many form factors do you have for iPhone, Blackberry, Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile?   Check out below the compilation from Pocketnow:

• iphone has only one form factor
• BlackBerry has two currently with two on the way (candybar QWERTY, candybar SureType, flip SureType, and no keyboard)
• Palm has two (candybar QWERTY and no keyboard)\
• Symbian does a bit better with a handful (candybar T9, flip T9, clamshell QWERTY, no keyboard, Down-Sliding T9, etc)
• Windows Mobile - the king for the most number of form factors, 18 in total

Read Edward J. R. of MsMobiles “12 reasons to buy Windows Mobile phone instead of iPhone 3G” and decide for yourself:

“iPhone 3G goes on sale today worldwide, but we would like to point out that in many respects Windows Mobile phones are superior to iPhone 3G.”

1. 3rd party applications in iPhone 3G cannot run in background: only one application can run at any given time in iPhone 3G so no background running of applications possible! In Windows Mobile phone several (many) applications can run at the same time so it is possible for example to simultaneously run in Windows Mobile: a) downloading a 50 MB MP3 file with a podcast, b) IM chatting with somebody including native Skype client for windows Mobile or native Live Messenger from Microsoft, c) edit Office documents, d) browse Internet, e) make a phone call, etc.
2. iPhone 3G has resolution of only 480×320 what is 2 times less than VGA (640×480) and W-VGA (wide VGA = 800×480) used in several Windows Mobile phones, what practically means: you can read more text on the display at once and everything is sharper
3. camera in iPhone 3G is inferior to camera in many Windows Mobile phones: it has only 2 megapixels compared to 3 to 5 megapixels in Windows Mobile phones and it does not have auto-focus - also present in many Windows Mobile phones
4. one cannot record videos with built-in camera of iPhone 3G, what is possible up to resolution of 640×480 pixels and 30 FPS (frames per second) in Windows Mobile phones
5. iPhone 3G supports HSDPA of maximal speed only 3.6 MB/second, while some Windows Mobile phones (including HTC Touch Diamond) suppport HSDPA of speed 7.2 MB/second
6. iPhone 3G does not have exchangeable battery that all Windows Mobile phones have, but only built-in battery so if you run out of battery you cannot replace it to prolong battery life - as it is possible with Windows Mobile phones
7. original (i.e. from Microsoft) Office Mobile is built-in in each Windows Mobile phone and allows not only for viewing but also for editing of Office documents, so there is no need ot buy 3rd party software for it
8. there is much more 3rd party applications (programs) for Windows Mobile: over 20,000 compared to 500 for iPhone 3G
9. to make applications for Windows Mobile one needs either PC computer or Mac but to make applications for iPhone 3G one needs to buy a Mac computer - if you don’t have Mac computer then you cannot develop applications for iPhone 3G
10. most Windows Mobile phones come without SIM lock so they can be used at any operator in given country and with SIM cards from abroad (important when traveling and you want to use local prepaid SIM card to avoid International roaming fees) while iPhone 3G has SIM lock and can work with only this operator at which it has been purchased
11. iPhone 3G has capacitive touch-screen meaning that it must be used with fingers and that it cannot be used with stylus or fingernails (what women like)
12. iPhone 3G has no physical keyboard or keypad, so users have no choice but to use virtual keyboards on the display while Windows Mobile offers phones in various form-factors, including such that have both touch-screen and a physical QWERTY keyboard Conclusion: do not buy iPhone 3G but instead buy one of many Windows Mobile phones!

For countries like Malaysia which is not in the Apple iPhone list, don’t fret.  You did not lose anything if you can’t get your hands on an iPhone 3G.  Your Windows Mobile device is more feature-rich!

Meraj Chhaya of Phone Report v2.0 reported:

“At the HTC Touch Diamond launch in South Africa, I had the opportunity to have a little chat with Kevin Chen, General Manager of HTC for MEA and CIS. Besides having an in-depth explanation on the innovations that the Touch Diamond brings, Chen told me that HTC is planning to unveil a device with Google Android Operating System by Q4 of this year, and a Windows Mobile 7 by Q1 of next year, at least that’s what’s on the planned release schedule from HTC.”