Wow, good recognition for Microsoft Office 2007. It is the #1 pick of PC World as most innovative product of the year …
… Innovation? Microsoft? Yes, we were surprised, too, but the Redmond giant’s latest upgrade of the world’s most popular productivity suite introduces several new features that revolutionize how people work with documents (see our review). The most striking change is a “ribbon” at the top of the interface that replaces the traditional cascading menus and taskbars, and can expose functions you never knew were there. Through the suite’s handy new Live Preview feature, you can see how formatting changes, for example, will affect your document prior to your making them. You get greater XML-format support, too. Prices range from $149 for the Home and Student edition to $679 for the Ultimate edition…
Check out the whole list over on : PCWorld.com
When reading on …
The T-Mobile Dash (yes my current smartphone) is at #10.
It seems way more innovative than the BlackBerry Pearl (here you go Bill 😉 ) which ranks # 17
Wow. A windows based mobile phone that beats the Pearl ? In a straight fight without sponsored analysis ?
Yeah. I believe that.
You see, BlackBerry is platform agnostic, very secure and basically just works. With three days battery live, and thanks to the Pearl – an amazing form factor.
If anyone out there is comparing mobile computing solutions – just remember – one of the largest corporations outside the US – HSBC – has fifteen THOUSAND blackberries, and 250,000 users on Notes…
You see, what I like about them is that they basically just work, and exposing a web-service based application via BlackBerry MDS studio takes less than an hour. Seriously. Check out the presentation on my site (Speaker notes, etc) and see what I’m talking about….
I did a windows phone for a year. And would rather poke red-hot pokers through my eyeballs than go without a reliable phone like that again…
Well, you did ask…
—* Bill
Bill,
I did not create this list I merly pointed out the ‘innovative perspective’
My phone works like yours .. great … does all the things your Pearl does and Corporate IM 😉 So we are both happy people
The “Corporate IM” stuff is amusing.. Since Sametime and BlackBerry co-exist quite happily…
Are you really telling me that your windows phone doesnt require charging on an 8-hour basis, is extremely fragile, and hangs/locks up when calls come through ?
As I’ve seen a carrier-based survey that says that Windows-based phones suffer the worst “Return to Manufacturing” rate in the industry – 50% in the first year – more than ALL other phones combined.
If I were a CTO, I’d bank on something that my workforce would break by accidentally dropping, or deliberately throwing…
🙂
(In other words, the market leading mobile data/application solution.. Not something from a list..)
–* Bill
Bill,
Yes, my phone does not require charging on an 8 hour basis. Once every 2-3 days is enough.
O and by the way, the HSBC case you mentioned earlier is amazing, 15.000 BlackBerries. How many BES Servers does that require ?
Please send me a link for the carier survey on Windows Mobile. I would like to understand more of that. All these number without the proper context mean nothing to me.
@Bill,
I don’t know what model mobile phone you had experience with. I must agree there are quite a few models I used which totally sucked. But current models are quite nice. The HTC620 is beautifull. The current Qtek8300 I use is fine as well (no keyboard) and charges every few days depending on how much you called. (that’s still the nr 1 power consumer). Before that lots of hangs, unable to answer call message etc, wanting to throw the phone through the window and get back my old Nokia 🙂 But I think this is a regular problem with symbian phones as well when i hear my friends complaining.
You seem to have the habbit to compare something old (which sucks) with something else which is the latest and the greatest. (like you love to compare everything with the exchange 5.5 information store :))
For what it’s worth, PC World is mostly consumer oriented and it’s no surprise they didn’t rate the Pearl higher. I can’t argue that Office 2007 is innovative. That’s about the only adjective I won’t contest, though. 😉
Charles,
Maybe so that PC World is consumer oriented. This is by the way the segment that RIM is targetting as well with the Pearl hence they’re on the list 😉
A side from the list discussion the HTC is the 5th Windows Mobile device I’ve used and it is an awesome device that’s what really matters 😉
How very odd. I compare everything against Exchange v5.5 ?
Ah. Perhaps your referring to my constant concern that Exchange still uses the Jet/Access database to store more and more data. I only wish (as I’m sure you do) that the Kodiak SQL database upgrade happened to Exchange 2003 as promised. But it didnt. So we’re still on Jet.
So what’s changed ? Is that what you mean ?
🙂
Phones. MS have been trying to sell Smartphones for years. I foolishly got one last year, and it sucked and sucked. Hence my experience.
Now of course you say they’re fantastic. However, last year when I made the decision to switch to an MS smartphone, other MS folks said they were “fantastic”. Who to believe ?
Perhaps they’ve actually got slightly better now – to the extent that you don’t actually want to smash it. Congratulations.
Its not a BlackBerry pearl, though, is it ? And today’s insinuation – that because of a faulty trackball, they’re crap ? Yeah. Right.
Now there’s the new iPhone. Apples first attempt at a phone – and the feedback is awesome. Its like they actually designed a UI that works, and works well.
It runs OS/x, so there’s a good chance that – unlike Windows CE – it wont freeze/crash or need firmware upgrades all the time. Smart move.
Compare and contrast the UI to a MS Smartphone, where if you manage to actually get MP3’s on it, its a nightmare to answer an incoming phone. Is that the same on the latest ones ? I guess so.
Unfortunately, the MS folks wont ever find out – as you live in the MS monoculture. Your not allowed to even see the grass on the other side of the fence – you just told to bash it.
And as for MS’s dream of selling a headless server for the house ? Oh. Come. On.
If Windows were secure and reliable, then it might actually get the chance. But it isnt.
And linux is free – so I can download Fedora Core 6 (say) and have something equivalent to SBS (Small Business Server) in a couple of hours – for free. What value does MS deliver in this space ?
That’s where MS starts to look panicky. Open Source is eating the bottom end of the market, and reliability/security is providing a ceiling in the larger datacenter.
Ouch. Not a good place to get squeezed, eh ?
—* Bill