Sony Ericsson with Windows Mobile

mikelove

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Yeah, this is an interesting development since it seriously diminishes the case for a Symbian version of Pleco - every single e-mail we've gotten about a UIQ version (and I'd say about 80% of the e-mails we've gotten about Symbian support in general) have been for Sony Ericsson phones. Personally I think the P1i form factor would make for a lovely Windows Mobile phone, the screen would be a bit on the small side but the built-in keyboard makes that a bit less important anyway.

If Apple's iPhone SDK proves workable then that will almost certainly be the next mobile platform we support, but if it doesn't, or once the iPhone port is done, we're going to have a tricky decision about what to support next - Symbian still has a massive installed base, but between this and the decidedly-harsh critical reception for S60 Touch I'm not so sure about its future as a high-end smartphone platform, whereas if we were to bite the bullet and do a Java port we could support Android, BlackBerry, *and* put out a weak-but-still-functional Symbian version in one fell swoop.
 
S

sfrrr

状元
Finally! I've been waiting for a little cell phone OS consolidation. Symbian is just too small-town for me, the existing Palm OSes way too primitive. Linux on the new Palms is another story, but I'll believe it when I see it. I'm so sick of having to choose sides--VHS vs Betamax, CP/M (or is it C/PM?) vs DOS, HDTV vs Blu-Ray...it isn't going to stop, but still, I don't know why consumers don't complain more.

Sandra
 
mikelove

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
To be honest I'm not a big fan of Symbian anyway - have been using both an E61 and a P1i on and off for the last few months and while the OS is marginally more stable than WM et al, the design is atrocious - I work with PDAs for a living and it took me half an hour to figure out how to set up a WiFi network, and another half hour to change the GPRS gateway setting. And it actually seems slower than Windows Mobile for some operations.

Though I'm not wild about Java either, so if iPhone doesn't happen the best bet for us might be mobile Linux - it seems like Android will at least unofficially support native ARM development right off the bat, and given the vast quantities of Linux software out there they're going to have to bow to the inevitable and start officially supporting it eventually. Plus it would make it easier for us to phase out Palm OS Garnet development since we'd be able to write something that ran on ALP / NotYetNamedPalmLinuxThing / etc and transition everyone over to that.
 
mikelove

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Won't be sure until we actually test it, but it should work fine - the layout engine for the main / flashcard / other resizing UI's is pretty intelligent and shouldn't have any trouble dealing with an extra 160 pixels of width, and for buttons and such it would just use the same sizes it uses on a regular VGA screen. We're more worried about the possibly-forthcoming 320x320 Windows Mobile Treos, since that's not a resolution we've coded for - should still be quite doable but it would take a lot more work than 800x480 would.
 
I

ipsi

状元
I like the look of that phone, though I find it a bit strange that it's got that sort of resolution despite being about the same size (width, height and depth) as a Treo 680. It does look cool, but I think I prefer the convenience of not having to slide out the keyboard.
 
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goulniky

榜眼
I have the HTC TyTN (model I) which has approx. the same form factor but a 320x240, 2.8" screen, WM5. I love it, except for the poor phone interface, lousy battery life and odd glitches. X1 is lighter, thinner, still has larger screen and keyboard, improved design. I am dying to get one (don't exactly know when they come out).
 
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