Adama – I am not going to be mean about Windows Mobile! I just looked at my comment above, and I think you might have thought that when I was talking about 7 (desktop), I meant some future version of Windows Mobile. Maybe I should have put my second sentence on a new line to separate them.

Anyway, just because I am not currently using one of their devices (which may change, btw), does not mean that I don’t still have huge appreciation for the WM platform and hope that they will not only stay competitive, but that they will stay relevant.

The beauty of a gathering such as this is that we can express our feelings directly to Microsoft, and give them feedback about what they are doing right or wrong. I certainly can’t see any other company entertaining the same open dialogue…

Personally I think it’s a mistake to assume that there’s any one way of looking at what drives phone purchases. Some people key on brand name, some on design, some on platform.

The important thing is, what does your target demo look at? I think that the higher-end customers–i.e. the profitable ones, who are willing to drop a few hundred on a phone rather than getting the free models–are more likely to look at design and ergonomics than they are other factors. After all, you can generally find basic software or capabilities to fit your needs on a lot of platforms (including some “dumb” phones), and there’s a lot of commonality between hardware features among higher-end devices. But one thing that isn’t universal is the user experience, how it FEELS. And this is a device you’re going to be handling every day, so if it’s less than 100% friendly, the user is going to see that and feel it every day.

But I think Matt Miller, James Kendrick and Kevin Tofel nailed it in their latest podcast when they talked about the latest Nokia smartphone – most people may not be aware of which OS is driving their smartphone, but they do know what makes for a good user experience, and Apple is the current benchmark. One of them (I think Matt) made the comment that the iPhone OS feels like it was made from the ground up for the touch environment; Symbian, Blackberry Storm, Windows Mobile, and even Android all have their moments when the interface lets the user down, where the OS fails to take good advantage of the touch interface.

For me, I bailed from Windows Mobile once the applications I needed started showing up on the iPhone (clarification – I do not have an iPhone – I have an iPod Touch, along with a conventional cell phone – cost and work issue) – I still can’t believe just how well the interface works, and how intuitive some of the interface works on the Touch. Yes, there is still issues that need to be addressed (no Cut and Paste?), but for most of what I do, it is easier on my Touch than it was on Windows Mobile 5.

In my opinion, Microsoft has made the same mistake with Windows Mobile that they made with Internet Explorer – they failed to upgrade either to keep up with consumer expectations, and competitors have come along to take over – Firefox in the browser world, iPhone on the smartphones.

Considering that Balmer claimed a while back that the iPhone wouldn’t go anywhere, they have no one to blame but themselves for dragging their feet in the mobile environment.

WM: I am curious about how it will all be pulled off. And that’s all I can say about that.

I’m curious what (if anything) is in store for Windows Mobile.