Quick, before you all go home, there’s just time to tell you a bit more about our survey results. Loads of you responded and we wanted to know what you’d like to see more of. What are Windows Mobile handsets missing? The results ? In the top spot you shouted it loudly – you want a standard 3.5mm audio plug on your phone. Certain handsets (like the Touch HD and Xperia X1) have it, but most WinMo phones don’t.
Next on the “want” list was easy interfaces. You guys love a smooth, quick and easy GUI. This was quickly followed by the need for multi-touch – a big “want” since the iPhone started strutting its’ stuff some time back. In fourth place was a higher resolution camera, and this is something that we’re starting to see in the Xperia X2 and possibly the Omnia II. Sadly only 38 people clicked “I want more non-touchscreen phones”, which could be why we’re seeing less and less Windows Mobile Standard devices on the market.
In your comments (which are listed below), you asked for other important features. Better quality camera lenses with optical zoom or a xenon flash, no “lag” on the OS or software, better battery life, easier software installation, finger-friendly navigation throughout and faster updates to all – not just unlocked phones. By far the biggest “want” in the comments section was a better camera with a xenon flash and less “lag” from Windows Mobile, but click on to read all your comments and see the results in full.
What would you like to see more of in a WinMo handset?
1 Easier sync capabilities
2 Xenon flash, a great lense on the camera, 5 mp is enough
3 less lag
4 Something actually fresh, not desperately iPhone-esque along with better pc sync options
5 good enough ui and touch so that a hardware keyboard is unnecessary.
6 Support upgrades for earlier generations. i.e. 6.1 to 6.5 to 7…
7 It “Just Works”
8 large internal memory
9 sleek innovative body designs
10 capacitive please; at least give the consumer the choice
11 WiMax
12 Better OS, better memory management (like Win 7 over Vista)
13 More stable platform
14 Xenon Flash and much better video and low light photography. I should be able to use my phone as a web cam and not cringe at the results indoors.
15 A more swift interface, less lag time
16 3.5 mm headset STANDARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and enough with the touch screens already!
17 More duel keypads (vox style) with touchscreen interfaces
18 i dont mind as long as its instantly responsive
19 application store and better apps for phones with higher resolution such as HTC touch HD
20 BATTERY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!
21 3.5mm 3.5mm 3.5mm 3.5mm 3.5mm 3.5mm 3.5mm 3.5mm cmon….
22 capacitive touch screens
23 Easy installation of applications and more choices
24 better java
25 better battery life
26 I’ve had a WinMo since day 1 (E100), once satnav (tomtom) comes to the iPhone I will probably move
27 More devices with camera flash!
28 Zoom lens for camera
29 Advanced hardware, like Snapdragon processors and more RAM
30 D-pad is a very good compliment for medium to smallerish screens that has the form factor more of a phone than a pda. I like touchscreens but its also very good to be able to use dpad for certain navigation tasks. The flexibilty for different apps that dpads and hardware keys allow is very important for gaming and using a music playing application while your device is in your pocket with the screen turned off. Bigger batteries, using hsdpa for music streaming eats up the battery in no time so either more energy effecient hspa modems or bigger batteries. Try keeping the device thickness to under 12mm, preferably some where around 8-9mm would be great for people who has tight small pockets. 3.5mm is very important for flexibility cause the propiteary jack gets torn over time and it might result in only mono audio like with my device. perfect form factor for me on phone would be 3.2-3.5 inch display with d-pad n 4 hardkeys. 3.5mm jack. Oled display would be nice. capacitive screen that still could use STYLYS would be the dream. I love taking notes with my stylus. N-trig had this technology implemented in the dell latitude xt laptops. Micrsoft recently bought N-trig so i hope to god i will se this feature in upcoming winmobile7 phones
31 More network compatability i.e. bbc iplayer issues.
32 A small candy-bar winmo phone. The BenQ E72 is the closest thing I’ve seen in a while.
33 more media oreintated divx out the box, oh and media player scrapped what a pathetic excuse for a media player it is, thank christ for kinoma and Core
34 Better camera optics, not just higher res.
35 finger friendly ui
36 proper full themes including animated front screens
37 FLASH!
38 improved battery life
39 a flash for the camera – xenon preferably
40 Smaller, thinner and lighter!!
41 Dual sim capacity!!
42 Improved native on-screen keyboard
43 Camera Flash
44 Built in FM transmitter, GPS, Wi Fi, 3g (HSDPA) Video Calling, Flush screens, acelerometer, light sensor, hold button for lock function, optical pad, d-pad, scroll wheel not rocker
45 Better high quality multimedia and gaming hardware capabilities
46 A proper camera style flash! Finger friendly touch screens that don’t require a stylus.
47 good looks
48 We must remember it is a PHONE primarily and teh phone MUST work ALL the time – Not having to put up with silly touchy keypads that dont work 100%
49 Xenon Flash
50 better batteries
51 Why don’t HTC devices have a camera flash?! STILL!
52 Reliability of O/S
53 More buttons on left and right side of the device (camera button, quick-start-button)
54 Faster response times
55 GPS
56 More advanced hardware
57 GPS + WiFi
58 I like kitchen-sink ‘phones – I’m afraid, I’d like evenmy Samsung i900 Omnia to have a better (although, not necessarily higher-resolution camera), a keyboard and the DAB/TV format trailed with the Omnia Pro. Oh, a Windows Media Player which could thread AAC/MP4, so I don’t need an iPod either, would be great! Hard to please, yeah??
59 smaller footprint and longer battery life
60 good large screen
61 quality camera – not just higher resolution. better browser – less lag when on a wifi connection.
62 more hardware buttons
63 Come one – Apple have one over you here interface wise – its about time you lot looked and learned thats why they are ahead.
64 camera with flash, more rom updates available for network locked customers
65 More useless apps like the iPhone
66 A GUI with moveable icons like a PC/MAC desktop without slowing the entire device down.
67 More UI ‘wow’ factor, more exciting gaming, HD capabilities (display + camera), thinner QWERTYs – 17mm thickness on Touch Pro makes for a very fat phone
68 better gps
69 Good Selection of phone’s with a wide range of features, to appeal to more audiences
70 GPS, Accelerometer, Light and various other sensors
71 Nothing particular
72 Higher Quality Lenses not just higher resolution on the camera’s
73 a solid push email system that works with POP/IMAP accounts as the RIM devices do
74 better handling of graphical processing
75 stability ! speed !
76 seamless wifi to 3g transitions
77 More integrated, better designed software ala iPhone
78 Camera flash
79 fast processor, expandable memory, reliable touchscreen hardwear, a camera that works in the dark (what’s wrong with a flash?)
80 GAMES! GOOD ONES! 3D ONES!
81 Seamless experience, between applications (including third party application)
82 Very high resolution screens
83 better satnav
84 slimmer lighter keep screens big
85 ExtUSB, environmental sensors, more hardware buttons
86 PDA/Phone screen size 3.8″ VGA not 2.8″ too small
87 Higher Resolution Display
88 voip,sip fully supported and audio coming from ear speaker not loud speaker.
89 d-pad. It’s a perfect complement to the touchscreen even if the screen is capactive
90 Dedicated GFX chipsets to off-load CPU usage for a smoother visual interface
91 Faster response – loose the Windows Backend
92 more continuity – an interface that flows and is completely concistent. htc seem to be doing the best job so far
93 Stability
94 Non-laggy and snappy OS!
95 To be specific: A HTC S740 but with Winmo Pro and touchscreen – why oh why doesn’t anyone make such a form factor?
96 every day apps that you would use in real life, lorry taco timers and day to day time sheets easy input not an appiontment dairy thing
97 a better multimedia player,more internal memory
98 BIO METRIC SECURITY; GPS; WIFI; DUAL SIM
99 a flash for camera
100 the quality of smartphone features ie 3 meg pixel camera with a good lens. Decent music player to compete with iphone maybe zune interface
101 capacitive touch screen
102 finger freindly & closure of the gap between win xp & win mob
103 sliding-up designs like Palm Pre or HTC Touch Dual
104 better battery life
105 More CAPACITIVE OLED TOUCHSCREENS! – It’s time to move on HTC et all!
106 camera flash
107 Zune/iPod
108 a faster processer would be nice
109 larger accessible onscreen keyboards
110 An interface that is as seamless and easy to use as the iPhone. An interface that isn’t as ridiculously hard to use as WM6.1 (the learning curve is way too high).
111 Interface should be finger-friendly; screen should be more responsive to fingers
112 capacitive screens
113 Camera Flash
114 Better OS to match phones; better support ie updates from Service Providers etc
115 flash for camera would be a bonus on HTC phones
116 smartphone candybar wifi gps fast 3g and no stupid keyboard
117 A BETTER camera. I mean Nokia’s are WAYYYY ahead in camera department. I dont care much about the megapixel count but do want better quality in pictures. For the record I own a HTC Touch Diamond and even though its much better than other older WinMo phones in camera quality, they dont compare to the lowest Nokia S60 phone cameras
118 Flash on the camera & Maximum Spec possible(I like my gadgets!)
119 capacititive screen technology – ditch the stylus.
120 24 bit/pixel (16777216 scales)
121 GPS, better alarm system, time of day based ring/alerts
122 standardisation of OS/apps for finger use
123 Decent flashes and good lenses for the cameras to make them truly all in one devices
124 More then a day of battery life!
125 Capasitive screen as they are much more responsive.
126 More innovative solutions from microsoft
127 802.11n
128 Capactitive screen
129 A God damm flash at least a led light on the cameras!
130 Firmware updates via Activesync or Windows Mobile device centre. Its great that the iPhone can be updated when a new firmware is released for it, this means the phone will last even longer rather than always upgrading the handset which means the iPhone will always be useful to someone, when a new iPhone is released the old iPhone would still be worth something as it will still be pretty current.
131 Windows Live offers free non corporate push e-mail, which is a huge selling point, I won’t own a phone without this facility, but it can conflict with other programs and can drop and not reconnect – sort this and it’s a real winner
132 Seamless (& sensible) profile switching
133 Quick response cameras – i.e. good camera performance.
134 High quality cameras
135 A place to go where you can download all the apps you want…hang on, I can’t as I have 6.1!!!!!!!!!!!!!
136 Better camera lenses. Faster CPU’s.
137 smaller handset: 2.8′ screens are enough for me
138 Better battery life
139 Flash
140 capacitive screen,Fm transmiter , TV out , compass , projector.
141 A GOOD camera, at least 5MP, but with a flash.
142 a WM handset that is stable that does not need constant resetst
143 Compact form-factors
144 reliable phone, longer battery life
145 WVGA screens, preferably OLED
146 where touch screen is used need faster feedback with haptics – currently the lag is offensive (HTC Touch HD user)