Microsoft Says Your Phone is Your Next PC

eldavojohn writes "While other companies are marrying the obvious functionalities to cell phones (calendar, MP3 player, GPS, etc.), Microsoft is aiming for it to be your next computer. Microsoft Research chief Craig Mundie said that, "Microsoft has a research project called 'Fone+' that would allow the phone to work with a TV as a secondary display, and one that could allow video stored on the device to be played back on the television.""

Shhhhhh! Everyone be quiet!

Microsoft is talking....

Re:Shhhhhh! Everyone be quiet!

Will it come in brown?

Re:Shhhhhh! Everyone be quiet!

And will it squirt?

Re:Shhhhhh! Everyone be quiet!

I think you all are completely missing the point.

This is meant to be a portable pornography portal.

More?

Given their spectacular foray into the MP3 player market, and the hideous mess that is Windows Mobile, I wonder exactly what more plans they have for markets they "don't really get"....

Vacuum cleaners?

My guess is that they'll make vacuum cleaners next, just so they can have at least one new product that's guaranteed not to suck.

Re:More?

I wonder exactly what more plans they have for markets they "don't really get"....

If you read Bill Gates' book The Road Ahead [amazon.com] sometime, you'll realize that Gates has some very impractical visions of the future. WebTV was everything he dreamed of for the future of home computers, which is why Microsoft bought them out. It didn't seem to quite occur to Gates that the computer would absorb the television instead. (A subtle but important distinction.) Expect Microsoft to try and make your cellphone into a "Digital Wallet"/Personal Assistant rather than following the more practical "micropayment" designs that Europe ties to cellphones. (Gates believes that the digital wallet will completely replace the leather one.)

Re:The Phone that runs Windows Vista

Found it. [mobilementalism.com]

Re:The Phone that runs Windows Vista

You're dialing (1), cancel or allow?
You're dialing (8), cancel or allow?
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ten minutes later after you actually are talking to someone ....
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WinPhone has downloaded and installed an important security update, please reboot your phone

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Missing WINPHONE.DLL, Please Restart

Gee..

Gee, how inovative. He announces the next big thing 4 months after Steve Jobs demos one.

Re:Gee..

You said it right. Ballmer sez the iPhone is nuthin, then MS announces this original(TM) idea. How ridiculous! Don't they have any shame? They have NO innovative ideas and could not mortgage all their stock to come up with even ONE original idea. Jobs was right at the Apple board meeting: developing great products is NOT "as easy as writing a check." Poor poor pitiful college grads who take a job at Microsoft. No glory, only shame.

Re:Gee..

Actually, MS has been ahead of Apple in this market for at least 11 years starting with Windows CE. I've had several of the devices and my HP Ipaq 6945 eclipses the capabilities of any computer I owned until maybe 2000. WM5 is not perfect and has a long way to go, as does the hardware. But unlike Apple's product that you can't buy anywhere and that doesn't have a QUERTY and that doesn't have a the possibility of getting third party developers, WM has had all of that for several years.

Re:Gee..

Actually, MS has been ahead of Apple in this market for at least 11 years starting with Windows CE.

That really depends on how far back you want to go and how long you want to carry out an argument. Windows CE didn't exist until about five years after the original Newton.

Re:Gee..

But unlike Apple's product that you can't buy anywhere and that doesn't have a QUERTY and that doesn't have a the possibility of getting third party developers, WM has had all of that for several years.

I hope for your sake you dont have an english layout keyboard, because otherwise you look like a fucking moron for misspelling qwerty

Re:Gee..

...doesn't have a QUERTY...

Uell maybe some people don't uant a querty. I knou all it does for me is rwin my typing and enswre I have to wse the spell checker.

Re:Wrong on all counts

+1 MS Fanboy Troll, but it's late and I have to wait on a long print job.

1) You can't make a phone call on a Newton. You can on a CE device. Both WindowsMobile and SmartPhone are CE devices.

Phone calls? No. The Newton is probably better compared to a tablet PC, and still people like you wouldn't like it because it wasn't a full "Windows" PC. My old Newton is still way "smarter" than any smart phone I've seen from any vendor running any OS. Granted it took Apple years to get it right. But the last iteration nailed it. It was the most useful device I ever owned. I'd still use it today if I could easily sync it with my current computer.

2) A vitual keyboard is not a keyboard. Don't BS me.

"Waaa, it's not the device I want!" *GASP* Could it possibly be you're not the target market? I have a smart phone, with a full qwerty keyboard. I'm afraid I have to side with Apple on this one. With my man sized thumbs typing on a virtual keyboard is certainly no less accurate than using my current Barbie Doll sized one. A virtual keyboard goes away when I don't need it, for instance when I'm trying to read a web page. I'll gladly take more screen space to display and a keyboard that only shows up when I need it.

3) 'Considering' is not the same as 'have had for 11 years.'

First is not always best, and not always the winner in the market. Microsoft proved that with Windows. Apple has re-proven it with the iPod, and now we'll find out shortly if they're going to do it with smart phones.

What's truly cool about the CE platform is you could recreate the entire Iphone experience with it and sell it - all probably before the Ibrick comes out.

And this is precisely why people say Microsoft doesn't innovate. Sure, they could have created the iPhone experience with CE, but they didn't. Microsoft doesn't innovate. They copy. I watched the iPhone introduction and Steve Jobs was right about one thing. In the smart phone market the killer app is MAKING PHONE CALLS! Everything else is just fluff. Since Jobs has returned to Apple they have been very focused on getting the primary functions right the first time, and making sure the fluff is damn good too.

The only reason Microsoft released this info is to try and steal some of Apple's thunder. Sure the iPhone isn't out yet. But in a months time it will be, and every other phone out there is going to be compared to it. I look forward to seeing how it stacks up and if it does well in the one thing I need my mobile phone to do well (MAKING PHONE CALLS) I have $500 ready to spend on it. All the features not related to MAKING PHONE CALLS are just a bonus.

Am I a sheep? No. I prefer to spend my money on things that just work when I need them too. Apple's got a much better track record of that than Microsoft.

Re:Gee..

Not only that, but it was just over two weeks ago that we got this [usatoday.com] gem from Ballmer slamming the iPhone (discussed on /. [slashdot.org]):

A phone is really a general purpose device. You want to make telephone calls, you want to get and receive messages, text, e-mail, whatever your preference is. The phone really is kind of a general purpose device that we need to have clean and easy to use.

What the FSCK?

I'm trying to parse that, and I honestly can't figure out whether he wants the iPhone to be more general purpose (like Windows Mobile is, with its ability to download 3rd-party apps) or more special-purpose (like my cell phone is -- even with all the bells and whistles, I only really have to know how to dial a number and hit "send", just like any other cell phone).

I'm assuming he's slamming the iPhone, because you said so. Maybe it makes more sense in context, but... Seriously, what the fsck? It seems like there's some law of nature that as you get higher on the corporate ladder, you must learn to make statements and speeches that:

• Are long
• Sound intelligent/important if you don't bother to try to understand it
• Don't actually say anything at all, or
• Make no fucking sense

Re:Gee..

Apple 'underpromises and overdelivers', Microsoft 'overpromises and underdelivers', this is how it pretty much always has been. Microsoft as a general marketing strategy often announce 'hi-tech' vaporware supposedly in the pipeline that never comes about anyway. And it doesn't matter, they don't really mean it, it's just PR to get people talking and to brainwash people into associating 'Microsoft' with 'visionary hi-tech ideas' (even if they are old ideas or someone else's ideas, they have the money to parade them as their own). And most people just don't make the connection when years later all they really get from Microsoft is the same old watered down repackaged-1990s-technology crapware. It's just to make sure that whenever the masses hear about newish ideas, they hear about them in association with their brand name.

Lovely... A phone with DRM..

Just what I want.... NOT!

"Sorry, Dave, I can't let you take that call from a non-Microsoft phone. Accept or Deny?"

MS != 'oracle' anymore

if they ever were an oracle for the tech industry that is.

As mentioned, they have yet to release any product worth much this century --- say that slowly to yourself!

No matter how hard they try, and they will, MS will not get anything that can be called portable enough to be a 'phone' to also be a person's primary computer, with or without the addition of interfacing to a tv for video output. The claim of running video from it is just a bit absurd at the current level of technology. So what would be the point of saying something like that? Have you ever watched a stage magician at work? Yep, they tell you one thing to keep you distracted while they seemingly work to pull a rabbit out of a hat. We all know that what you get is not what you saw, or think you saw.

First, we have them misquoting reports to make Linux look 'illegal', then pumped up sales figures for Vista, now this? WOW, the MS spin machine will need some new bearings soon. The ones they are using will be worn out soon, if they aren't already about to fail.

The reality of the world is what they are trying to distract us from:

FireFox is gaining ground at the expense of IE
ODF is gaining ground at MS' expense
OOo is gaining ground at MS' expense
Dell is shipping Ubuntu systems at the expense of Vista
Dell is shipping XP systems at the expense of Vista
MS is being implicated in even more illegal/monopolistic dealings
MS' best friends in government are too busy right now to help them out again
BillG's foundation is getting bad press
Apple is still the tech world's stage hog
Zune is all but buried in the back pages of tech history .... and on and on

In fact, nothing MS has touched in recent years has ended up good for them.... and THAT is what they don't want stockholders to realize

I'm betting that some people in Redmond are looking for a new place in the Sun

Windows Mobile 5.0

No. My cel phone is not my next PC. There are two main problems. The first is that nobody has figured out a reasonable UI with the screenspace that is available. The second is that Windows Mobile 5.0 is buggy, bloated, slow, and not very useful to program for.

I have a smart phone right now and it crashes about once a week with no extra software installed other than what came with the phone.

strike

Why not use your eggbeater as a windmill?

Why not use your tweezers as a wrench?

Why not use your oboe as a bassoon?

Why not use your sleeve as a handkerchief?

Why not use your car as a truck?

Why not use your PC as a doorstop?

N95?

Didn't he just describe the already shipping Nokia N95?
Phone? Check!
Output to TV? Check!
Video playback to TV? Check!

Plus GPS, running Symbian Series 60 3rd Ed., etc...
So once again M$ comes in late. Good going...

Re:Too many functions

Why can't a phone just be a phone any more?

I've wondered about this push to include more and more features. I do however use some of the features in my phone.

I do:

• Use the camera for quick happy snaps and giving directions. I have sent pictures to friends so that they can find a place that's tricky by address alone.
• Play games on the train, simple games. The thought of playing a fps on something that size makes me want to book in at the osteopath, but tetris, golf, etc are a good way to kill time.
• Listen to mp3s. Some people have a phone and a seperate player, I find the combination convenient.

I don't:

• Use the web browser. It costs extra in network access and hurts my eyes. I maintain that the iPhone would be better named iStrain
• Use it to do more than simple text messaging and editing.
• Use it to edit photos, audio production, database, office apps, development, etc. That's what my PC is for.

Phones are just too small. When I'm doing PC type work, I want a laptop or a PC, not a tiny hand held thing, and especially not one that will "enable my digital lifestyle" (read prevent me from doing anything that does provide revenue for Microsoft).