Windows Phone 7 Series imitates Apple's iPhone in the worst ways

Betanews ^ | 25, 2010, | Joe Wilcox

[SmokingJoe]

For years, people have accused Microsoft of being an imitator, rather than innovator. Finally there is evidence: The ways Windows Phone 7 Series imitates the very worst of Apple's iPhone. Unless there is the strangest of coincidences -- like two students having the same wrong answers on a high school history test -- Microsoft is imitating Apple, using the same strategy to make the same mistakes. It's either imitation or incompetence, and out of fairness I assume the former.

The first imitation is the most baffling: Limited multitasking. Like iPhone, Windows Phone 7 Series will allow multitasking for some of its own applications, but not others. When open but not in use, third-party apps go into a pseudo-off ("dehydrated") state. By comparison, Google's Android, Nokia's Maemo or Symbian OS and Palm's WebOS all multitask (e.g., run background applications) just fine.

CNET's March 8 "Ways Android beats iPhone" expresses my sentiments: "Unlike the iPhone, Android devices like the Nexus One by HTC (pictured here) can multitask and run background processes. And how much do we love that notifications bar? A lot." As smartphones extend -- and someday replace -- the PC, multitasking will become a must-have feature.

Does Microsoft not understand this? People take multitasking for granted on the PC, which will make its absence more noticeable on the smartphone.

The Wicked Taskmaster

Case study: Joe Wilcox. Whenever out and about, I frequently use multiple background applications: Any combination of email, camera, instant messaging, music player or radio, news reader, RSS reader, Twitter or Web browser, among others. Then there are the widgets pulling down live content to the home screen(s). Given the phone's form factor, there generally can only be one visibly active application. But others run in the background.

[SmokingJoe]

I often wonder what Robbie Bach (The guy that runs Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division) is smoking. How on earth can you launch a new smartphone OS, a full 3 years after the iPhone, and still not have cut and paste, full multitasking or Flash? Apple may be able to get away with it, because they have the buzz right now, but then if you want to come from behind and overtake the guys that are ahead of you in market share, you gotta give consumers something extra to make them switch or at least try your product, especially the features that are lacking in the iPhone like cut and paste and Flash.

[Goldsborough]

For years, people have accused Microsoft of being an imitator, rather than innovator. Finally there is evidence:

Finally? LOL. M$ has been shamelessly ripping off Apple since the beginning of Windows.

[Scutter]

Alert Level: Severe

[coaltrain]

“M$ has been shamelessly ripping off Apple since the beginning of Windows.”

Kinda like how Jobs ripped off PARC for Mac OS GUI and the mouse.

[Goldsborough]

Apple paid for unfettered access to PARC. Microsoft stole the Apple implementation for its own use while developing the first versions of Word for their competitor's platform. The early versions of Windows media players contained whole sections of code lifted directly from Quicktime.

Catcall "fanboy" all you want. I was making fun of the author's use of "finally." It only took this long to see the M$ copying if one wasn't looking for it.

[Hootch]

And Apple has been ripping off everyone else for equally as long. Apple has got to be the greatest imitator of all time. I am not knocking them... It is what they all do.

Cases in point...
MP3 players have been around for a lot longer than Apple has been selling iPods. Apple repackaged (and did a great job of doing it) portable music players and buily a robust music distribution system as part of their offering but even that is a double edged sword.

I have been ablet to record TV shows on my computer for 12 years and for about 6 years been able to watch those recorded shows on my phone(Windows Mobile). Apple repackages this functionality and now you’d think Apple came up with the concept to begin with.

Apple is the best marketing company on the planet. They have a good product but I don’t think they are necessarily the great innovator that they present themselves to be.

And need I remind you that Apple and Microsoft saw the GUI interface about the same time at Xerox’s PARC research center.

I really am agnostic about OS’s. I use both Mac and PC and there are things I like and dislike about both but Microsoft is no more of an imitator than Apple although Apple may be a little better and certainly Apple is better at marketing.

[Hootch]

Apple PAID for access to PARC? Not according to what i have read. The whole issue was that Xerox saw no value in the GUI interface and let it go... I don’t think anyone paid them for it.

[SmokingJoe]

It doesn't really matter that much of Apple paid PARC or not. The fact remains, Apple did NOT invent the GUI. PARC did. In fact, I am hard put to find anything that was actually invented by Apple. They sure as heck didn't invent the MP3 player, or touch screen smart phones either.

[ctdonath2]

Re: limited multitasking

“Multitasking” is a very broad term. Problem is there isn’t a good solution to giving applications the power to run in the background without them, individually or cumulatively, chewing up so much CPU time as to adversely affect the dominant app the user is focused on. With palmtop computers, there isn’t enough horsepower to cope with the competing demands.

It’s one thing for Twitter to run a quick efficient check for updates, it’s another for a poorly-implemented self-important app to (say) constantly process video even when not in “on top” or “have focus”.

If M$ is cutting multitasking on the palmtop, it’s not just a “me-too” downgrade (?!), it’s because it’s the only way to keep apps well-behaved regarding minimal resources.

[Goldsborough]

Yep, Apple didn't invent the first MP3 player or touch screen phone. Just the first usable ones. LOL.

It's only been coincidence that Apple comes out with something, be it consumer electronics devices, or a GUI feature, and along comes Redmond a few years later aping it.

Sure there is marketing involved, but marketing wasn't helping them in the 90s when the company was stagnant and moribund while Jobs was in exile making digital cartoons. Apple actually has products that people want now. Microsoft has recently learned that without that, the marketing budget, Seinfeld, etc., are next to useless.

[Hootch]

Agreed. I have clients with both Mac and PC and across the board the Mac people are the ones most in the dark about the origin of the technology they love so much. That is because Apple is such a phenominal marketing company... Why else would someone pay $1000 for a Mac laptop when they could buy the same functionality in a Dell or HP for $500.

[Hootch]

Steve Jobs is one of the few CEO’s in this country that deserver the salary he makes. Apple is half the company without Jobs.

[Hootch]

Those digital cartoons made Jobs a fortune too.

[edh]

“In fact, I am hard put to find anything that was actually invented by Apple.”

Rabid fanboys that pray for your soul to rest in the depths of hell should you criticize even a pixel of MacOS?

I kind of like Apple, but I simply do not buy their products mainly due to the arrogance that quite a few of their users emit. I also didn’t like how Steve Jobs screwed Steve Wozniak out of a bonus when Woz designed Breakout for Atari. Not like Woz is complaining now :-)! That there tells me a lot about Steve Jobs’ character.

That is not to say I have any love for Microsoft or Bill Gates ... I just think the criticism of Vista was a bit hyped and I don’t think Windows 7 gets the credit it deserves.

In the end, all of these companies ripped off Atari. Atari is the greatest computer hardware company of all time. Sure the 5200, 7800, Lynx, Jaguar, and most of their post 400/800/ST computers failed miserably, but man did they ever look cool :-)! The first GUI ever was a game called Computer Space :-P. The first ultra-popular GUI was Pong. Everything is a ripoff from those two games :-P. Forget Xerox ... yes, I am being stupid on purpose.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Why else would someone pay $1000 for a Mac laptop when they could buy the same functionality in a Dell or HP for $500.

Probably because they will burn up way more than the additional $500 in phone calls to tech support people in India trying to understand why they have to reinstall HP's proprietary hardware drivers after every Windows Update to avoid getting blue screens.

[edh]

“Probably because they will burn up way more than the additional $500 in phone calls to tech support people in India trying to understand why they have to reinstall HP’s proprietary hardware drivers after every Windows Update to avoid getting blue screens.”

I have 3 HP laptops in my home and have yet to experience this. Can you elaborate? Also, I had an HP Laptop die at work. I contacted HP, was sent a new laptop overnight with explicit instructions to swap the hard drive out, and sent the broken one back.

Also, ever since I started to rely on auto-updates back in, what, Win 2000, I have never, ever encountered this problem you describe.

I mean, I know Apple computers never malfunction nor do they have bugs, so you are probably exaggerating a bit there :-)! In fact, those broken Macs I see on Ebay for sale for parts and the like are probably propaganda put out by Microsoft to kill Apple sales.

[Solson]

As much as Mac-heads would LOVE to think windows user spend 8 hours a day on Tech support, I've been a Windows user for years and have never had to call Tech support.

The Mac Operating system is intuitive, easy to use and sexy. But, for the heavy lifting, I'll take a Windows or Linux box anyday. In terms of modifying a system to do what you want, there is not Apple Choice.

But the typical - "burning up hours with Tech Support" doesn't happen with the large majority of Windows users...which, by the numbers, exponentially dwarfs Mac Users...so in all, not bad.

As far as the iPad, I see, CURRENTLY, no need when I can go get a Lenovo S10-3T or Asus T91 or the upcoming Asus 101T touchscreen netbooks which are equal or less money, can run more than one program at a time and can be used as a regular netbook as well.

I like Apple products but I think they missed the mark....so far...with the iPad. I'm confident Jobs & Co. will make it better quick but the competition will be tough in the iPad marketplace.

[edh]

Shoot ... I realized I was off topic.

Windows Mobile is the absolute worst phone operating system I have ever used. It is absolute garbage. 150% garbage. Win7 Phone looks a tad bit prettier, but it’s probably the same garbage underneath.

The ONLY thing I saw that was appealing was the ability to link your Xbox Live account to your phone and play some Live games on the road. That’s still not enough for me to ever consider switching from Android.

[Goldsborough]

Apple gave Xerox stock for engineers and himself to get "inspired" at PARC. You cannot be accused of theft if you buy something. If Apple "stole" anything from Xerox, it was hiring away employees from PARC, which is the time honored way to steal intellectual capital.

Steve Jobs, Apple and Xerox

[SmokingJoe]

Probably because they will burn up way more than the additional $500 in phone calls to tech support people in India trying to understand why they have to reinstall HP’s proprietary hardware drivers after every Windows Update to avoid getting blue screens

Currently have 2 laptops and a desktop with Vista and Win 7. Never called tech support for anything to do with Windows ever. It just works. In fact Win 7 is the best desktop OS I ever used, and have used quite a few of them.