Bye bye Windows Phone, Hello iPhone!!

I always hope that Microsoft can do better than this but it looks like I hope too much. Even until now, Microsoft Windows Phone 7.5 or what Microsoft calls "Mango" as a codename can't really even compare to iPhone in just a very basic function.

At the time iPhone first released in 2007, I thought that iPhone will not success because of many things. Some thing like

1.    Poor battery performance that you can use it for just a single day compare to many phones at that time that can be used at least 3 days or even a week.
2.    Touch screen, common, who the hell want that? When I touch, I want to have some feedback that I touch it.
3.    The most important thing is that it's a new OS that I don't even know how secure it's. How can I be sure no one will access my data on my phone?

Well, you can think that I was quite conservative to choose phone at that time. Even then, I still think that waiting for Apple to fix their problems and will decide later. A couple years later, after I'm ok with one day usage of battery life, touch screen and even how secure of my data. Now, I'm a new guy ready to try new things.  I, then, decided to purchase HTC + Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 in the hope that I can upgrade to Windows Phone 7. With Windows Phone 7, lots of things will be better. The reason that I chose Microsoft because I want something different, I think iPhone is a phone that I always see everywhere I go and I just feel sick of it. Still, I think that iPhone is the best smart phone since that time.

In October 2010, Windows Phone 7 released. My phone was not eligible to upgrade. Actually, no phone released before Windows Phone 7 released can officially be upgraded to Windows Phone 7. That’s fine. I can purchase a new one if it’s the one.  

After reading a lot of reviews, I felt really disappoint. The new features are great but lacking a very basic function like “MS Outlook Sync” is really disappointed.  Well, it was their first release, give Microsoft sometime to fix it.  Lots of people say that Microsoft is a large company, their development will be very fast. So, that missing feature should be there soon.  "NoDo" a minor update from Microsoft was released sometime in March 2011. No, MS Outlook Sync is not there yet. So, I continued to wait for WP 7.5 (Mango) to release. And you know what? At that time, I also got an iPhone 4 as a gift but I decided to wait for Windows Phone 7.5 hoping that this is the one I will purchase. So, I gave iPhone 4 to my relative.  

Well, just about 2 months before WP 7.5 released, I decided to purchase HTC Mozart so that I can test it myself. Also, with the hope that “MS Outlook Sync” should be there when WP 7.5 released.  My expectation is just to have MS Outlook Sync and that's it. If it's possible to sync with applications in OS X, that's great.  (I switched to OS X a couple years ago and I still believe Microsoft Windows is better but Multi-Touch trackpad is what keep me with Apple.)

WP 7.5 released in 2nd quarter of 2011. MS Outlook Sync was not there. Even worse, with announcement that Mango supports 17 more languages. That sounds great. But with IE9 in Mango, some website display in certain language not on official support list causes some text to disappear. This used to work fine before Mango updated.  

Until now, there is no way to sync data to Outlook. Even there is a way to sync to Hotmail / Gmail but not everyone wants to keep their data on the Internet. Microsoft never promises us that MS Outlook Sync will be there. Not to talk about App that starts to get better but still cannot compare to iPhone. Most companies will have App for iPhone first, any other phones later since iPhone is the most popular phone in the world.

 After a year waiting for update, I feel like Microsoft intent to ignore this request. So, I have to look for something else. Two Mobile Operating Systems that I know do support MS Outlook Sync out of the box are Blackberry OS and iOS. I tried Blackberry a couple times and I don’t feel it’s what I want. With iPhone, MS Outlook/iCal/Address Book Sync is there, Multilanguage support is there, the phone is the best in the Market right now. Look like I may have to switch to iPhone for now. I believe Microsoft will need at least a couple of years to catch up with iOS.