“New iPhone competitors continue to crop up, though most are mobile devices from companies that simply slap on a touch screen in hopes of fooling consumers. The real key to the iPhone’s success is its software, and finally, signs indicate that other companies are starting to pay more attention to making good software to go along with their hardware,” Katherine Boehret reports for The Mossberg Solution (The Wall Street Journal).
“One welcome sign is an effort by companies trying to improve Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Mobile operating system, which has a reputation for confusing navigation and hasn’t had a major update recently,” Boehret reports.
“This week, I tried yet another software program that is designed to run on top of Windows Mobile software. But this time, the software is at the heart of a device designed by the same company: HTC Inc. I tested the HTC Touch Diamond, due out from Sprint sometime this month for $250 (after a $100 mail-in rebate) with a two-year contract,” Boehret reports.
“The Diamond has a touch screen, but it’s smaller than Apple’s iPhone — 2.8 versus 3.5 inches. This screen lacks the iPhone’s multitouch functionality, and its smaller size robs space used for touch gestures like flicking or scrolling with a finger. Yet like the iPhone, it relies solely on an on-screen keyboard for all text entries. Even with the Diamond’s stylus, the keyboard felt small and cramped. Using just your fingertips was next to impossible,” Boehret reports.
“After using the Diamond for a week, I can say that despite its handsome TouchFLO 3D software and animated icons like photos that flip from one to the next with a flick of finger, this device failed to disguise the frustrating interface of Windows Mobile often enough for my taste,” Boehret reports.
Full review – highly recommended (unless you just wasted your money on an HTC Touch Diamond) – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Featured related article: Gary Krakow: ‘Steve Jobs has either gotta get BlackBerry or Windows Mobile on iPhone’ – June 04, 2008