Summer is over and I can't help feeling a little...let down. I had so many high hopes for the season and now that its over- its over.I started the Summer with enthusiasm about the Palm Pre, the next generation of Windows Mobile and what Android was going to do next.
The Palm Pre is certainly revolutionary- the 'cards' wowed us when we first saw them. But after 2 months and barely 40 apps in the App Catalog its been a bit of a buzzkill. Coupled with the questionable build quality (Oreo anyone?) and the downright painful keyboard, the Pre did not really fulfil the dream.
Windows Mobile is only now (in the fall) promising to deliver 6.5, after many months of WM7 whisperings. And while it looks like an interesting step, it appears to be more of a skin- something HTC or SPB Shell could have put together over a long weekend. Device-wise, nothing really interesting has come out, and the QWERTY-bar Pro phones seem like an altogether abandoned niche.
Android looked promising for a moment with the HTC Hero, but rumors of dreadful lag relegated it to the same fate as the older, choppy Windows Mobile devices. The Sense UI seemed like a winner, and I'm still holding out hope that it will somehow find its way into the mainstream market. In fact, in using the new Blackberry Messenger, I notice that my contacts who are both on Facebook and Blackberry Messenger have an interface that looks almost...Sense-ish? It makes me optimistic for the new versions of SMS Chat and IM on Blackberry OS5.
I'm going to be hopeful for the fall- I can't help it: I'm a foolish optimist that way. I want to be blown away by the new 6.5 Windows Phones. I need the HTC Tattoo to knock my socks off. I need Palm to make a totally unprecendented move and release a new phone that has the body of the Bold, the brains of the HTC Hero and the horsepower of a netbook. Because, honestly, so far its all been a bit of a yawnfest.
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