Analysis of T-Mobile Shadow Crticisms from David Pogue of the New York Times

The New York Times’ technology writer, David Pogue, savaged the recently released T-Mobile Shadow (titled Reach for Apple, Falling Short). His summary starts with: Frankly, Windows Mobile 6 is a mess. I’ve taken my shots at Windows Mobile. But, I’m still a Windows Mobile fan (though a critical one). So, let’s take a look at Mr. Pogue’s points one at a time.

DP: First of all, a cellphone should not display a “wait” cursor. Ever. And definitely not almost every time you change screens, as on the Shadow.

Hard to argue with this one. Score 1 for Mr. P.

DP: If your Web browser can’t play Flash videos, it should just say so.

Um, since he is directly comparing it to the Apple iPhone, let’s point out that the iPhone and iPod touch do not support Flash at all. That is why there is a custom YouTube app instead of simply being able to view YouTube in the Safari browser. At least Flash is available for Windows Mobile. So, the score is 1 to 1.

When you’re finished looking at a text message, you should not have to open a menu to find the Delete command.

Agreed, 2 to 1.

When you’re on a phone call, you should not have to open a menu to find the Speakerphone command.

Hmm. On most Windows Mobile devices, pressing and holding the Talk button places you in speakerphone mode. This, of course, is not intuitive. So, the score is 2.5 to 1.5.

When you take a picture, you should not have to open a menu to find Send and Delete.

On my phone, the Send option is the left softkey when viewing the photo just taken. Will mostly agree about needing to open a menu to delete. But, how often do I need to delete a photo right after taking it? Let’s split this point too: 3 to 2.

A cellphone should not have a Task Manager. You should never have to worry about quitting programs because you’ve used up too much memory.

This is an interesting topic with a long and heated history. The issue is a long held Microsoft design philosophy that the Windows Mobile memory manager should manage application memory and not let users close an application like they do on a desktop. The problem is that this philosophy has never mirrored reality: Windows Mobile memory management often fails to do its job adequately (to say it politely). I’ll give Mr. P. the point for this one: 4 to 2.

A cellphone should auto-format phone numbers with parentheses and hyphens when you enter them in the address book.

OK, David lost me here. Why is an auto-format needed while entering a phone number into Contacts? And, phone number are formatted with parens and hypens upon completion. So, 4 to 3.

When the cursor is in a number box, like ZIP code, the keyboard should automatically start typing numbers.

Agreed!: 5 to 3.

If the phone has a navigation wheel, the big, clickable center button should always mean “O.K.” Always.

Hmm. I could have sworn this is the case. But, it may be different on the Shadow. So, 6 to 3.

When you’re assigning a contact to one of the five “My Faves” slots, a T-Mobile calling plan that gives you unlimited calls to your five favorite numbers, three confirmation screens is two too many.

67 to 3. [Correcting this typo and carrying it through below because I missed it the first time around]
If it takes four presses on the More button just to see everything in the Start menu — and you provide no direct way to get to the first page from the last — you need to redesign.

Hmm. Again, if we look at it from his comparison with the iPhone,then, well, the iPhone simply doesn’t have 3rd party apps (without Jailbreak, anyway). And, the iPhone doesn’t have nearly as many functions as a Windows Mobile Smartphone (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.). I agree the menu system needs improvement. But, even my iPod classic wheel takes a lot of thumb twiddling to get around. So, 67 to 4.

A locking feature, which prevents the buttons from being pushed accidentally in a purse or pocket, is nice. But it should be optional. And one button press should suffice to unlock it; two in sequence is just annoying.

Press and hold the End Call key to lock a WiMo Smartphone. One button press by my count. My iPod touch is always turning its screen on because it doesn’t truly lock like non-touch iPods. The scheme on WiMo is fine: 67 to 5.

Let me add one more thing before concluding this blog entry. Take a look at the T-Mobile Shadow product page. Do you see any indication whether this is a Windows Mobile Professional Edition (Pocket PC Phone Edition) or Smartphone (Standard Edition)? I don’t see anything other than Windows Mobile mentioned. The average non-techie is not going to have a clue what this thing is. David Pogue doesn’t mention this either. So, carriers, journalists, and the general public are totally ignoring these two very different devices (Pocket PC vs. Smartphone). The Microsoft branding message is DOA. It never gets past Microsoft itself. And, I recall even its own web properties mangle this message sometimes. This needs to be fixed. BTW and FYI, the T-Mobile Shadow is a Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition device (aka Smartphone).

To sum up then, IMHO,NYT’s David Pogue’s criticisms are 54.5%58.33% on target. That would be great for a batting average or basketball field goal percentage. But, for a well-respected technology commentator… Well, you be the judge…

3 thoughts on “Analysis of T-Mobile Shadow Crticisms from David Pogue of the New York Times

  1. todd Post author

    Preface: I have a hard time believing David Pogue would care what I think or write. And, it isn’t Jake trying to get a response from me from what I can tell. However, I did have an inadvertent arithmetic error (sorry about that) which I needed to correct (and did so). And, I figured, what the heck. It couldn’t hurt to respond to whoever posted this detailed comment (as well as finally get around address some of issues Jake raised earlier [thanks for the feedback, Jake])…

    Mr. Pogue: How can you say you are not comparing the Shadow to the Apple iPhone when your article’s title is: “Reaching for Apple”, Falling Short. And, the first sentence fragment is: “The iPhone’s biggest achievement isn’t any particular feature;”. Whether or not you intended it, a comparison between the Shadow and the iPhone. You and Jake both claim my blog entry is “riddled with factual errors.” However, except for my typo to add a point where it should have been (now corrected), I don’t really see either of you really correcting anything other than my initial addition error (which, again, is now corrected). You, of course, are as entitled to your opinion as much as I am entitled to mine. The difference is that a lot more people read your opinion and most of those are probably not the techie-geekie people who read my little blog. So, when you offer an opinion that does not reflect technical details at 100% accuracy, it gets propogated to a of people who don’t know any better. The little group that visits my blog seem to be techie-geekie types who are well able to challenge any mistake I might make (and I appreciate that BTW) and think through technical criticisms better than the average non-technical person. Finally, I am not defending the Shadow. I merely pointed out the factual errors in your commentary. As I said in my blog entry, I have my own criticisms of Windows Mobile and bring them up frequently here. My aim, though is the hope that these criticisms fan out through the Windows Mobile power user community who might, if they agree with a particular issue, let it be known to Microsoft that it is an issue they (Microsoft) should take seriously as a problem for end users.

  2. David Pogue

    As commenter Jake points out, your blog post is absolutely riddled with errors.

    The chief one is that I never even ONCE compared the Shadow to the iPhone!

    Maybe the headline gave you that impression. But I don’t write the headlines. And in the article itself, there is not a single such comparison–because it would be stupid. These two machines are intended for very different audiences.

    You also make a number of factual errors in your posting.

    You say:

    “Um, since he is directly comparing it to the Apple iPhone, let’s point out that the iPhone and iPod touch do not support Flash at all.”

    Again–I never compared the Shadow to the iPhone, directly or not.

    Besides, you’re missing the point of my gripe. It’s not that the Shadow doesn’t support Flash. Very few phones do.

    It’s that, instead of just saying “Flash not supported,” the Shadow says: “Make sure the path and file name are correct and that all the required libraries are available.”

    That’s just obnoxious user-hostile Microsoft programming.

    “On most Windows Mobile devices, pressing and holding the Talk button places you in speakerphone mode. This, of course, is not intuitive.”

    But this phone is not “most Windows Mobile devices”–what I wrote is correct.

    “But, how often do I need to delete a photo right after taking it? ”

    Are you kidding me? You must be kidding me. Why do you think every digital camera ever made offers a dedicated Delete button?

    Because VERY often, you take a lousy photo. The beauty of digital is that you can delete it on the spot.

    “Why is an auto-format needed while entering a phone number into Contacts? ”

    Because (203) 551-2333 is a lot easier to read than 2035512333.

    “phone number are formatted with parens and hypens upon completion.”

    Totally, 100% wrong. They are NOT auto-formatted on the Shadow. That’s what I’m complaining about!

    You don’t give a point when you agree with my My Faves point.

    “Again, if we look at it from his comparison with the iPhone,then, well, the iPhone simply doesn’t have 3rd party apps”

    Nobody but you is comparing the Shadow with the iPhone.

    Even then, my point stands: having to page through 4 screens to get through ONE Start menu is bad design–and gets old fast.

    “Press and hold the End Call key to lock a WiMo Smartphone.”

    But not the Shadow. I don’t understand why you keep saying that because OTHER phones work a certain way, the Shadow therefore works the same way. It doesn’t.

    If you want to defend the Shadow, maybe you should try one before you write.

    “To sum up then, IMHO,NYT’s David Pogue’s criticisms are 54.5% on target”

    And to sum up, I think your post is 100% off-target.

    I appreciate constructive criticism, don’t get me wrong. But your analysis is way, way off-base.

    –David Pogue

  3. Jake

    Your post contains some errors:

    1. You’re criticizing Pogue largely for his personal opinions. His opinions seem fair, in most, but not all cases.

    2. You inexplicably don’t actually increment the scoring to 7-3 for the “My Faves” point. It stays at 6-3. This significantly alters your statistics.

    3. You again inexplicably go off on a tangent about how the iPhone doesn’t have third-party apps or as many functions as a Windows Mobile smartphone.

    Pogue’s point had nothing to do with this fact. Pogue’s point was that the Start Menu navigation was too tedious and unintuitive.

    So at this point, I’m seeing 7-3.

    4. Under a locking feature. I agree with you that what WinMo Standard does now is fine. Be aware that Pogue is comparing the iPhone, not the iPod Touch. I’ve never used the iPod Touch, but the iPhone’s locking system stays locked. Still 7-3.

    So, if I assume my corrections are correct, I see he has a score of 70%. Which is pretty damned good.

    Me personally, I’m torn between the iPhone and Windows Mobile smartphone. I love everything about the iPhone except the lack of certain features/software. This will eventually be fixed 6-12 months down the line after the SDK is released.

    Windows Mobile (both smartphone and especially Pocket PC Phone) are plagued with reliability issues and clunkiness, and performance issues.

    I want to love it, and people make claims all the time that Win Mo is super stable and speedy, but I’ve never seen it, and I’ve owned a ton of HTC and Motorola WinMo units.

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