This post is going to sound very anti-Windows Mobile and well . . . it sort of is.

I'm not a fan of Windows Mobile . . . it's up to version 6 now and it still . . . well . . . sucks.  My friend has a T-Mobile Dash and when he upgraded it to WM6 and configured automatic updates and turned it off and then turned it back on - it was bricked - went into a reboot loop.  I have countless other friends who have pretty lousy experiences with their Windows Mobile devices that sadly - they've just come to accept and learned to live with.  Many simply reset their phones periodically when things 'start to get wierd'.  From the phone slowing down over time and needing to be hard reset, to lock-ups to over-compressed sounding low quality phone calls . . . I've come to really dislike the Windows Mobile experience.  It's largely why I use a RAZR.  It just works.  It's sleek and wearable, durable, and the call quality is superb - it's literally the best sounding phone I've ever owned.  When I call my wife's RAZR from mine it sounds better than our land lines (which I'd get rid of if I didn't need DSL to sustain life).  Yes the phone is THAT good.  The best part?  I never reboot it.  It never locks up (not ever), I never turn it off (well except for occasionally on planes).  It just works and it does exactly what I want it to do very well - be a phone.  The only non-phone thing I've ever really wanted to do with it is transfer pictures off of it and now that I have a bluetooth capable notebook + Vista - I can do that very easily as well.  Again - it just works.

With that rant aside - you will probably watch this video and be on one of two sides of a fence depending on whether you are pre-disposed towards liking Windows Mobile, or if you are like me and you do not: http://blogs.zdnet.com/mobile-gadgeteer/?p=392

If you are like me - you will only shake your head in disgust as you watch a Windows Mobile device *try* to be an iPhone while at the same time exemplifying what it is that I really don't like about Windows Mobile (16-bit looking applications, inconsistent and confusing user interface, almost as if no one has ever done a single usability study).

Or if you already own a Pocket PC you may be excited that 'hey - it sort of kind of approximates an iPhone - cool!' and you'll be willing to live with the glitches and quirks.

I DO think the iPhone is going to do really well and I DO think it has set a bar which we must strive to meet . . . but no I probably won't buy one . . . for $600 I'd rather buy a notebook . . . or a 360 Elite.  And that brings me (partly) to why I also don't own a Windows Mobile device . . . even though prices have come down to $200-$300 for a decent device . . . I also find myself not really interested in owning one.  I don't *want* to check my e-mail every second of the day.  I'm on-line enough as it is . . . owning a phone like that will encourage yet even more anti-social behavior.  I enjoy my time off from the Internet . . . it seems that everywhere I go these days people spend more time looking at their phones than they do other people.  My friends check their email all throughout lunch . . . hell - I played poker the other night and two of the players there were pretty much on their phones the whole night.