mobilegeek said:
great ..
can you precisely tell me the difference between Windows Mobile 5.0/6.0 and Windows Smartphone edition.
Sure,I would love to and I beive you had ment Wince 5.0/6.0 and Windows Smartphone.
Windows Ce 5.0:
This is a componetized hard real time operating system (Like RTLinux,Vx works...etc), which is similar to a set of Lego Boxes.If you want a make a device (say a Thin Client) then you chose which componetents you want and make a device (Like IE,COM,Display,Direct draw,C Run time libs....etc) just like building something with Lego Toys.
The royalty for this is quite cheap ($3 for Core) and is widely used in Set-Top boxes,Gateways....etc.The development tool used for developing this is called "Platform Builder".This Windows Ce 5.0 base kernel was Windows Ce 3.0 and is a second generation CE kernel.
Thus many many might be using a device powered by Ce but may not even know it.In case you want some third party to develop software for your device then you create a SDK and give it to them.
Windows Mobile:
This term denotes not one devices but a combination of multiple devices, but let me go into the reasoning behing Windows Mobile.
As I had said above with Wince . I can create anything I want, which means nothing stops me from creating a phone on Wince, but then it will turn like the symbian mess.To many devices and not a Unified SDK (remember the OEM gives the SDK for Ce).
Thus MS chose the Lego Blocks from the Full CE thing and added a few more like Radio layer (used for calling),Direct Show video capture pipeling (for camera),Pocket office......etc which are specific for Mobile Phones and a Fixed UI ( beileve me this is the only thing which sucks in WM).
Thus Dell or HP or O2 or anybody who makes a phone will have near Identical features with near identical UI and fixed form factor like 120*120,320*240,640*480, quetry keyboard........etc.The tool used to build this is called as "Microsoft Smart Phone Adpatation Kit (SAK)" and I am one of the lucky few to have worked in these :
:
.
Now lets go to the different smart phones.
a)Smart-Phone:
These are phones like Samsung Blackjack....etc. which have a 120*120 screen,No touch panel,Only keyboard inputs, Stripped down middle ware, less powerful hardware like OMAP 730 and basically a low cost version which will cost some >$100 or more to make.
b)Pocket Pc:
well these are PDA's like Dell Axim X51.
c)Pocket Pc Phone:
These are build using the same SDK as the Pocket PC but with the addition of the Radio layer.examples are the O2 Atom,Hp.....etc and are targetted at the entriprise users.
The different Mobile SDK's are
a)Magneto ( Windows Mobile 5.0)
Successor to Smart Phone 2003 which ran on Ce.net 4.2 which runs on CE 5.0 and provided some amazing stuff.
b)CrossBow(Windows Mobile 6.0)
This should be called as Mobile 5.2 since it is an up-graded version of Magneto with better connectivity and more fancy GUI, has Silverlite,Deep fish...etc, nothing great to talk home about but can hold tide against the iPhone till Photon comes.
These are the limitations in windows mobile
a)Virtual memory,Virtual memory,Virtual memory and more virtual memory.
This issue sucks, the ce 3.0 was designed to run 2 or 3 apps and not 50 or 60 apps like today and it shows.Partly the reason is that MS was treating the phone as a desktop counterpart and not as its replacement.
And trust me this limitation is pretty Sh$$$$ty.
b)Did I say the virtual memory limitation ?
c)More virtual memory problems
d)Security:
I do not want to discuss a lot about this, but a poorly written driver can do some many things wrong which a potential hacker can exploit (then again an embedded device was never supposed to be hacked in 1998 :
)
e)No user(OEM) customisable UI.
MS does have its own reasons for this but this is something they should seriously think about since the only way anybody can compete against the iPhone.
f)Poor performance even on PXA270 due to Virtual memory limitations.
g)System call is very slow:
In windows xp/nt ....etc the Device manager,Graphics....etc are part of the kernel and thus only one switch is involved in calling those, but in Ce 5.0 these are part of the user space.
Yamazaki (Windows Ce 6.0):
This architecture closely resembles its desktop big brother (aka Windows XP) and has none of the Virtual memory issues,Amazing security,Improved system calls,Excellent middleware.........etc and hopefully the "X" button in WM will now actually close the application.
Photon (aka No idea what it is going to be called):
This is the SDK which is currently being developed by MS which will be based on the 3rd Generation CE 6.0 kernel called as Yamazaki.This will basically turn a new leaf and a new breath of life into windows mobile (about time if you ask me) which supports amazing graphics (so i am told),Sliver light,
OEM customisable UI( Hope so), Can play any video format ( I really want this one) and Much better Direct Draw and D3D (if Ce 6.0 is anything to go by).
If you ask me Nokia is a Phone company and not a OS company, things like iPhone actually will help WM to gain more market share and Photon is the OS to look for.
ps: I use a W810i :
, till they Improve the DirectShow middleware for better Video and High Def, this stays.
