What was the general mood of this site when Windows Mobile was discontinued?

[Laura Knotek]

I was just curious about the general mood/tone of this site when Windows Mobile's discontinuation was announced and before Windows Phone was officially released.

I never visited the old Windows Mobile forums and don't even remember what they were called. I know webOS Nation was Palm Central and Treo Central previously.

The reason I'm asking is because I started with CrackBerry, and that site is Troll Central now. Even before I made the switch from BlackBerry to Windows Phone almost 2 years ago, I already saw a change in the CrackBerry forums, and my participation there dropped off even when I still was using BlackBerry (I was more active in off-topic than anywhere else). Now they are once again trying to clean up the forums.

I'm also familiar with what happened with webOS Nation. That site didn't seem as bad during the decline of webOS, but prior to its actual discontinuation.

What was this site like when Windows Mobile got killed? Was it as bad as the current state of CrackBerry?

 

[HeyCori]

I wasn't around for the decline of WM but I never got the impression that WM had as many die hard fans as BlackBerry. It seems like WM users either owned one for business or because it was the closes thing to a modern smartphone before iOS/Android were released. WM seems to have died a peaceful, almost welcomed death. As if everyone understood that it was time for WM to go.

BB10 and BlackBerry seems to be an entirely different ball game. The BB10 trolls are coming from all different viewpoints. There's the usual assortment of troll that all fans have to put up with. Then there are the diehard BB fans that were anxiously awaiting the jump from BB7 to 10. They put up with Android/iOS fanboys laughing in their face for years. They put up with problematic software and buggy hardware. They waited so long that it made them angry at BlackBerry. Then when BB10 was released and it wasn't absolutely perfect that was fuel for the current trolls and made the diehard fans even more angry.

Now you have a mixture of standard trolls plus diehard fans that have turned their back on BlackBerry. All this is made worse given that BB10 is still in its prime. BB10s crash and burn has been both bewildering and astonishing to watch like a tornado. Those that wanted BB to fail has more than enough ammo whereas the WP trolls have been running out of steam as WP gains more apps and sales. Then there's BlackBerry's CEO fiasco. They've had what, 3 CEO changes in the past year and a half? Many blame poor leadership on BlackBerry's current problems and the co-CEOs somewhat delusional outlook on BB's future. Well that's just one more bullet in the chamber for trolls.

And what about their marketing? Hiring Alicia Keys. The short-lived hipster focused ads. The superheroes. They have a worse marketing campaign than Microsoft had/has with Windows 8. Those are just more things for trolls to point at and laugh.

BlackBerry needed a win on something and they just keep coming up short. Posting a $4.4 billion loss last quarter didn't help. It's really a perfect storm of crap.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I really see BlackBerry going the way of webOS eventually. Playbook = Touchpad. BB10 = Palm Pre.

I see a firesale of pieces/parts in the near future.

 

[HeyCori]

BB must of heard me talking

Bye, bye, BlackBerry: Alicia Keys out as Global Creative Director come January 30th

As for the PlayBook, I always thought it was a nice tablet and considered getting one at rock bottom prices. Decided not to once I heard BB10 wasn't coming.

 

[Laura Knotek]

BB must of heard me talking

Bye, bye, BlackBerry: Alicia Keys out as Global Creative Director come January 30th

As for the PlayBook, I always thought it was a nice tablet and considered getting one at rock bottom prices. Decided not to once I heard BB10 wasn't coming.

I've never seen a Playbook in real life. I've even seen HP Touchpads, which the owners got during HP's firesale. I should've picked up a Touchpad, since it's not bad for the cheap price.

 

[Dave Blake]

WinMo ,just kind of faded out. The Windows Mobile Experts forum (That is what we used to be called) at its peek was only about 500 people on line. It went down from there slowly. The larges forum at that time was PPCGeeks even that place only housed a couple of thousand people. When WinMo got slated for death it just kind of faded out. I don't think most WinMo forums had the numbers to interest the trolls.

I think the issues with BB and CB is the number of people on line and the speed of the decline. Its crazy how quickly BB got overtaken technology wise and how little was don't to speed the company along. This is why Microsoft will continue to stay on top of Mobile. Microsoft is willing to ditch old technology and build for the future. They do it with their PC's and they will do the same with Mobile. Once consumers get used to this Microsoft will rule mobile having the tope devices from here on out. The face of the software used will evolve.

 

[palandri]

Also, after Windows Mobile 6.2 a few phones came out with Windows Mobile 6.5 which gave people hope and slowed the dieing out process.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I think another problem with BlackBerry is that their management actually did lie to the public. They said the Playbook would get BB10, then it didn't. Then there was the delay: I waited 11 months past my upgrade eligibility for BB10, which was "coming soon" a year prior to that. I might be wrong, but I never heard that WinMo users ever were promised that their old devices would get Windows Phone 7. I ended up here since I was tired of waiting for BB10, and once it actually came out and I tried it, I didn't like it at all. I know I made the right choice by switching to Windows Phone.

 

[HeyCori]

I think another problem with BlackBerry is that their management actually did lie to the public. They said the Playbook would get BB10, then it didn't. Then there was the delay: I waited 11 months past my upgrade eligibility for BB10, which was "coming soon" a year prior to that. I might be wrong, but I never heard that WinMo users ever were promised that their old devices would get Windows Phone 7. I ended up here since I was tired of waiting for BB10, and once it actually came out and I tried it, I didn't like it at all. I know I made the right choice by switching to Windows Phone.

And we're happy to have you here!

 

[Dave Blake]

And we're happy to have you here!

second that

 

[Laura Knotek]

And we're happy to have you here!

second that

Thanks guys!

The part I especially like being here is how much this site has grown just in the time I've been here, and I think it's going to get a lot bigger as the platform continues to grow.