"That’s about where we are on the development curve, where the PC was in around 1981 through 1984 with the popularization and stabilization of Microsoft Windows."

I don't remember Windows turning up on the scene before 1985, 1991-94 would be more accurate.

There seems to be a lot of assumptions in this article. There is no really evidence to suggest that Windows Mobile has failed; most of the best Smartphones are running either Windows Mobile, BlackBerry or Symbian. From what I can see Windows Mobile is doing very well.

There would appear to be key weakness in the strategy here. Google do data over and above everything else. The thing all mobile devices have in common is that data is expensive. Data is also largely pretty slow on most devices - even on 3G my phone is painful to surf the web with. But getting back to the cost. The quickest way to become unpopular is to ramp up someones phone bill on data connections largely saturated with Google's adverts. I can't see how this will ever be popular. Data transfer is expensive, mobiles have tiny screens and tiny amounts of processing power and pummelling them with adverts will just piss users off no end.

You might point to the mobile networks offering the all-you-can-eat tariffs but this is fundamentally flawed. First, if your mobile company's bandwidth is being swamped with Google's adverts they're going to get pissed off with what's effectively subsidising Google. They can't be expected to pay for the data traffic that Google profit from. Conversely if Google do some deal with the mobile networks (and Christ knows how you do this) you then are put in an even worse position; if it becomes financially advantageous for both companies to be making money from mobile advertising they have all the more reason to bombard you with it. Poor users have all most no means of filtering this shite out, mobile clients are tiny and have no ad blocking software.

The problem I think is perhaps more basic. We're bloating data with crap from Google in trying to sell you something when you click on a link or read an email or text. The data is getting bigger, the data you're actually interested in is probably disproportionately smaller than the shite Google is trying to send you. Bloating data would seem to be totally antithetical to mobile use.

We also should be putting the breaks on the commercialisation of data where Google makes money from data it didn't originate. They want to monetise every aspect of mobile communication rather than users getting a modest bill for services they've used. In offsetting your cost for mobile services you're just passing them to someone else. Clearly there is already too much advertising encroaching on your personal space - I don't want Google or their "services" on my phone, thanks.

"That’s about where we are on the development curve, where the PC was in around 1981 through 1984 with the popularization and stabilization of Microsoft Windows"

Considering that the 1.0 version of windows was launched in November 1985, those dates are hardly accurate. Maybe you wanted to say 1991 through 1994, with windows 3.0 and windows 3.1

Since when did Windows Mobile "largely fail"? Samsung, Motorola and LG all make Windows Mobile devices. Yes, it has not set the world on fire like the iPhone, but it has grown consistently each year. In fact, its Microsoft's fastest growing devision. Its far from another MSN.

Dont let Symbian's 70% market share fool you. Nokia has more than 50% of the smartphone market share, and Nokia and Symbian (are they also largely failed?) are synonymous - without Nokia Symbian would ship about the same number of devices as WM. And Nokia could be go Linux anytime now.

WM is solidly embedded in the business world, and is not going away anytime soon.

<rant>

I don't know what the rules of engagement for unsolicited telemarketing calls on cellular phones in the UK are, but in the last 6 months, I've received about a dozen calls from people trying to sell me something. That pisses me off and I usually do my best to be as graphic and offensive as I can, to get them to hang up (I really don't care about the cost of the call as it's provided as a tool by my employer, so I never see the bill).

But I'll be damned if I want to own a cellular device, be it a phone or a pda, that carpet bombs me with advertisements.

It's bad enough that the bastards screw with commercial television by increasing the volume of commercials, which really sucks on those cold winter days, when I'm watching golf and trying to nap. But now this?

And with the big rush to outsource customer service call centers in India, like the pinheads from Tracfone, I can pretty much state quite factually, that if I am ever given a cell phone that forces me to put up with advertisements, I swear I will hunt down the board members of Google and psychologically torture them, by planting those tiny song playing circuits, normally reserved for greeting cards, in their corporate offices.

It's things like this that make me appreciate the mad genius of Ted Kazinski (AKA the Unibomber).

</rant>