The Windows Mobile Fanboy's Five Stages of Upgrading to Windows Phone 7...

[Originally written Jul 5 2010 9:54 PM]


With apologies to Dr. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross and her "Five Stages of Grief."

I'm not sure exactly what stage I'm at yet- probably somewhere between 3 and 4.

1. Denial: ("Microsoft would never really release a new version of Windows phone without copy/paste, multitasking, or a file system!" I experienced this stage when details of WP7 were leaked a couple of days before Microsoft's announcement at MWC.)

2. Anger: ("Are they serious? Why not just silkscreen a half-eaten pear or an orange on it! I'll buy an Android first!" I hit this stage when reading the coverage of the MWC announcement here at the Connection.)

3. Bargaining: ("Ok, I'll try WP7, but only if the UI is really good, and MS commits to adding the power user features eventually...")

4. Depression: ("I've used, supported and been an advocate for Pocket PC/Windows Mobile for ten years, and this iPhone-a-like is all I'm going to end up with?")

5. Acceptance: ("Multiple Exchange server support, Zune Pass compatibility, and these live tiles are actually pretty cool... Maybe I was wrong...")



And, since we're actually talking about a rebirth, rather than a death, I'll add a 6th stage:

6. Giddy with Anticipation: ("Integrated social networking, Zune, XBox... where was this phone three years ago?!?")



As a long time fan of Pocket PC/Windows Mobile, I'm a little nervous about the upcoming changes to the platform, but it's hard not to get swept up in the excitement coming out of Redmond; some really neat stuff seems to be in the next OS.