Does Microsoft prefer the iPhone to Windows Mobile?

By Davey Winder
Monday, 15 December 2008 16:29

Market

Who would have thunked it, not only has Microsoft released a dedicated iPhone application but it has not yet developed a version for the Windows Mobile platform.

Steve Ballmer has made it clear that he dislikes the iPod, going as far as to suggest his children have been brainwashed not to use one. However, it would appear that Microsoft is warming to the iPhone.

This should come as no great surprise, what with some 300 million downloads from the iPhone App Store in the first five months of opening. Who would not want a slice of that action?

Even allowing for Microsoft Skymarket, the non-Apple app store, it was inevitable that Microsoft would eventually add a home-grown app to the pile of some 10,000 already available for the iPhone.

What is surprising, however, is the fact that Microsoft Live Labs has released an application for an Apple device before it has made the same application available for it's own Windows Mobile platform.

Seadragon Mobile, a free application that allows for the deep zooming of online images being browsed using the iPhone, is best known in a non-mobile format as being the power driving Microsoft Photosynth.

The reason why Seadragon Mobile has appeared on the iPhone before a Windows Mobile device is intriguing. It would seem that, according to a Microsoft spokesperson, the iPhone is the best device for the application.

Microsoft Live Labs Product Manager Alex Daley says "Most phones out today don’t have accelerated graphics in them The iPhone does... I couldn’t just pick up a Blackberry or a Nokia off the shelf and build Seadragon for it without GPU support."

So there you have it, Microsoft if not Ballmer just loves the iPhone.