Spb mobile shell puts Windows Mobile interface to shame

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 23 May 2008 10:53

Opinion and Analysis

Based on the high popular Spb “Mobile Shell”, Spb Software House has showcased a new “Online Shell” at Australia’s CeBIT tech conference. It brings a range of online multimedia entertainment and information services using the Mobile Shell interface, which itself brought a very iPhone-esque experience to drab Windows Mobile devices.

If you’re not using an HTC Touch device, with HTC’s iPhone-esque Touch Flo interface, but are using a different Windows Mobile smartphone, the only professional game and alternative in town has been the very cool Spb Mobile Shell.

With version 2.1 launched on April 29, 2008, the user experience is so radically different to that of corporate-boring Windows Mobile, and so reminiscent of the iPhone, that Spb’s claims its software “reignites interest in Windows Mobile and changes the device experience completely” are totally spot on.

Of course, when you get past the navigation menu and into actual applications, you’re in the same corporate-boring Windows Mobile applications as ever, but despite their uninspired look, those apps work as advertised, are solid and have resulted in tens of millions of Windows Mobile handsets shipped over the years.

It’s just that the Spb could easily help Microsoft sell many more, and it’s a wonder that Microsoft’s Windows Mobile division hasn’t bought these fellows out and put them in charge of the whole operation.

So what is the new Spb Online Shell exactly?

Using the Spb Mobile Shell as the software and interface engine, the Online Shell is, according to Spb, a convergence of online and media tools, targeted to helping mobile network operators expand their online services portfolios and deliver improved content experiences to subscribers.

This means bringing together a whole swag of online services into an easy to navigate on-screen environment, from weather, to video-on-demand and music, TV and radio streams and shopping opportunities – including the ability to deliver a “single entry portal for online services and payments.”

In addition, Spb know where their bread is buttered, and will happily customise the software to “strictly adhere to, and enhance, a carrier's unique identity and brand”, while hopefully totally reinvigorating excitement for mobile data and entertainment.

Why isn't Microsoft doing this? Pleae read onto page 2.