In the late 80’s, I remember my dad having a cup of coffee every morning for breakfast in his red mug. He called it AMUG. I liked the name of that mug – AMUG.

Later on I found out that AMUG stands for Atlanta Mac Users Group. I should have known that because over the years, our household has had every Apple product from the Apple II to an Apple TV. I continued the tradition by having a handful of Apple products: iPhone 4, Mac mini, new iPad, and iPod Touch. I really enjoy my Apple products because they are easy to use and just work.
Then something interesting happened after our agency’s beloved Kickassedness Day. I went to the Braves game and my iPhone was stolen. I was in a terrible mood. Left the game. Headed to an AT&T store. And purchased a Nokia Lumia 900 running WINDOWS MOBILE 7.
After buying it, I didn’t know how to break the news to my dad. I felt like I was the black sheep in my family and purchasing a non-Apple product.

Being an iOS user, here are my immediate reactions to Windows Mobile 7 (reaction in bold):
- I set up my Outlook and Gmail – Just as easy as iOS. Not bad.
- Office that has PowerPoint, Excel, and Word – Wow! What is that about? Pretty neat feature.
- Lock screen cleanly displays my next meeting title, time, and location; my Outlook and Gmail are displayed with different icons to distinguish between the two – Very cool and can get a good summary of what I want to know. Big plus.
- Email threads like iOS but different layout – Not a big fan. Points for Apple on the look and feel.
- I logged into Facebook for my contacts and my all Facebook friend imported in my contacts – Hate this and don’t know how to remove – but I am bias because I am not a fan of Facebook
- Using the touch screen – The device performs like I expect it to when I touch the screen. It feels faster than my iPhone 4.
- Having a home screen with some apps and another screen with all my apps – Weird and don’t understand.
- Calendar – Tells me about conflicting appointments and I can propose new times. Great!
I have had Windows Mobile 7 for over 2 weeks and I like it over all. I’m used to the UI and enjoy having all my top apps on my first screen. My only complaints are: selecting an address does not always open up maps, copying text takes an extra 2 seconds, and there is a lot of integration into Facebook. Overall, my initial reaction was that it was a different experience. Not a better or worse, just different.

In conclusion, this consumer picks the iPhone, but I do predict historic BlackBerry enterprise executives will pick the Windows Mobile. Calendar, Mail, and Office integration can’t get much better. Pop-ups appear giving me a tip or a shortcut with the phone. And if I am unsure of an icon, I press a button and the icon is explained. Windows Mobile 7 has the potential to be a useful tool to increase productivity. And it will only get better once Windows 8 comes out.
What would YOU pick?