*sigh* Gizmodo rains on the Touch HD2 parade

It would've been great if I could have read through at least part of Gizmodo writer John Herrman's HTC Touch HD2 review before encountering the usual Windows Mobile bashing.  But unfortunately, the bashing started right in the title: HTC Touch HD2 Review: A Tragedy.

Despite all the positive attention and excitement the HD2 has generated, you knew that someone would eventually knock the device because it runs Windows Mobile.  Personally, at this point, I think the tech press is beating a dead horse with all the WinMo bashing.  Microsoft gets it.  It has admitted that it dropped the ball on WinMo development and was careful to set WinMo 6.5 expectations properly: 6.5 should be seen as a solid step towards better touch support--not a complete overhaul.  That would have to wait until WinMo 7.  In fact, I think Steve Ballmer has been a little too apologetic.  It's hard to even give 6.5 a chance when Microsoft's CEO keeps apologizing for WinMo's slow development and basically says WinMo 7 will make up for it.

I don't really care if Herrman doesn't like Windows Mobile or feels it hinders the HD2; he's entitled to his opinion.  But it's apparent that he began the review already wishing the device ran Android instead.  He doesn't say 'Android' verbatim, but it's pretty obvious which OS he'd prefer.  I'm sure he doesn't think the HD2 should run Symbian.  But even that inherent bias in and of itself isn't the real problem: the real problem is that his bias is unsubstantiated.  And here I thought that a logical argument supporting the findings and conclusion was a prerequisite for a review...

Instead, readers see a haphazard critique that, at times, seems more about the philosophy around the phone's development than the actual device itself.  For example, Herrman extols the virtues of how tightly TouchFlo is integrated into the WinMo experience, admitting it's not often that you'll be greeted with the classic Windows Mobile UI.  But in the same breath, he decries the need for HTC to re-skin WinMo to begin with and basically claims HTC went to absurd lengths to hide the fact that the device is running Windows Mobile. 

First off, the device sports a multi-touch capacitive screen, which WinMo does not natively support.  So given that the stock UI and controls were intended for resistive touch screens and the use of styli or D-pads, HTC had to deeply re-skin the UI to make it usable with a capacitive screen.  Second, while Herrman takes HTC's customization as a slam against WinMo's UI issues, some people might think it's actually cool that WinMo can be customized to that extent.  Try doing that on the iPhone.  Heck, try publishing an iPhone app that attempts to supplant the stock UI.  Feel free to forward me the App Store rejection email when you get it.

"But the iPhone doesn't need re-skinning," the naysayers will claim.  That might be true, but so what?  What if I simply want to re-skin anyway?  Questioning the need to re-skin the UI is like questioning why import car tuners modify their Hondas to the extent that they do with body kits, spoilers, etc.  Maybe they do it simply because they can.  Now, all that customization would be for naught if TouchFlo was some sort of unusable, Frankensteinian UI.  But it's not.  And it's clear that Herrman agrees.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, when will the majority of the tech media realize that average users don't care what OS a phone runs as long as it works?  They're going to see the phone in the store, play with one their friend has, or see a demo on YouTube and think the phone is pretty cool.  Average users just aren't as passionate or invested in technology as we are.  They aren't jaded or biased and could care less what OS it's running.  Case in point: you don't hear about people walking into a Sprint store to buy a Pre and saying, "Oh, the WebOS is based on Linux?  Linux is geeky and difficult to use...No thanks, I'll pass."  Yet maybe if you stuck the person in front of a Linux shell and told him that the Pre is based on the same OS, he might be a little hesitant to buy one.  But, that would be unfair, just as dismissing HTC's customizations is unfair to the HD2.

But that's exactly what Herrman does.  He calls the experience near-magical and praises the HD2's super-speedy app launching, responsive call talk/end functions, and lightning-fast camera with a lightning-bright flash.  Then he attempts to undermine his praise by mentioning that if you turn off TouchFlo, WinMo 6.5 will rear its ugly, stylus-driven head.  No kidding!  But if those moments are rare, then who cares?  Every OS and device has its quirks.  Sure, a setting here and there might be obscure or touch unfriendly.  But history has shown that people have an amazing ability to adjust and accept all sorts of oddities, just like we do with modern desktop operating systems.  A certain setting or control might not be intuitive, but after you figure it out, the lesson is learned: you'll know right where to go next time.  Too often the tech media allows the unintuitive-ness or touch unfriendliness of some seldom-used settings to overshadow all the good things about Windows Mobile.

At no point in the review do we get an honest-to-goodness comparison between comparable devices.  You think Android is better?  Fine, explain why.  Why not compare the HD2 to HTC's own all-touch, Android-powered Eris?  Why not compare it to Motorola's Droid?  Give us a comparison of how these devices handle typical functions like messaging, calling, Web surfing, media viewing, picture taking, etc.

Better yet, why doesn't Herrman question why HTC chose Windows Mobile for the HD2?  Did he ever think to ask or at least speculate?  Maybe HTC wanted the device to appeal to professional users and consumer alike.  Maybe Microsoft co-funded its development.  Maybe HTC just wanted to see if it could create a compelling capacitive, multi-touch WinMo device.  Maybe HTC is quietly conducting some crowdsourcing by observing how the XDA developer community will customize the device.  Maybe HTC feels that WinMo apps--or at least its own WinMo apps--are better than the Android's apps.  Maybe WinMo yields better Snapdragon performance through tweaks and optimizations.  Maybe HTC simply has more WinMo experience or engineering talent.

But unfortunately, the Gizmodo review doesn't shed any light on such things.  The only takeaway is that the Herrman doesn't like WinMo and can't see past that.  His shameful knock against the paltry offerings in the Windows Marketplace proves it as Herrman is well aware that there are thousands of WinMo apps.  And without any justification as to why Android is better, we can only surmise that Herrman has drank the Google Kool-Aid.  Facts don't matter: Android is cool and new and made by Google so it must be better, right?  Admitting otherwise or at least doing an honest review wouldn't look cool in front of the iPhone and Android crowd.

Follow Me on Twitter