One word: Disconnected.

Windows Mobile device focus groups and hardware manufacturers that outsource their creativity to HTC have yet again taken what is undoubtedly the most advanced embedded operating system and turned it into one of the most expensive paperweights of 2008.

That’s my thesis and I’m sticking to it.

Look up. HP is comfortable letting HTC design the same junk it was designing around the turn of the century. Yes, it’s faster and flashier and it may have a keyboard or a phone in a model or two but its the same old useless Jornada rewrapped for FY2008. You can see the official breakdown here. Disconnected: From style, from purpose, from functionality and eventually from day-to-day use.

There are rumors out there that Microsoft is considering buying RIM. Microsoft entertainment division is set to bleed/squirt more money into Zune 2, which will fail again. God knows how much is lost on that futile marketing and development project.

So to my dear CEO Pal Steve Ballmer I offer the following advice: Buy HTC.

You already have the awesome mobile operating system. You already have integration into nearly every aspect of the desktop. You have a partnership with a harware manufacturer that has designed devices for Palm, HP, Toshiba as well as every phone carrier on earth.

So why, oh why, do you recognize the market dominance of your desktop and refuse to take charge in extending it past the table and onto the belt/pocket? Yesterday Apple released the Music Store, something I could write on WM6 in about 30 minutes. Get this – it’s a web browser that authenticates to a web service and downloads an aac file.

This is going to hurt. Microsoft lost the digital movie / music player war. It’s over. Let go. Nobody listens to a Zune no mo. The only hope you now have is to create a dominant digital convergence device that can leverage the power of office, home and life and you’ve got a 92% leg up there. How much of that lead are you willing to lose before you follow my advice?

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