Marcin, CEO of UXPin, here. Thanks for posting the news. We're very excited about the investment and having Jeff on board! Now back to work. Time to make design collaboration easy! :)
OK than. Couple of reasons - Windows Mobile was a single worse case of Fits Law violation. Small interface elements hard to reach even with stylus. I remember that one of my test devices was HTC Diamond. I don't recall slower, uglier mobile device. Apart from that UI guidelines were a joke. Microsoft tried to fit Windows into a mobile device and failed. Phone 8 is a completely new approach. Just try to compare them.
Google Wave failed to address one particular useful 'use case'. The interface was a mess and people didn't know what to do with it.
Sony Remote? It was actually canceled and changed because of problems with usability. Lots of buttons with lack of clear information architecture - straight way to design hell.
Each and one of mentioned devices could be throughly analyzed. I just thought it will be more fun to list them :).
Assertive overstatements are no substitute thought or analysis. I'm glad it was fun for you. It wasn't fun for me. More a case of "Why is this idiot wasting my time?"
Seriously have you ever used WIndows Mobile more than 5 minutes? You could resize the icons to make it as big as what you have on iOS screens today in case you were not able to reach the small icons with a stylus. Plus, there was not a "single version" of Windows Mobile, the system went through many iterations and improvements and the later versions had nothing to do with the earlier ones. Your blanket statement shows your ignorance.
And there were many changes made by Microsoft vs your so-called "windows just putting windows into a mobile device". First, there were no windows per se, every application was filling the screen by itself. There were gestures as well, and the task bar had nothing to do with the windows task bar. So give me a break with that line. They did change many things to make it fit on the small screen.
I used Windows Mobile devices for years and it was certainly not the nightmare you describe. Why do you think so many manufacturers supported the system ? There was NOTHING like that out there at the time. It was the only convincing touch interface system. And it had lots of applications, too, from first and third parties. The key drawback was certainly the on-screen keyboard but there were many third party apps to make this less painful and more natural.
Google Wave's interface was certainly not a mess, it was more of a concept issue. Were you ever in the beta ? What did you do with it that made you dislike it so much ?
Listing devices without argument is not fun, it's just not very insightful. If you make a top 10 list, you should think a little bit more about what criteria you use to put inside there - if it's just that you don't like these designs, your list if worthless because I could say the exact opposite to most of your choices there.
15 releases and still almost nobody uses it. Couple of years ago Opera was a solid browser and a great hope. Today it's on the verge of being forgotten.
Right now Opera has 1.6% of market share. Safari - 4.1%. Back in 2011 - Opera had 2.5% and Safari 4.0%. You can actually see that Opera is in bad shape. And probably you're right - Opera might be popular in some communities. Globally though - it doesn't matter and its market share is actually shrinking.
Once again I find myself deeply unimpressed with those who would seek to portray achievement of a >1% share of a multi-billion-user market as some sort of failure. We'll also leave aside the fact that those statistics you're citing are likely biased against Opera, given the markets it's most common in.
I think you choose your browser in Windows before you use it (at least in Europe). // I'm not sure I agree with this law, but it for sure affects browser share.
It's not a secret society, but it does have the feeling of a community, at least to me. A lot more surprising than saying pg is on facebook, for example.
