I'm a techno-holic. I just can't keep away from the latest and greatest in technology. Maybe that's a job pre-requisite (although not everyone I've met in IT is totally crazy about new developments). Until recently.

I used to switch phones roughly every 12 months where possible in order to take advantage of new technology and advancements. Then I got wind of the first Windows based phone. To me, it had potential to fix every flaw with both PDA's and phones that I've ever had. I have never used a PDA for more than 6 months continuously before getting jack of it. The pain in the neck of carrying both a PDA and a phone - along with my notebook, wallet, cigarettes, keys, business card case, and other miscellaneous bits and bobs - would inevitably cause me to abandon ship.

So I've been through every iteration of the Pocket PC from the Nino Palm PC. Each time, it's been an improvement. Each time, it's wound up gathering dust. All because of the two device issue. The closest I ever came to solving it was with a Nokia 7110, with integrated calendar and a phone  book which supported multiple phone numbers, email addresses, and street addresses for each contact. But I really preferred the Pocket PC.

So along comes the Windows based phone - Pocket PC, Phone Edition, and the SmartPhone. It was quite a wait before it arrived, and I really had to keep myself from buying other phones with new, cool features such as GPRS and MMS.

I went to a Microsoft conference with Steve Ballmer speaking, and he mentioned in an aside that MS and Telstra released the O2 XDA just the previous day - off I shoot to the Telstra shop and buy it. It's everything I could ask for. Integrated calendar, contacts, inbox, GSM phone with GPRS and speakerphone.. wow! Great!

Take it home, set it up, sync all my contacts, appointments, and some files - going terrific!

Before I really get underway, let me make it clear that under no circumstances do I expect a first version product - especially one from Microsoft - to work perfectly. However, in my experience, the support and follow-up is generally much, much better than what I've encountered with this device.

Because my story stretches across almost an entire year, I won't bore you with the tedious day-to-day details. Suffice it to say that my problems have included:

• Hands-free headset failed to work out of the box. Tech support did not have replacement parts for so long that I wound up buying one outright.
   
• Radio stack (the "phone") freezes altogether on encountering poor or no signal from the network provider. Soft reset required.
   
• After a firmware update, the radio stack still stops processing due to poor or no signal, but only requires the radio component to be switched off and back on. This still happens to this day, irrespective of the firmware revision. Unfortunately when I'm in Amaroo, ACT, since the Vodafone signal here is so weak as to be non-existent, meaning that I have to divert calls on unreachable to my home phone.
   
• Radio stack corruption causing the phone to freeze and periodically reboot. Requires a hard reset. Seems to be primarily due to mismatch between the radio stack firmware and the radio unit (Windows CE) firmware. I have high hopes of the latest Asian Radio Stack v4.21 firmware to resolve this (http://www.myxda.com) as it occurred even with the UK v4.21 firmware.
   
• Speakerphone feedback - people at the other end of the conversation hear their own voices, drives them to the point of distraction
   
• Incoming SMS not resolved to a name in Contacts
   
• Poor to non-existent technical support for the Asian market. Problems are NEVER taken seriously.
   
• Parts availability was a joke until at least May, and still nowhere near as much in the way of accessories as overseas.
   
• Firmware updates few and far between, insufficient information on fixes provided, refusal to admit any problems exist in previous revisions.

So now "Windows Mobile 2003" is in the works. I was really looking forward to the upgrade, especially since (with the aid of the XDA Developers website) I have been able to get my own first hand preview of it (I highly recommend ROM version 4.00.11 from the following ROM Kitchen - http://cuba.calyx.nl/~jsummers/ROMkitchen/ - and the Radio Stack Update to v4.21 from http://www.myxda.com).

My way of thinking - great! Just a matter of time, I'll pay for the update, I'll be running on a faster, more stable version of Pocket PC Phone Edition, and maybe they'll even fix the radio stack problems.

Think so? Ha. Here's the email I received from O2 Asia.

O2's position on Pocket PC 2003
O2 Asia will not be deploying the Pocket PC 2003 upgrade. The Pocket PC 2003 upgrade is subject to the original design of the hardware and the level of integration of the device, particularly between the phone and pda functions. The O2 xda was not designed to support Bluetooth and Wi-Fi and therefore could not take advantage of some of the most important feature upgrades inherent in Pocket PC 2003. After careful evaluation of the costs and benefits and the relatively low impact on the user experience of the current xda version, we have decided not to deploy this upgrade. We are however pleased to announce that we will be introducing significant new features with another upgrade which will include the wireless modem, SIM Toolkit support and the SMS caller ID fix.

So let's get this straight. What they're saying is this:

- We will not deploy Pocket PC 2003 for our entire installed user base in all of Asia
- We don't think the hardware will take it
- We think it will cost too much
- You wouldn't notice any difference
- Instead, we'll just fix the SMS problem, add the Wireless Modem and SIM Toolkit which have been available from http://www.sourceo2.com since much earlier in the year (and which, incidentally, could easily be installed on Asian XDA's) and tell you it's all better.

Well, since my warranty seems to mean very little to O2 anyhow, let's get a few things on the record:

I'm running Windows Mobile 2003 build 4.00.11 on my XDA right now. With the new radio stack update v4.21 (Asian one, not the SourceO2 one), I find my XDA more reliable and CONSIDERABLY faster. The hardware certainly does take it - quite comfortably - and the odd reference to Bluetooth is easily ignored.

As to low impact - well, yes, if you don't actually use the thing. Everything has been tightened, if only slightly, and works so much better. For example, even though the radio stack still plays up, at least now it shows "scrolling dots", which indicates it's searching for a network. I still have to turn the radio stack off and back on, but at least I now have a visual identifier of this problem.

There's some small bugs with the build. Well, that's only to be expected as it's not a release version. But in all honesty, the bugs are much fewer than what O2 Asia want you to put up with.

We all have a reasonable right to purchase a device which works reliably with good support. That means that, if the current release has problems, we should at least be given the ability to purchase an update which will improve matters. Since obviously O2 are unable to genuinely fix the Pocket PC 2002 environment, they should be fully prepared to provide the Pocket PC 2003 update rather than assuming we will wait for the XDA II. If we already have a negative opinion of their first product, why would we buy the second?

I certainly hope that people can learn off my own experiences. I have a few suggestions of my own, both for consumers and suppliers:

1. Microsoft Australia should take responsibility for ensuring the reputation of its product line. If this means taking over support of products, or forcing suppliers to support products in a specific way, then this should be what happens.

2. Better known brands need to come into the Australian market. Brands such as Samsung and HP would force more competition and, hopefully, better and more reliable products for consumers.

3.When considering purchase of new devices such as these, look for as much information as possible. If it looks like a bad product, it probably is - but someone like myself will always buy it to see what it's like.

All this having been said, I really think that there's a need for innovations such as these. The mobile phone market seemed stagnated for a very long time, and to get it to where people such as myself want it to be, we have to go through the growing pains. I think that companies such as O2 Asia have a lot to learn about how to win hearts and minds, but since it's only relatively early days, maybe even this could happen.

I just bought a QTek 7070 Smartphone. It seems to be okay, but of course it has the same radio stack issue (doesn't surprise me). However in a number of other ways it's far improved over the XDA, and perhaps shows that some things have been learnt from the experiences of the XDA. Let's just wait and see.