Uber: Mobile Web App launched for those “other OSes” Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry

Yesterday Uber announced on their blog that they would begin to support Blackberry and Windows Phone 7 devices (and beyond, whatever that means).  With the launch of m.uber.com users of the once dominant and almost relevant Operating Systems can finally take advantage of one of my personal favorite startups.

Prior to the mobile app being launched it was not possible to order a cab through devices other than iOS or Android, before that even Android was waiting in line (pun intended).  Uber said in their blog post,

We’re excited to announce that our latest product, m.uber.com has been built with love and care for BlackBerry, Windows Phone and beyond! We want to make the Uber experience available to everyone, regardless of phone or carrier. That’s why we’ve introduced mobile web requests to let you request an Uber at any time from any phone……And when you make requests, you can also save favorite locations for places you frequently request from, such as home or work.

We recently stopped in to Uber’s Washington DC office but did not get a chance to spend any time talking to them about their expansion into new cities nor could we discuss the full-blown assault by the DC Taxi Cab Association.  We are huge fans of the service though and we have been keeping a close eye on when they will be invading my hometown of Philadelphia.  If you are in Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, Seattle, Chicago, Toronto, or New York and you haven’t used Uber yet….you should.  It’s that good.

AT&T Hoping To Revive Windows Phone With $150 Million Ad Spend

Although T-Mobile was the first company to support Google’s Android operating system, much of the credit for the adoption of Android in the United States goes to Verizon Wireless. The nation’s largest carrier spent over $100 million dollars advertising the original Motorola Droid smartphone in 2009. The results for that campaign were phenomenal, Android quickly overtook Blackberry in Verizon Wireless stores.

AT&T is hoping to replicate that success with it’s Nokia Lumia 900 for which they are the sole US Carrier. The Lumia 900 is a great piece of hardware running Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 operating system. AT&T is hoping to sell lot’s of Lumia 900’s and they are backing it with $150 million dollars in advertising money.

Business Insider’s Jim Edward’s doesn’t think that $150 million dollars in advertising for the Lumia 900 is a wise idea. As he points out in this article, Windows Phone is doing so poorly that it wasn’t even mentioned by name in the most recent Nielsen report on smartphone sales. Couple that with the fact that Windows only commands 2% of the app space and the fact that they are “paying” developers to develop on the platform and this may be a recipe for disaster.

More after the break
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I Won The Windows Phone 7 Challenge But They Didn’t Let Me Win In The End

Microsoft might have to sweat this one out for a while as Sahas Katta walked into a Microsoft store today, took the Windows Phone 7 Challenge, WON, but was denied his prize. For those that don’t know the back story on the Challenge here we go…

 This is a skill-based Contest. The object of this Contest is for You to come into the Microsoft Store and try to beat the Microsoft Windows Phone in a series of five (5) “Smoked by Windows Phone” challenge scenarios selected by Microsoft at its sole discretion including: (1) Pocket-to-Picture-to-Post, (2) Real-Time Information with Live Tiles, (3) Using the People Hub to Stay in Touch with the People You Care About Most, (4) Updating Your Status Across Multiple Social Networks, and (5) Local Scout (“Challenge”)

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