Even though as a developer I know that it is just a 50 cent sensor inside the iPhone that makes it rotate its display when the phone is hold horizontally and that Windows Mobile does have the feature of rotating the display by a key-press or stylus touch, as a user it is amusing to see the way it is done on iPhone.

Since the day I saw the first demo of iPhone several months ago, I have been thinking about the possibilities of doing this on a Windows Mobile Device. After a bit of research, I found that the camera of the device can be used to find a rotation of the device and I tried to implement this idea but with not much of a success. The basic problem involves the camera missing capturing some frames and thus makes the functionality erratic. I also thought of using the Orientation Sensor built into some devices with GPS support. In JavaME, the Location API (JSR 179) consist of an orientation detector for rotating the GPS map. Although I didn’t, I think it’s worth a try. Or we all will have to wait until Windows Mobile Devices ships with an inbuilt orientation sensor. Unfortunately, HTC or other device developers of Windows Mobile doesn’t seem to be awakened by the introduction of iPhone. I think it’s time for Microsoft to build their own devices if they wanna prove that there was a reason for Ballmer to laugh.