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With OneNote, Microsoft has tendrils all across the mobile sector. OneNote Mobile comes in flavors for Android and iOS in both phone and tablet varieties; it's built into Windows Phone 7 and 8. On Windows Phone, the note-taking app has its perks, but it's gimped on Android and iOS.
The key attraction here is the direct link between OneNote and SkyDrive, Microsoft's cloud storage service that competes with Google's Drive and Apple's iCloud. On Windows Phone, that means there's an in-the-box, no set-up-required note-taking, cloud-syncing solution. Even if the app isn't the most versatile or fully featured, there is something to be said for convenience. That advantage evaporates when considering the free versions of OneNote on Android or iOS, which both have a 500-note limit. Removing that limit costs $4.99 on Android and the iPhone, and a hefty $14.99 on the iPad. That limit does not exist on the Windows Phone edition.
That limit isn't OneNote Mobile's real problem though. The real issue is its skimpy feature set. Notes can be made in a few different fashions: bullet points, to-do style checklists, plainly formatted text and audio; photos also can be uploaded to the service. Organization is another weak point. Notes are filed in a pre-created folder and can only be moved in SkyDrive itself. Competing third-party solutions like Evernote are simply the better options in every case except when extreme convenience is needed on the Windows Phone platform.
PUBLISHED DEC. 5, 2012
