Microsoft launches Windows Phone 7 – flawed but still blows away iPhone
Microsoft has demonstrated their next generation of their Windows Mobile (now branded Windows Phone) operating system firing a shot across the bow of Apple and the iPhone in the process.
Below is the PR spiel from Microsoft on the launch:
“Today at Mobile World Congress 2010, Microsoft announced the next generation of Windows Phones. Windows Phone 7 Series offers a fresh approach to phone software, distinguished by smart design and truly integrated experiences that bring to the surface the content people care about from the Web and applications. For the first time ever, Microsoft will bring together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience on a mobile phone, exclusively on Windows Phone 7 Series.”
Okay.. so does it live up to the hype? The Windows Phone 7 is a marked improvement over Microsoft’s existing mobile operating systems (This writer uses a HTC Touch Pro running Windows Mobile 6.5.3 so knows first hand) previously Microsoft has tried to shrink the desktop user experience down to the small screen of a mobile phone. This has proven unsuccessful with the need for a clumsy stylus to interact with your Windows Mobile phone in the past, some manufacturers, namely HTC (who account for 80% of Windows Mobile handset sales) have replaced the standard Windows Mobile interface with their own skin called SenseUI that overcame the problems of the underlying Windows Mobile user interface.
With Windows Phone 7, this problem is a thing of the past, with a tightly integrated UI design based around what Microsoft is calling live tiles which are updated with information from background processes as can be seen in the picture:
Branching out from the tiled start menu screen is where things start getting more interesting, with six Windows Phone hubs available around which an assortment of content is clustered and integrated, the hubs bring together related content from the Web, applications and services into a single view to simplify common tasks and are built on specific themes reflecting activities that matter most to people, including People, Pictures, Games, Music + Video, Marketplace and Office.
The user experience is best explained by actually seeing it in action with this YouTube clip.
Choosing to tightly integrate so many features into the Windows Phone hubs is telling in so many ways. Rather than focus on a third party applications ecosystem like the iPhone, Microsoft have chosen to bundle as much as the user is likely to want to interact with in the Windows Phone ‘experience’, which has advantages, but is evidence of just how far Microsoft believes it is behind the vibrant iPhone App Store ecosystem.
Hardware partners around the world have committed to include Windows Phone 7 Series in their portfolio plans, including Telstra and Vodafone in Australia, plus manufacturers Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC Corp., HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm Inc.
To watch the full replay of Steve Ballmer’s press conference at Mobile World Congress, and to experience Windows Phone 7 Series through an online product demo, please visit: Windows Phone Demo.
I think it is difficult to judge just how good (or bad) Windows Phone is, without having one to play with. I do however still the same underlying hurdle that existed previously (and with PC versions of Windows) and this is hardware software integration. Apple has the advantage of controlling the hardware and software platforms with the iPhone and iPhone OS (much as it does with the Mac and OSX). With Windows Phone, you have numerous competing manufacturers, all with their differing views of what hardware it should and should not support, what functionality and API access should be available to them, and what core features the OS should include. In the end, you are left with Microsoft trying to appease everyone, and ultimately there ends up being compromise, and that stifles the potential of this new version of the OS. It has every reason to be successful, but I fear the compromises Microsoft will need to make to keep everyone happy will prevent it from fulfilling its full potential.
I think Michael points to a key dimension of Microsoft. The overlay of Windows onto a heterogeneous hardware ecosystem is the strength of Microsoft, as well as the cause of the many headaches.
Apple and Microsoft both have very distinct businesses and user bases, which they understand very well. And they both have a view of where Google belongs….
Interesting they didn’t go for the instant +1 over Apple by implementing flash.
@David Olsen, are you really that gullible that you just gobble up the Microsoft propaganda? The only reason why Microsoft currently focuses on the hub and their tile approach is because they know they can\’t compete head-on with a competitor that has a 300,000+ app store by the time this OS is launched.
Instead they say \”hey look, we combined everything you\’ll ever need inside out interface\”… then 12 months down the track if and when developers have some apps they will change their story to \”we found out that people still want standalone apps\” so we decided to integrate that as well.
Just remember when Balmer joked about the iPhone and it not having multi tasking and no physical keyboard. Well, isn\’t that actually what the OS / phone combo featured yesterday had?
I don\’t trust any of that PR until I have a phone in my hand and get to play around with a final version SDK… which I don\’t expect to appear for at least another year.
From the touch screens to the zoom in/out…I still feel that Microsoft is playing catch up to Apple. I’m still waiting for them to take the leap and try something different and go from following to leading…
@Tom
I think you will find I allude to MS integrating everything into the hub as evidence of their lack of third party app support in the second last paragraph. I actually totally agree with you, but I still think it\’s an innovative way to approach the lack of Apps problem.
A few things.
- A physical keyboard is an option, there will be dozens of variants in a variety of form factors, some with keyboards, some without. What\’s important for Microsoft is that they have set some good minimum standards, because even though Windows Mobile still has more units out in the market than the iPhone, it\’s so fragmented that you wouldn\’t know it.
- It will have flash. At least for certain in the browser, and possibly as applications, but that will depend on Adobe doing the same as they are planning for the next version of Flash for iPhone apps on WM. Microsoft doesn\’t have the same objection to running Flash in the browser as Apple does (it restricts their app store / iTunes revenue by giving you access to more content outside it).
- Clearly, Microsoft haven\’t felt the need to make everyone happy with this, at least not yet. There are many advantages that WM6.5 has over both this, and the iPhone, which Microsoft have declined to include to allow the consumer experience to be more polished (read, better battery life, and more stable applications). For one, like an un-jailbroken iPhone, it will be immune to malware / viruses. This comes at the cost of being able to load whatever you want on there unless you\’re a developer however.
Given development tools are out now, and the phone isn\’t launching until later, by launch there should be an amazing array of applications. The average iPhone user downloads just 8 (and we all know people myself included who have downloaded hundreds, so what does that say about the average non-technical user?). You could have just as easily said to the iPhone when it launched, that it would never catch up to the millions of WM apps, only it didn\’t have the advantage this does, where an existing massive code base was able to be used (.NET), and developers already trained in the core technologies, for years prior to release.
It\’s clear Microsoft, instead of taking the different direction Android has, have sought to neutralise ALL of the iPhones advantages, even at the cost of some of their own previous advantages, and then build from there.
The SDK is available now, it gives a very good idea of where this is heading, there are positives, and negatives, but it\’s clearly a revolution rather than evolution for Microsoft.
Rod,
I think you hit the nail on the head with your comment:
“It’s clear Microsoft, instead of taking the different direction Android has, have sought to neutralise ALL of the iPhones advantages, even at the cost of some of their own previous advantages, and then build from there.”
The consumer market is where the majority of smart phone sales are now, this differs from 10 years ago, when businesses where the only ones able to afford PC’s in your pocket. As such the focus on consumers and what they expect with a consistent phone experience is arguably more important than the lack of multitasking support or enterprise class features.
I see Microsoft’s relabeling of WM6.5 as ‘Windows Phone Classic’ as a clear indication that they want to position it as their enterprise class platform until WinPho7 matures, with enterprises being slower to replace legacy software that won’t run on the new OS.