Windows 7 Series Phone
I have to say Microsoft surprised me with their new mobile Windows OS. I wasn’t expecting much, but I guess this shows that Microsoft can still move if they want to. Well, it still took about 3 years from the release of the iPhone so it wasn’t fast. Microsoft came up with a whole new interface designed from the ground up for phones. It looks quite impressive. They’ve also integrated the zune store into the phone, xbox live, facebook and their sharepoint software from what I’ve heard. They’ve also taken a lot more control of the hardware requiring certain minimum specs and button layout. They also aren’t allowing makers or phone companies to skin the OS. It’s a very apple approach, but it means users will have similar experiences on all the phones and should make it easier for developers too. I’m not sure what restrictions developers will have or how they’ll be enforced, but there will be some. What’s bad about it? The screen, maybe. It’s higher resolution than the iPhone. That’s good, although more expensive. It also uses a taller thinner layout. More like a candy bar phone. For those that think the iPhone is too wide this is probably a good thing, but a narrow screen may mean text is harder to read, or that it’s smaller fonts. With as much as I read it’s a concern to me. Based on the screens I’ve seen so far and video I have some concerns on the interface. It doesn’t seem like there is as much information per screen and that you often have to dig through more layers. Well just hve to wait and see. Lastly is the lack of Mac support. I think the iPod and iPhone have played a major roll in getting people to switch to the mac. From all accounts Windows 7 seems nice. To get some people to move back they need a way to open the door and this phone would probably be a good way. No way to use it OS X or Linux. A mistake in my opinion. Apple will continue to whittle away an expand to new cusomers with the ipad. There is a lot good with the phone too, but I won’t cover that here. Glad to see them putting some serious pressure on Apple and I’ll be curious how they respond. Ah, I forgot one thing. The iPhone OS scales up nicely to a tablet. Unfortunately looking at this interface I don’t really think we can say the same for microsoft’s newest effort. I don’t think Windows 7 will succeed for the same reason as versions in the past. I have to wonder if Apple, and to some extent Google, and caught Microsoft with their pants down again. If so I hope it doesn’t take them 3 years to deliver an answer. (well actually 4 since these phones won’t be shipping until the end of this year)
2 years ago
