In short, it looks like Microsoft finally figured out that mobile phones are vastly different than PCs, and it stopped trying to make Windows Mobile just a tiny version of Windows 95. Gone is the silly "Start" menu on every screen, blue sky desktop background, and beveled user interface. Thank goodness.
In its place: A very simple, very clean user interface, designed purely for mobile devices. And a well-thought focus on people, social networking, photos, music, video, and games.
Important:
- We're happy that Microsoft didn't just try to clone the iPhone experience. That likely would have been dreadful, and Microsoft has no job trying to be Apple. Instead, it's showing off that it still has one of the broadest ecosystems in the technology industry, with built-in, mobile-tailored support for Outlook, Office, syncing to Windows PCs, and its multimedia services like Zune and Xbox. (And strong support for third-party social networking like Facebook and multimedia like Pandora.)
- We're especially excited for what Microsoft might be able to do to integrate its popular Xbox live gaming service with the devices. Games have been especially popular on Apple's rival iPhone platform, and if Microsoft is going to have a shot at finally cracking the consumer market -- and rivaling upstarts like Google Android -- it's going to have to offer an awesome gaming experience.
- Microsoft also suggested that it will have broad support from device makers and carriers, which is crucial for this to work and for Microsoft to sell a lot of units. Big-time manufacturers like LG and Samsung are among Microsoft's partners, and about a dozen carrier companies worldwide, including the four major U.S. carriers: AT&T, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and T-Mobile. AT&T -- currently Apple's exclusive partner -- will be Microsoft's premier partner in the U.S.
- Biggest potential roadblock: Windows Phone 7 Series won't ship until much later this year, around the holidays. There's still a lot of time between then and now, which will allow Apple, Android, and other rivals to continue to improve.
- Still lots of unknowns. What is the App Store experience like? Which developers are going to make apps for these devices? How fast is the OS on a reasonably priced device? How good is the Web browser? When will developers get access to a SDK?
There's still a lot between today's unveiling and eventual commercial success for Microsoft. Devices will have to be attractive and priced right, and Microsoft and its partners will have to figure out a marketing message to get consumers interested. It's still possible, of course, that this will be a commercial flop.
But Microsoft at least showed today that it's not dead. It's capable of producing something on its own that's good enough to compete in the mobile industry. There were no moments during Microsoft's presentation today when we cringed in embarrassment, which is progress for Redmond's mobile division.
And now, Steve Ballmer might not have to buy RIM after all.
Remember when these guys were relevant?
You have to go back a ways...
Let's hope they execute smartly.....shrewdly.
It's amazing how long this stuff is taking Microsoft, given the Billions of $ they have to throw at any problem. Our $...
YEAH!! OKAY!!
It is coming out on T-mobile this year.
So if MS can't get their historically biggest US customer on board, what chance do they have with WinMo#7? Is it just going to be a niche product on off-brand phones?
The New Windows Phone: Guaranteed to be the most virus & bug infested phone on the planet!
This may have worked for IBM but the handset industry is far from being a monopoly. Moreover, as was pointed out, by the time WinMob finally comes out, at least one more generation of iPhones will be released.
So, there is the high likelihood that WinMob will then be not two years behind but three years behind.
The poor people at Microsoft have not come to grips with the major problems: slavish reliance on monopoly dominance and consequent gross lack of any innovation culture.
As handset velocity accelerates, look for the Redmond mess to fall further behind. Simply, you cannot innovate if you never learned how. Embrace, engulf and defeat may work as a monopolist but it is useless where real innovation is required.
between, do you see a new pattern:
win7, bing, now win phone.
do you want to keep yourself in eternal denial like you guys did with bing (first share will fall with ads gone, then share will fall if not for toolbar deals etc...)
There are elements within Microsoft's giant conglomerate that do indeed know how to innovate. The real problem is that Microsoft gets in it's own way. They are aware of the problem though. They finally had to come to grips that the Zune team knew what they were doing and they had to do a Zune phone if they wanted to compete in mobile. So the windows mobile team got dumped.
They now have a chance. It's a slim one. But a real chance now to compete. They are attacking weaknesses in both the iPhone OS's design and in Android's design.
I hope they are successful because that will mean more choice for the consumer and better products from all the vendors including Apple and Google.
The price points are $100 per CAB file submission -they do not want to be like the app-store from a quality perspective or lack thereof.
I said it on this site several times, discount MSFT at your peril, I seen these shots about 8 months ago -btw WM7 as it was called up until just before christmas is completely different- from a publisher perspective, they have actually been incredibly open in terms of giving advance access to the SDK and have actually spent the last year love bombing every major publisher out there.
Also with the XBLA aspect -i.e. being able to play XBLA titles across both platforms- is incredibly compelling and has never been done before.
The strange thing is that people have always asserted that MSFT failed, but 10% of the smart phone market really is pretty good.
Personally I am glad to see such vibrant competition in the space.
By my tally I see:
Blackberry -still very relevant to the business community.
iPhone OS
Android
Wondows Phone OS
Symbian (plus the new Intel/Nokia OS)
WebOS
That is pretty decent!
This reads like a ringing endorsement. With almost a year to go, there is almost infinite potential for MSFT to (ahem) "modify" or "extend" or "enhance" its WinMob7 offering.
For an enterprise that has had such an oceanic record of recent failure: Vista, SPoT, Encarta, LiveSearch/Bing, Xbox, WinMob, Money, etc., no confidence or any kind can be uttered.
Simply, each day of use reinforced the idea that the company producing the software was a hulking monopolistic mess whose entire ethos was infused with to-hell-with-them, they-have-no-alternative, monopoly-dry-rot thinking. The hardware quality, if it can be believe, was even worse than the software.
After years of this junk, i found the iPhone. Simply, the physical reality of the iPhone dissolves away so that the user and the device become a single entity seamlessly integrated in accomplishing tasks easily. My WinMob devices were constantly getting in the way of what I wanted to do.
Do you have days for me to tell you how bad the WinMob web browser was? Words fail me when describing how downright awful anything from WinMob was. Calling it excrement gives waste matter a bad name.
I once owned an Oldsmobile also. To me, the vast majority of work done by MSFT does not even qualify to compare to that automobile or worth testing. It is simply mediocre junk that is stupid from start to finish because the people there are living in a monopoly never-never land where they can endlessly feed off of decades old abusive practices results with no consequences.
If I was given a WinMob device, I would instantly discard it based upon my extremely poor experience. Why waste more time on anything from MSFT when so much in the past was simply junk. Like GM, MSFT has produced far too much junk for me to give it another chance. MSFT can never be any better than the old GM.
But that was then and this is now. It is no longer 2007. It's 2010 and the industry has learned a lot from Apple. Both what Apple has done tremendously well with the iPhone...as well as it's flaws.
The competition is under tremendous pressure now to come out with not with just clones (which clearly isn't working) but with actually new types of software and hardware that not only exceeds What cupertino is doing but to surpass it.
I'm telling you right now man, Apple had better stop becoming complacent and make iPhone OS 4.0 shine like there is no tomorrow!
Apple is a company that understands competition like few others. It has provided an alternative to Bloatware for several decades when there was only MSFT.
It began working on handsets when MSFT had locked up dozens of hardware manufacturers with WinMob. Nokia and others warned Apple that it would not "simply walk in".
Apple has been anything BUT complacent in its offerings. It has updated its OS several times (for free!) over the past few years, something MSFT has never done. (What the hell, think the MSFers, they have no alternative so we'll force them to buy a new device if they want the "benefits" of a new MSFT WinMob OS.)
So far, everything that has come from MSFT for handheld devices has been, at best, third rate. MSFT has had ten years to produce an outstanding handheld device software package and all it has produced is retrospective, clumsy junk.
Given its decades old reputation, across a wide variety of products and markets, for producing mindless junk, is there any reason to believe it will do better now? Perhaps it can provide in 2011 what the iPhone provided in 2007? This is progress?
As I said above, if I were given a WinMob device, I would instantly junk it the same way I would refuse to drive a Lada or a Trabant. Why waste your time on such obvious discarded refuse?
Simply: if Microsoft makes it, I do not want it.
MSFT has, by now, such a badly damaged reputation for so many products that de facto it is not worth my time to give it any trial no matter what is reported about them. The product offering from MSFT is starting to take on the characteristics of those of GM: such awful junk that users simply will no longer even try them. After SPoT, Vista, Xbox, etc., no one can disagree.
Exactly.
Bing is an ever suckling baby that will never grow without that marketing tit "anon".
Open is good. But Android is too open to the point where carriers and manufacturers can alter the OS to point where there would be compatibility problems between android phones. And while it is good that the consumer has the choice to side load apps, there is the need for a centralized syncing system beyond the android marketplace. I mean, it's confusing that the nexus one is running android 2.1 and the Droid Eris (or whatever phone) is not?
The carriers should not roll out OS upgrades on their schedule. Google should roll out updates to all android phones the minute a user sync's their handset. Let the carriers send their little upgrades to Google to be distributed through Google's servers alone!
Three years after the iPhone, two years after the launch of Android, one year after Palm, Microsoft Phone 7 Series is 6-9 months away from happening. That is really exciting! So they threw out their entire effort from before to launch something new? What did that cost shareholders? Inexhaustable supply of money burned and vulnerable to Google in the cloud. Where is the real innovation on Microsoft's new (potential) phone? No real multitasking, no ability to really customize, manufacturers to work under Microsoft rules, The Zune rules? Microsoft hoping that history of being late and successful v apple will repeat itself. And the Google ecosystem will take some serious catching up to do by Microsoft while it defends its license fee arrangements. Good luck. Where is the Buzz? (Not a patch on Google!).
But MSFT didn't show us everything about the new OS yet. We haven't seen how 3rd party apps would work so you can't just blurt out about it not having multitasking....yet.
And this was an OS event so they didn't show any hardware at all. That will come at another event.
But they really really need to execute correctly on this one.
Apple will likely not have a new iPhone until July so if Microsoft can pull this together, get some attractive devices with a low price they could make something out of it. The GUI is what it needs to be now .. will all the other parts work?
While Apple will market apps to death it's still early in this phase of mobility and research has shown adoption of apps is not as great as people seem to think. There will likely be the same apps that matter to joe consumer across every mobile platform so it will come down to carrier preference/coverage & price. I have little faith apple will launch cross carrier anytime soon (why lost that fat subsidy price at&t pays) and that will be their mistake as every other platform gets footing.
Xbox Live has a good user base and if they could get hardware to run some of the games they will appeal to that segment. Zune intergration is a nice add-on and has something Apple doesn't - monthly music subscription. Many people prefer that and it wouldn't be difficult to include ebooks into the mix if that market really takes off.
I'd like to see this OS on a tablet - it could go toe - toe with iPad and visual actually looks nicer and has all the applications people already use at work. If I can think it - I'm sure someone else has brought it up.
Wish they put out some specs on hardware but with Nvidia and Intel both bringing 3D hardware rendering the next generation smartphone (if they can still be called such) could see huge application changes.
"Apple will likely not have a new iPhone until July so if Microsoft can pull this together"
Which part of not shipping until christmas didn't you understand?
Not forgetting that some people have played with it (the guys at tech crunch) and said "The build we checked out was really buggy – but considering that they’ve got almost a full year to patch it up, I’m not too worried at this point." So it isn't ready.
I think personally that this is too clever. Not sure if older people are going to get it the way they get the iPhone. But hey it is early days yet.
The real question is, when the phone companies can get a Google phone for free, what makes them want to pay Microsoft for an OS?
Also with all the diversification that will come with this thing will people understand it?
I think the difference will be Microsoft is likely going to take a page from Apple. Want the Xbox Live intergration? Only on WinMo7 .. etc. They also have the money to make some exclusive app partnerships.
I think the new UI has potential - if / when they do anything with it. Like I said they need everything else to work and deliver under $249. No word on hardware specs and mixed feedback if you can multi-task or not.
For me having to manage mobile devices I question how / if Microsoft will allow that. What if I didn't want Xbox Live enabled? etc. They kinda jumped around showing 80% consumer stuff and 20% business. The SharePoint intergration could be interesting.
Yes, it may be "early in this phase of mobility" but MSFT is NOW EVEN FURTHER BEHIND, as they have orphaned all the existing WinMo apps, which will not be compatible with WinPhone.
As for carrier subsidy, noone has shown that Apple will lose that if they allow Verizon to sell the iPhone. It hasn't happened in other countries with multiple sales channels.
How many of those children who have Xbox Live are going to be buying an expensive cellphone with expensive data contract?
WinPhone huggers unite!
If they kept it windows "mobile" then it would be an easy sell for this OS to run on a tablet type of device.
Or better yet, a courier type of folding device.
Hey MSFT, come out with a mobile computer product that folds like that courier of yours but without that big hinge in the middle. Make the screen display fold with that new flexible display tech running in those labs in asia.
Then put Windows phone 7 series on there and beat Steve Jobs to death with it! :P
It's almost like the guys at Microsoft said "How can we beat the iPhone? - I know let's have everything multitask." This is an interesting approach but I think it will be too confusing for real people to understand.
The problem as I see it is that Microsoft have come up with this solution and have convinced themselves that it is the way to go. This leads one to wonder IF it is the way to go.
It's a solution, the question is was their really a problem that required it in the first place.
Oh they'll keep telling you you do. How great everything is completely integrated but then if Google had privacy issues with Buzz - what sort of hitherto complications by integrating everything will this thing have? (Privacy issues, etc. etc.)
Also it seems strange that while Apple are pulling away from the "near me" approach and telling devs not to use it unless it is essential that this OS seems to take the location thing to the next level and giving you answers which are close by.
If you think Verizon will 1. pay the same amount ot Apple and 2. agree to all Apple's terms you clearly don't know big red. The only chance of Verizon is once LTE is around and a nice fat VZW logo is pasted on the iPhone.
Funny how all those same kids are assumed to be potential iPhone / Touch users. The average age of Xbox 360 / live is actually in the mid-20's so I think they know exactly who to appeal to.
The actually did the total opposite to what you are saying.
They saw a problem that was growing in the new types of smartphone OSes Apple has pioneered and that is that going in and out of singular apps are becoming way to cumbersome. And that there is now a need to integrate services seemlessly so that you don't think about apps but what you want to accomplish.
Having several key apps have the ability to integrate their services with one another in a way that is simple to the eye and mind is the way smartphones should be going in my opinion.
Now if they can only do this somehow with 3rd party apps then Microsoft will really be on to something here.
The real kicker now is to see what Apple is going to do (if anything) with the iPhone OS 4.0. If Apple is lazy with their new OS as they were with the iPad design then the competition will not only catch up but will pass Apple.
Remember, it was when Apple became complacent and took their advantage for granted that they started making mistakes which lost them the original OS war.
The WWDC this year will be a very important even for Apple much more so than the iPad launch.
I'm personally cheering for Apple on this front but there is no question that the success of the iPhone has triggered a bit of an onslaught. Google wants some of that. It lit a fire under Microsoft's considerable belly and they're no longer the sleeping giant.
Apple is dangerously close at getting soft right now. More money in the bank than ever, top of their field in terms of the leading edge, more market share than the company has had in its history, looking at passing Microsoft's market cap this year -- these are the conditions for hubris to set in.
Hubris is how Apple fell the first time. Hubris is how Microsoft toppled IBM. Hubris is why Microsoft initially ignored Netscape. Hubris is why Netscape was unprepared for Microsoft's awakening. Hubris is why Microsoft initially ignored Apple's inroads while Apple was dominating unchallenged.
So the next 2 years are pivotal. NO ONE can afford to get soft and NO ONE can take their position for granted. They all must be "constructively paranoid" as Andy Grove would put it.
Windows Phone 7 is late at hell but not irrelevant -- especially if they start to show some ACTUAL leadership in thinking up a different paradigm than just copying Apple. I'm not sure if I agree with their concept of being task-centric instead of app-centric (which is simply easier to scale and monetize) yet but I applaud that they're trying to do their own thing. I even agree with the comment that the iPad was a bit of a lazy design. I really think they should have aimed higher with that product. It should have introduced some next level that would have trickled down into the iPhone and iPod Touch products eventually and given those product lines a whole other cycle. They clearly missed an opportunity there.
Microsoft has a long way of making up for a lot of lost ground but they are making some good moves lately. Bing was the laughing stock at launch and it is quickly becoming a very respectable search tool. Window 7 copied most of its best features from Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard but at last they have a respectable OS again and can put Vista behind them. This was a very needed aspect of the model because prior to this release, Windows Mobile was so woefully behind the state of the art of cellular smartphones that lacking this the only clear next move was for Microsoft to leave the mobile business. This keeps them in the game.
Apple needs to treat this moment much like the time when most of the world had written them off. If they want to continue to have their place in the sun, they need to earn it all over again because Microsoft, Google, and others want that coveted top spot and they are the ones who have something to prove this time around.
VAPORWARE> LOL
This is the weak link. So many of MSFT's existing partners have left already for Android or are cutting back on their relationship.
Just look at Samsung. They have already announced their mobile roadmap, and they are moving from 90% WinMo, to 50% this year, and 20% by 2012. They are replacing Win Phone with Android, and Bada, their own Linux based OS.
So, saying MSFT has Samsung on board is a bit like saying they plugged a leak in the Titanic. It's still going down.
And, while LG hasn't stated their roadmap as clearly as Samsung, they have already announced over a dozen Android phones for launch this year. Who else is going to make a Win Phone?
Palm? No.
RIM? No.
Apple? No.
Sony Ericsson? Maybe.
Motorola? Probably a few, but less than before.
Nokia? Nope.
Samsung? Less and less.
LG? Less.
HTC? Probably, but less than before.
Is there anyone else in the top-10 mfrs who have announced that they are going to make as many WinPhone models as in the past? None that I know of. Until MSFT can show they have produced something that actually attracts customers, they have not turned the corner. How do they expect to SELL their OS, when Android is free?
And, about that BING button, does that mean users can't use other search engines? Can the button be reprogrammed? Do OEMs really want to build a phone where they are forced to build in specific buttons?
Good luck to MSFT. It'll be nice to see another viable OS, but I'd wait before declaring them back in business because they have not hit bottom yet. If anything, they've just Osborne'd themselves. Who wants to buy a WinMo 6.5 or 6.1 phone now? They just orphaned all those existing models, including Samsung's flagship Omnia 2.
Windows mobile 6.5 and older needed to die a cruel quick death anyway. Yes, MSFT is fighting an uphill, underdog type of battle. Hopefully, they will innovate their way out of this deep hole. that will just mean better products and services for the consumer.
"It's capable of producing something on its own that's good enough to compete in the mobile industry." Insert the word "potentially" in front of capable and I'd agree. It's a long way from a demo to market.
Anyone cares at all?
' I'm sorry, Cupertino, but Microsoft has nailed it. Windows Phone 7 feels like an iPhone from the future. The UI has the simplicity and elegance of Apple's industrial design, while the iPhone's UI still feels like a colorized Palm Pilot.'
By the end of the year when it is supposedly coming out noone will even remember...
Handset makers will pay very little for Windows Mobile 7. This will be another MSFT product that will run in the red for the purpose of gaining market share. The economics are just not there.
Amazing how low the bar was set for MSFT on this one. It is a great success because it doesn't suck....tech blogs are actually saying that today !
The mobile space is Apple's to lose and Google's to win.
Microsoft only knows how to cash paychecks from their Enterprise space dominance.
They can't compete in the mobile space.
Goog only knows how to cash paychecks from their Search space dominance.
Apple only know how to cash paychecks from their iPhone space dominance.
However, Apple's iPhone is not the market leader. It's #2 (about 25% and rising), just after RIM's Blackberry (which has a commanding lead of the smart phone market at 42%)
Android is in last place behind Palm (6%), at 5%. However, it is very quickly gaining momentum (doubling market share during the 4th quarter of 09).
RIM is the one with the most to lose, not MSFT.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/188904/iphone_and_android_market_share_on_the_rise.html
i just have two suggestions for Microsoft: Deliver what you promised and lock up Balmer in a closet and never let him out in public again.
I don't trust these guys. They make you feel trapped in their OS learning curve.
And if you don't fear Microsoft and Google as competitors, then your just a fool.