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LG's Windows Phone 7 Series Early Prototype
suraj.sun writes to tell us that Engadget got an early look at the new Windows Phone 7 series early prototype (and included a video). "The QWERTY slider is the first branded Windows Phone 7 Series device the world's ever seen, and while the hardware and software are both obviously early, we can tell you a few things about it: it's just a hair thicker than an iPhone or Nexus One, there are dedicated hardware camera, volume, and power buttons in addition to the back, home, and search buttons dictated by Windows Phone 7 Series, and we noticed a five megapixel camera with a flash on the back, along with a headphone jack. Can't say much apart from that right now, since things are so early and everything is subject to change, but things are certainly moving along."
I've not seen a lot of the Win 7 Mobile UI but what I have seen suggests that Microsoft can't quite bring themselves to abandon desktop Windows style design elements in favor of things more appropriate to the small screen of a handheld.
This sums it up well. If you put those same screenshots next to an Android phone you'd have the same result. Win 7 Mobile wastes a lot of space and spends a lot of time looking whizzy, without really accomplishing anything. Animating every action was forgivable 10 years ago in bad powerpoint presentations. It isn't any longer.
FAR less information than this, routinely gets posted in the Apple section.
Who names this stuff? Windows Phone 7 Series? Microsoft has virtually unlimited resources. How can their marketing be so awful?
Android hit the nail on the head when it comes to device usability.
The programming structure that allows applications to easily call parts of other applications has delivered what I see as unprecedented inter-connectivity between mobile applications, which has increased mobile productivity for me on a personal level.
Example: I was out of town and looking for a Bank of America ATM. BoA has a mobile application for online banking that allows me to do all the usual things that I can do from my computer (see balances, transactions, do transfers between accounts, etc).
The application also had a location search. The application was able to grab my position from GPS and do a search for ATMs nearest to that location, display the results within the application using an instance of google maps. From there, I was able to select navigation and was asked if I wanted to complete the action using google navigation or telenav.
That type of action with start-to-finish prompting and inclusion from the device is the new standard in mobile usability as far as I'm concerned. Not too long ago I would have had to find the location online and type it into my navigation application manually, and depending on previous device the online search may have been quite tedious.
Now from what I've seen, WP7S seems to take that idea to the Nth degree, with a slick interface designed around that level of mobile productivity and usability.
I love the android platform, especially its "open-ness" (the degree of which varies depending on which device manufacturer and mobile network provider you go with), but I am certainly willing to reserve my judgment of WP7S until I can go hands-on with a device.
Holiday season this year will be interesting as my carrier (sprint) was listed as a launch partner for WP7S, and also looks to be launching an amazing 4.3" screen/1ghz processor android phone, both just as my upgrade comes up. I want the android phone, but I also want to see what WP7S has to offer before I make any decisions.
I would say if it is half as popular as the Zune, Microsoft has nothing to worry about.
If it's half as popular as Zune, Google/Apple/Nokia/Palm/etc have nothing to worry about.
I can't stand the WP7S UI, it just seems irritating. It's designed so nothing fits on the screen, even the date displayed on the pic in the article is truncated. To access anything you'll need to move horizontal and vertical.
It reminds me back in the days of 14" monitors. I remember that in Linux I could set up X to use a much higher resolution than the monitor supported and then you'd use the mouse to pan around the screen. I hated that then, I hate it now.
Make things fit on the screen where possible, scroll only when necessary.
Microsoft is just trying to look fancy with no thought on usability. You'd get tired of all this very quickly.
Let us consider: Microsoft is normally ridiculed for inferior products, yet frequently has dominant market share. So how is Microsoft marketing a failure?
Because Monopoly means you don't necessarily have to market (or market well), most customers are forced to come to you, like it or not.
For instance, there are still a fair number of people that MUST have Windows Mobile phones because that is what the corporation will buy for them.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Linking to Engadget is barely allowed at /.
Linking to Engadget stories with lame ass videos that don't even show the product is punishable by ruler slaps!
The thing about Symbian is that it really isn't a "global" player despite having a large marketshare. No matter what you think about the US it is a primary source of SW development as well as hype and branding. Nokia for some unknown reason has essentially abandoned the American market starting about 5 years ago. You can find them here and there but back in the day everybody owned a Nokia. Today it just simply isn't on the radar of Americans or more importantly the significant American software and services companies. You won't for instance ever see a Nokia featured in American TV or films. The smartphone industry is in many ways a popularity contest ignoring a significant market, especially one as culturally influential as the US is just plain dumb. Hopefully they will smarten up but until then the hype and interested will be on RIM, Apple, and Google. Mindshare is powerfull stuff.
First - yeah, US market is important but...don't overestimate its importance in relation to the rest of the world. It's quite atypical market. Look how well Nokia is doing in the rest of the world anyway, with them being the only major cellphone manufacturer that's very profitable (others are either out of the market, struggling financially, or mobile phones are far from vast majority of their business; RIM might be an exception - though do they sell phones or corporate/carrier service?)
Secondly, it's not much of a mystery why Nokia isn't really present in the US - several years ago (when mobiles really started becoming more than voice + sms) it refused excessive castration of its phones, which was demanded by US cellphone carriers...and there you go.
One that hath name thou can not otter