Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7 Lineup

adeelarshad82 writes "Microsoft officially unveiled its Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system, announcing that it will be available on a total of five devices in the US. Windows Phone 7 handsets from AT&T and T-Mobile will begin shipping in November, while devices from Sprint and Verizon will be available next year. In all, Microsoft announced nine Windows Phone 7 phones, the remainder of which will be available in Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Singapore, and Australia. It will debut in some European markets on Oct. 21. While early signs are encouraging for Windows Phone 7, it is being deemed as do or die for the future of Microsoft's business."

Comments

Re:Looking forward to it

[SpryGuy]

Sorry to disappoint you, but it's just me (not in any way associated with Microsoft except through using Win7 at work and at home) being honest about my feelings.

I loved the iPhone for a while. But iTunes has got to be one of the worst, most bloated, most annoying applications I've ever loaded on my PC (and that's saying something). I can't stand it. It sucks. Hard. And the iPhone seems to have gotten a little long in the tooth, falling behind Android in many areas, feeling very rigid and "controlled", with few choices.

I hope WP7 is successful, and that MS isn't brain-dead about it, and updates it agressively and listens to feedback and gets the apps it needs.

If WP7 flops, I'll go android for my next phone. But right now, my first choice would be WP7. I like what it has to offer... not as "wild west" as Android (with its mess of models and versions), and not as fascist and controlled as iOS (One True Way, One True Phone, Apple's Way Or The Highway). It seems to be a nice middle-ground, with an innovative UI and concept, very cloud-centric, and integration with things I actually use (like Mac OS X users will almost always prefer the iPhone due to the integration with what THEY use).

Re:Looking forward to it

[SpryGuy]

They're way better at incorporating other 3rd parties into their ecosystem than Apple, and it's "all Apple Lock-in"...

Again, MS is sort of a happy medium between iOS and Android.

Re:Why not go straight to Android?

[SpryGuy]

Well, ZunePass isn't "just" renting music.

Basically you can listen to any of millions of tracks at any time.

And every month, you get to download and KEEP ten MP3 tracks. Which you OWN.

So for the price of about a CD a month, you can listen to anything, sample anything, and then pick ten tracks to OWN. If you want to OWN more, you can buy them as you wish, AFTER you've listened to them and know that you really want them.

So... I guess I'm not seeing the down-side much.

Re:Here is my opinion

[randallman]

Same here. Be it .NET, SQL Server, Windows, Office, or whatever comes from MS, they all serve as lock-in tools. Take SQL Server for instance. The only major database that isn't cross-platform. It's based on Sybase, which originated on UNIX, so they should have been able to offer a UNIX version and may have been very profitable. The reason they don't is because it doesn't fit their larger business plan, which is to force users to use MS for everything. As long as they have desktop and office monopolies, they'll do this. We'll see them start to play nicely as soon as they lose their monopoly (as we're beginning to see with I.E.). This is the biggest reason I avoid MS.

Next is their despicable behavior, like what they did in the OOXML ISO debacle. I'll consider MS when they start completing fairly and introduce some ethics into their business. They could start by offering their software on other platforms in the cases where it would be profitable.

Re:Why not go straight to Android?

[SpryGuy]

I buy at least 12 CDs a year. Add to that the ability to listen to any song I like at any time, and it's a total deal, IMHO. Also, the Zune Social is pretty interesting and useful (unlike "ping"), and allows you to easily share music with friends who are also on ZunePass.

If you're not that into music, then of course it's not a good deal for you. But it's totally optional, so you don't HAVE to pay for ZunePass if you don't want it.