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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."
So they really expect to take over the market share that RIM/Apple/Android have over the cellphone industry? From what I've read it's a step forward for the windows mobile OS but it's not going to tear anything up. And this from a .net developer who loves his Droid X.
Hold up, wait a minute, let me put some pimpin in it
If they don't get traction with 7, they can do 8. Or buy Nokia or RIM out of couch-cushion change. Or several dozen other ways to buy into the market that I haven't thought of but I'm sure someone in Redmond has, singly or in combination.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I've played with a developer phone in the last month and I'm currently an iPhone user. I have to say I think they're on to something. I like the iPhone, but I'm probably going to switch to WP7 in November. The integration between app and data is an order of magnitude higher than any other phone out there.
http://chicagodave.wordpress.com
Electronics Arts also announced the first wave of games coming to Windows Phone 7, including "Need for Speed Undercover," "Tetris," and "The Sims 3." Tetris? That's a launch title? Ouch. Need for speed came preinstaleld on my droid, much to my annoyance. Wonder how much bloatware MS is going to get crammed in their OS.
Microsoft has been making pretty awesome products lately. I'm afraid, though, that many of them are failing because of their image, and in fact this is the very reason that I'm not even going to consider getting a Windows Phone 7 in the near future. Even if it is a better underlying platform than Android, the community will be what makes or breaks it, and to the community, Microsoft just isn't cool enough anymore.
Sure Steve. Except it was last weekend.
A real blast from what I hear.
mini's been saying the same thing - that WP7 is the product that will hopefully tie Microsoft together (but comments are weighing heavily towards the "or else" scenario)
KIN3 FTW !!!
-- Barbie
Where is cut and paste and multitasking?
It will be interesting to see if Microsoft can get any buzz with this. It has to be better than IOS, Android, and WebOS. It is only available in the US on AT&T and maybe TMobile. So on AT&T will people buy it over the iPhone? Will AT&T push it much? TMobile is the smallest carrier but they are a good carrier. Will they push it over Android since they have a long record with Android and the G2 has just launched?
Microsoft is just in a very bad position. It isn't like the XBox where they came from nothing. They have a product that for the most part is boring and have been beaten up by both Apple and Android in this market.
Unless WP7 is just super great it will be blah... Or to put it better it will be the Next of Kin.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
MS still controls the desktop, and lots of high end business market. That is a very solid, very profitable market. Then of course there's their office suite, game console, and so on. Having a strong mobile market would do nothing but help them for sure, but if you think they have to "do it or die" you've got your head in the sand. MS is doing just fine.
Wow. Just... wow. The HTC surround actually has a slide-out speaker (from Yamaha!)? I can't think of anything I want less in a cell phone. Maybe they should come out with an HTC ButteredPopcorn with a slide-out popcorn popper so I have something to snack on while reading all the (apparently deserved) MS-bashing around these phones.
... to apps I develop on my own phone, I'm out.
And I really, really wanted one of these things, too. Maybe they'll come around and change their policy, but until then, I'm sticking with my dumbphone.
I saw a demonstration of Windows 7 Mobile last week. Microsoft decided to remove the VPN client and remote desktop features that were available in previous versions of Windows Mobile. But the award for lamest concept by a large margin was replacing cut and paste with auto-complete. That didn't go over to well during the Excel Viewer demonstration where people were asking how you transferred formulas from one cell to another.
Please take it from my lengthy, extremely painful, dissatisfied experience. Never buy a Windows Mobile phone. Ever. I don't care WHAT they might have done to this version of the software, I can guarantee you it will not work a fraction as well as any alternatives.
I own an HTC Mogul PPC6800. I have never experienced a product so poor, so lacking in quality and completely failing to fulfill its most primary functions. Every day I have to use it I wonder to myself how it was even released. I have never seen such a poor product even be allowed to enter consumer hands in exchange for money. It is just that bad.
I felt this would be a good topic with which to share that experience.
when you can type up a report and run a spreadsheet (comfortably!) on a phone, then it's time to worry.
"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 don't know if you haven't really read anything about WP7, but it is cloning the Old iPhone, no "cut n' Past", no real multi-tasking, no flash, no side loading applications.
If iPhone "rigid and controlled" is bothering you, it won't change much in WP7, why not go to Android. What do you think WP7 will give you that Android won't?
I'm not really all that much "into" phones -- I use them for occasional note-taking, voice recording, and of course texting and talking. I don't care about Facebook or Twitter integration. The one thing I do care about with the new phones here is the Xbox Live integration. As a gamer who has been bitten by the "Achievement Points" bug (which I totally defend and feel no shame over, but that's another post), I look forward to playing portable games that can affect my Gamerscore, or that integrate in some way with the major console titles. This is the deal-maker for me. I'm not sure it will be for others (Games For Windows Live doesn't seem all that popular).
My problem with Microsoft is that they insist on programming everything in-house and lock you in to in-house networks and in-house apps. I prefer a rich ecosystem like the iPhone and Android where people can make their own apps and have them integrate into your social networking life.
Microsoft - once again - seems to want to make all your decisions for you and shove all their products down your throat.
I seriously wonder how many Microsofties will eat their company's dogfood and geniunely love it.
Y
If you're into such gadgets and still don't have a smartphone (unlikely), other platforms offer better phones, more apps and a wider support and probably look better too...
Is it just me or is 10mm hardly thin for a 'thinnest' these days - after all, iPhone 4 is 9.3mm...
If you already have a capable phone - I can't really think of a single feature that could be considered an upgrade over latest in Symbian, Android or iOS...
I prefer the Microsoft tools. That's not to say I wouldn't get an Android if I had to pick a smartphone, but .NET development is just easier (and the tools are just better) than what Google offers.
(I program in both Java and C# for a living, so it's not an issue of familiarity, just an honest preference)
I'm not going to talk heavily about whether or not Windows Phone 7 is a good consumer phone. Only time will tell what kind of market adoption it will have verses the iPhone, Android, and Blackberries already present in the market.
I will, however, bemoan the complete lack of enterprise-ready features. Support for Exchange and and Office are good, but it's still a step backward from Windows Mobile 6.5. There's no support for 3rd party or enterprise apps. No mention of tethering or security certificates. Enterprise features such as have been promised at a future date, but I need a enterprise ready phone now. Maybe the Windows mobile 6.5 platform can be stretched to cover this need another year or two. But at this point, they're very little reason not to accept the reduced set of enterprise features and move to Android or the iPhone.
In its rush to grab a chunk of the consumer market, Microsoft may lose what market it had in the enterprise world.
Shameless plug for my photos on Flickr
I got nauseous from the swipe interface.
Simple question, how will I effectively keep my 100+ apps/games organize with this interface? I know there's a "hub", but all my games is be games and then I'll have to scroll through pages and pages of icons.
Some other rather solid MS products (if a little developer oriented):
Reading slashdot one-liner: (irm http://rss.slashdot.org/Slashdot/slashdot).rdf.item | fl title,desc*
Microsoft added Angry Birds to Windows Phone 7 site, Angry Birds developer say WTF!!!!??? They are so interested in making Windows 7 Mobile OS popular, they are making one sided friendships.
"Some people had hardware issues -- oh no"
A 65 percent failure rate on a piece of consumer hardware?
A 1 percent failure rate would be insane. That would be 1 out of every 100 consoles consistently failed. Well made consoles like the PS3, Wii, PS2, GameCube have failure rates in the sub .1 percent range.
The Xbox 360 is a piece of garbage. Microsoft knew it was defective before they rushed it out the door back in 2005 and did nothing to fix the inherent design defects.
Microsoft deserves the hate of gamers and the console world. They are reaping what they sowed. The console world has prided itself that it was gaming that just worked. You plugged your new console in at the start of a generation and it kept working to the end of the generation. Microsoft' piece of garbage Xbox 360 made a mockery of that concept.
30-40% is "some"?
I'll admit, I'm no fan of Windows 7 (I actually bought Pro edition for my gaming PC) but the only thing Microsoft proved with the 360 is that gamers will buy crap if you put a headset and gamer scores on it. While the controller is a neat setup (I had a N-64 "Super Pad 64" that was pretty much a dead ringer for the 360 left side and I loved it) you cannot still be oblivious to the fact that more than "some" of the 360s were terrible build quality.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
iTunes has got to be one of the worst, most bloated, most annoying applications I've ever loaded on my PC
Have you tried Media Monkey? You can sync your files and not have to worry about iTunes (although it still has to be installed). I use it almost exclusively for all my media files.
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
Definitely a shill. Been waving the blue, red, green & yellow flag since the Win7 beta: http://slashdot.org/~SpryGuy
He just LOVES the office ribbon too.
So, are we going to need Windows Phone 7 Professional to be able to make phone calls and Windows Phone 7 Ultimate to have cut and paste?
What's crappy about it? As a game matching service, it seems to work well enough...not to mention the ton of stuff you have access to with a free account.
Living With a Nerd
MS didn't show it in the demo (that I saw).
The quality of the browser is paramount. Do we know if it's any good? Their last one sure wasn't.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
WINDOWS 1.0 TILES! WINDOWS 1.0 TILES! WINDOWS 1.0 TILES!
yeah, the act's old, but so is that interface.
don't forget to tip the waiters! -- I'll be here 5 to life, tell your friends.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
CEO Ivan said so last week. they can't keep what they've got in stock, and they can't comment in any way on the VeriPhone rumors, and they're finishing up 38 cities of LTE expansion, so they've really got a full plate.
and they've not got the bad taste of the Kin out yet, either.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
A tactic against which cloud-syncing devices like the Palm Pre are technically immune.
And there's a big risk that"#6)" on your list becomes something like "get once again sued for the bazillionth time for monopoly abuse, as usual".
And there's a big chance that they'll actually *DO* this.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Are many of you just taking an opportunity to bash Microsoft, or are you bashing the platform? There's a difference, and for those that claim the latter, I'd really like to hear something more concrete and relevant.
As long as I have to pay $99 ... to apps I develop on my own phone, I'm out
Discover Windows Phone 7 Development
1.Download the Windows Phone Developer Tools.
2.Create your Windows Phone app.
3.Test it in the Windows Phone Emulator.
4.Sell it in the Marketplace.
The - Free - Windows Phone Tools:
[Vista and Windows 7 Only]
Visual Studio 2010 Express For Windows Phone
Windows Phone Emulator
Silverlight For Windows Phone
XNA Game Studio 4.0
Expression Blend 4 For Windows Phone.
Visual Studio Express 2010 For Microsoft Phone
Channel 9
Windows Phone 7 Developer Training Kit
Getting started with Windows Phone
Silverlight for Windows Phone
XNA Framework 4.0 for Windows Phone
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'm confused. What do you need iTunes for, exactly?
You can use Media Monkey to sync your media onto your iPhone. With iOS 4 you can create playlists on the phone.
You can download and install apps from the phone. After buying an app on one device you can download it free on another with the same account (why doesn't this apply to media?).
The only reason you'd need iTunes would be to perform backups and to activate your phone the first time you use it. Considering that backups don't actually back up everything (definitely a negative, Apple, I'm looking at app settings and information), you really just need iTunes once.
The last time I synced my iPod Touch was mid June, and the last time I synced my iPhone was August 2nd, when I upgraded to iOS 4.
And this is on a Mac, where iTunes is a staple!
Xbox 360 is actually doing well right now by any measure
Except for profit/loss measure which is a big measure in any business.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
New rule: obvious console fanboys (or anti-fanboys) may not accuse anybody else of being fanboys.
It's just too cute.
Here's some hard data, best I can find in 5 minutes, on the relative failure rates, which are much less drastic than you propose:
http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_Xbox360_PS3_Wii_Reliability_0809.pdf
From a quick look, I can see a news article from mid-2007 (so about 6 months after release) that claimed a 1% failure rate for Wii and PS3, which as far as I can see comes from district of EB game stores counting their returns, and who also reported a failure rate of the early 360's (the much worse ones) at between 25% and 33%, from an interview with "ripten", which I had never heard of before.
If that's your source -- and it shouldn't be, since it's not recent and is comparing ~8 months at most to years, and is not really well-substantiated, but let's give it to you -- then it's intellectually dishonest to give 65% as the failure rate to the 360.
A quick search shows the only source that gives a failure rate as bad as 65% for the 360 is one showing that that's basically the *pre-production factory reject rate*, which is not related to the retail failure rate (http://gamer.blorge.com/2008/09/06/in-depth-expos-reveals-microsofts-xbox-360-failure-rate-was-68/).
Anecdote time!
My grandma bought xboxes for me and two cousins shortly after they came out. One cousin's xbox failed; the replacement did not fail, and the other xboxes haven't failed. Odds of that are about 7% assuming a 65% failure rate. Maybe we're just lucky.
Does anybody know if Windows 7 will be restricted to running applications bought through their official marketplace (like iPhones are)? I hadn't heard much about this issue until I read a blog, a couple of weeks ago, that implied that they might go the way of the iPhone on this issue. That broke my heart because I love my windows mobile phone but would be unwilling to tolerate this.
(In case anyone cares, PdaNet is why I'm so passionate about this issue. It's a very useful app that would never survive in a restricted marketplace setup).
sHi
It's a great service for gamers who have Xboxes. For general consumers that don't have an Xbox or Xbox Live, there isn't much of an advantage to having Xbox Live integration.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I think Microsoft is failing to recognize that consumers see their mobile phone as something personal. Much like a watch or handbag, consumers want their phone to reflect who they are or who they want to be. This isn't an expectation consumers have of most of the other MSFT products. Things like Office, Windows, Visual Studio, etc. are just tools used to accomplish an end.
Microsoft needs to provide a story that makes people want to connect with their phone. Their biggest push seems to be X-Box Live. I hate to say it, but the people that are going to connect with their phone because it offers XBox Live are probably in the dorks or kids category. Your average person doesn't have a need to be connected to their gamer account 24/7 nor would they have even the slightest interest in that capability. Hell, I'd even venture on to say that most people would be slightly embarrassed to be connected to a phone that was strongly associated with that capability. Few people really want to carry around the 'gamer' label.
Think of a singles bar. A guy is sitting down looking at his phone when a girl walks up and inquires about it. Guy replies "It's my new Windows Phone 7. It lets me connect to my gamer profile on XBox Live so I can score new acheivements and see my friends' gamer scores 24/7." Girl rolls eyes and walks away. Christ, they might as well have tried to sell the phone by saying it connects seamlessly with your WOW account.
To make matters worse there will be two big sets of early adopters with this phone - MSFT employees (because they get a free one) and the types of people mentioned in the preceeding paragraph. Neither group really represents the core of the "people everyone wants to be like" group. In fact, they're more in the "people looked down upon by my social circle" group. Those are the first folk people will see using the phone.
I'm not trying to trash on gamers or MSFT employees or gamers (I've worked at MSFT and used to spend a fair amount of time on Live), but MSFT should at least realize that they aren't necessarily in the 'cool' crowd and probably aren't going to be persuasive in getting people outside their circle to buy a WP7.
So, in short, people want to their phone to be cool. MSFT isn't really 'cool'. They need to do something to make their phone cool so people want it (because being built on the MSFT platform isn't going to cut it buy itself). They tried to make it cool by adding Xbox Live integration. Apparently MSFT hasn't figured out that being considered a 'gamer' isn't really cool.
Verizon currently has the (HTC) Droid Incredible, (Moto) Droid X, Droid 2, Samsung Fascinate (why they didn't 'droid' this one i have no idea) all available today, along with several 'older' Android handsets. Coming in the next month or two are the Samsung Continuum, HTC merge, Droid Pro. You want/hate a physical keyboard? Want a bigger screen, prefer a smaller screen and device size? Want a screen you can read in bright sunlight? Want a phone that's easy to modify? VZW has more choices available than any carrier in the US. How are VZW customers starving for a new smartphone?
Verizon has a brand in Droid that they've built. They were tremendously successful in marketing it last holiday season, and sales of the original Moto Droid, Eris, Incredible, Droid X over the last 3 quarters have been a big reason why Android activations are outpacing iPhone activations, and Android has went from nearly no market share to ~20% this year. I'd expect they want to continue that this holiday season, and adding Windows Phone into the mix at this point would complicate their strategy. They'll be perfectly happy to sit back and see how it does on other carriers and bring it into their offerings next spring as a LTE device with the appropriate marketing behind it.
Whatever you say SpryGuy...
Only I can judge you.
whatever you say SpryGuy...
Only I can judge you.
That's what Apple does with jailbreakers, after all!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
The quirk is that like many other pieces of Microsoft technology, while truthfully claiming it is "cross platform" it is really only implemented and running smoothly in one central platform. Live is in Messenger but is only a thin/lightweight client. There is a web interface at xbox.com but again the functionality seems limited. Even on PC the support is highly variable and dependent on the vendor. It truly shines on the 360 though but even the version we see to day on the dash is only after years of aggressive revision. I expect Win7 Phones to have some neat features but nothing to make me change how I use Live, XBox or other flavor.
But beyond that, Microsoft's fixation on Apple seems wrong. Microsoft's competition is really RIM/Blackberry for the business crowd and Google for replacing them in the Phone OS market. While Microsoft was failing to deliver on Windows Mobile 6, RIM came in and swept up the tech business customers with a lot of enterprise connectivity features while Google came in a replaced Microsoft as "the guys who make phone OS". Apple is worth some attention but RIM and Google cost them their base so why focus on Apple?? Microsoft's current obsession on beating Apple is derailing what they should be concentrating on so I'm not really surprised Microsoft thinks it is important to have Live integration to win against Apple.
Is Microsoft the new Palm? I guess we'll find out but it isn't a good sign when Microsoft seems equally interested in rattling sabers with phone fabricators to make Win7 Phones for patent protection...or else!
It's a great service for gamers who have Xboxes. For general consumers that don't have an Xbox or Xbox Live, there isn't much of an advantage to having Xbox Live integration.
MobileMe is a great service for iPhone owners with MobileMe. For general consumers that don't have a MobileMe account, there isn't much of an advantage to having MobileMe integration.
See what I did there?
There are far more Xbox Live subscribers than MobileMe account holders. Only a tiny fraction of iphone owners get a mobileme account. Yet several of the iphones more interesting features are locked away behind that service. If WinMo7 offers mobileme features for free + extra stuff that ties into the gamer-centric xbl it will potentially be quite attractive to a LOT of people.
There are far more Xbox Live subscribers than MobileMe account holders. Only a tiny fraction of iphone owners get a mobileme account. Yet several of the iphones more interesting features are locked away behind that service. If WinMo7 offers mobileme features for free + extra stuff that ties into the gamer-centric xbl it will potentially be quite attractive to a LOT of people.
MobileMe is for consumers that use Windows, OS X, iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPads. Xbox Live is only for gamers that use Microsoft's Xbox gaming platform. Gee, which population is bigger? Consumers or Xbox gamers? Targeting such a niche population isn't a major benefit.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Microsoft is two to three years behind everyone else now. They have an OS that is about equivalent to iPhone OS2.
That's all fine and dandy if we were in 2008 and Android was still a clunky geek OS on rubbish handsets, but it's on the up now. Many of the OEMs who were skinning WinMo are now doing so with Android instead.
>>will be available on a total of five devices in the US
Surely they can aim a little higher than five devices. I've got 14 staff, that's one between three.
I'll have it on Mon, Tue and Wed, you can have it Thu and Fri. Then you can have it for the weekend.
The rest of you sort yourselves out.
Oh, that's right we got bored waiting for it and are quite happy with these shiny HTC things.
I think the development tools are going to help win or lose this platform. For anyone who has developed on the competition (particularly BlackBerry and iPhone) you'll know that there is plenty of room in this regard. If MS can improve the state of the art as it relates to mobile app development, then they may just be able to carve a slice out of the mobile device market.
With that said, they have an uphill battle since since the entrenched mobile market has such a strong majority (BlackBerry / iPhone / Android) and at least two of these vendors have a compelling app marketplace. I've played with a few of the Phone 7 devices and I think the UI might need some work, but this is something that can be improved on. Assuming the development environment has a flexible and robust separation to the presentation tier, this should be rather seamless.
We'll see...
Eric Sarjeant
eric[@]sarjeant.com
Please stop spreading fanboy lies.
The PS3 has had a sub .1 percent failure rate for the entire history of the console. Nintendo has reported similar figures but has had to less often due to the fact that Xbox fans have spent less time trying to smear their console's reliability.
Just a quick google shows survey after survey of Xbox 360 failure rates in the 55 to 75 percent range. The largest and most reliable of those is the 65 percent failure rate that most people use as the best estimate.
There are roughly 2 million MobileMe subscribers vs 23 million Xbox Live Subscribers.
Gee, which population is bigger?
Indeed.
Targeting such a niche population isn't a major benefit.
"such a niche population"?
I did NOT post that. I'm not a Glenn-Beck-tard like that anonymous coward. I'm a proud progressive :-)
I did almost reply to the same guy you did, but decided it wasn't worth my time to react to an anonymous troll post.
But don't assume that was me. Please.
- Spryguy
There are three kinds of people in this world: those that can count and those that can't
A survey of 5,000 Xbox 360 owners shows failure rate of 54.2% with over 40% reporting a *second* failure.
Another survey of 500,000 reports a failure rate of 42%.
The 65% failure number may be somewhat high, but the numbers in the two surveys I found aren't reassuring. There's no way that I would knowingly put my hard-earned money into a product that failed about half of the time. I can't believe that MS wasn't forced to recall the systems.
God is imaginary
No, that's not what I'm saying at all.
You are talking about the market for the service itself.
I am talking about the ability to market integration features to users of the service.
What I'm saying is:
Microsofts Xbox live integration feature in WinMo7 targets 23 million xbox live users.
Apple's MobileMe integration feature in iOS benefits 2 million mobileme users.
This is my point:
iPhone: You can get MobileMe. At that is required is that you pay the yearly subscription.
Windows Phone 7: It has Xbox Live Integration: At that is required is that you have an Xbox 360 and an Xbox Live subscription.
If you already have Xbox Live, it's great. If you don't (and many consumers don't), then it's not really a bonus. The Xbox Live integration feature is narrowly targeted to one particular demographic (Xbox gamers) whereas anyone (general consumers) can get MobilMe if they chose.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Nonsense. The 360 is far and away the winner of the unreliable hardware award, but your citation of 0.1% for the PS3 is nothing more than wishful thinking. Also, the PS3 is the undisputed champion of both unintentionally and intentionally screwing up their consoles with firmware updates.
Bottom line, there are very good reasons to avoid both manufacturers, were it not for the fact that the Wii is basically a Gamecube with a cuter controller.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
i hate to break it to you but ios (obj-c) and android (java) don't endorse user apps in c++ either.
Objective-C in a Cocoa program for iOS or Mac OS X can be linked to C++ code (source). The Android SDK has an extension called NDK allowing use of C++ along with Java.
I like the new Win 7 phones, especially the HTC and Samsung ones and Win Phone 7 looks fairly comfortable with nice big UI buttons. Will definitely be looking into one next year when my contract is up.
However, the ZunePass, currently, is probably not going to be much of a crowd pleaser. iTunes Music Store has the music market pretty much sown up at the moment. That might change however, because a lot of people like Steve Jobs even less than they do Ballmer, which takes some doing.
I also think Xbox live integration will be interesting for some but probably not be much of a deciding factor either. There aren't enough Xbox gamers who use Live to make a dent in the phone market.
Similarly, Windows Live is not Facebook or Twitter.
And finally the Office integration is a good deal for business people, but it won't make that much of a difference in the consumer market.
No, what will decide the market is apps and word of mouth popularity. Android got off to a slow start but has now overtaken the iPhone. WinPhone 7 can do this as well if the phones are good value for money and perform well without too many bugs. Consumers don't care who the phone comes from, but they do care if it's popullar with others and works well enough for them.
Wow. Just... wow. The HTC surround actually has a slide-out speaker (from Yamaha!)?
I hear plans are in the work for a special 2010 update to the old propeller beanie, that revolves the phone around your head at 60RPS for TRUE surround sound.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I see what you did there. Neat fallacy, but let's make things honest (and more in line with GP's point):
* There are 23 million XBox gamers with XBox Live subscriptions
* meanwhile, there are roughly 1.5 - 2 billion human beings who could be reasonably considered as "consumers" out there.
But, you were busily counting one phone's potential pool, versus the paid result of the other. See the problem?
Now, to be perfectly fair, out of the 23m XBox gamers, you're going to have to remove the under-18 demographic, and a reasonable percentage of folks who can afford an XBox, but not an ongoing smartphone plan. The leftover folks may or may not consider a console-phone semi-link to be a factor, let alone a deciding one.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Now, to be perfectly fair, out of the 23m XBox gamers, you're going to have to remove the under-18 demographic, and a reasonable percentage of folks who can afford an XBox, but not an ongoing smartphone plan. The leftover folks may or may not consider a console-phone semi-link to be a factor, let alone a deciding one.
The under 18 demographic? All those 14 year olds who bought xboxes and subscribe to xbox live gold? I don't think that's much of a demographic. There certainly are parents who bought xboxes for their kids, they'll buy their kids phones too.
there are roughly 1.5 - 2 billion human beings who could be reasonably considered as "consumers" out there.
Those 1.5 - 2 billion human beings are consumers and target market for any phone.
iPhone: You can get MobileMe. At that is required is that you pay the yearly subscription.
Except that the VAST majority aren't and are foregoing the extra features (online sync, find my phone, etc).
Windows Phone 7: It has Xbox Live Integration: At that is required is that you have an Xbox 360 and an Xbox Live subscription.
AHA. This seems to be a source of confusion. No, you don't require an xbox 360.
Its not JUST integrating with your pre-existing xbox 360 games account.
You can have an xbox live game account without a 360. You'll be able to play games, get ranked, use player matching services, collect achievements, chat with friends, play online/multiplayer games, etc... strictly from the phone.
It takes the itunes games marketplace, and the iOS "game center" and kicks it out of the park.
Xbox Live integration isn't about being useful if you have a 360. Its a games platform all on its own.
But, yeah, if you have a 360 too, you use the same account on both.
If you already have Xbox Live, it's great.
Yes, if you already have a 360 its that much better.
But if you don't its still worth looking at as a gaming platform in its own right.
Phones will have a variety of ways to connect to a monitor (network, Bluetooth, HDMI, projector)
USB 3 ports for mouse, keyboard, and unlimited fast storage. Bluetooth works for this as well. This can also Connect you to wired Ethernet. They already have fine wifi.
You will just walk up to your workstation consisting of a monitor, kb, mouse, maybe an external drive (but storage could be on a remote server) and start working. All peripherals seamlessly connect to your phone, which remains in your pocket.
Why do we need laptops again? Many of these capabilities are already in existence.
I am very small, utmostly microscopic.
First of all, neither of those things is likely to work. By the time they get an 8 released they'll be even further behind the curve than they are now - and we'll be closer to the cloud client, which completely undoes their local client OS leverage. Either of those acquisitions wouldn't get them any more than Danger did: an opportunity to destroy the legacy of a one-popular but declining popular brand. And they can't keep doing that.
I find it interesting that on the day that the Windows Revolution Phone was first shown Microsoft stock traded flat at less than 80% of the price it started the year, and Apple shares climbed to another all-time high at 120% of the price they started. It looks like a lot of people don't see this as news of any kind - bloggerati and commenters like ourselves notwithstanding.
They don't have the luxury of time any more. In the real world nobody gets unlimited Mulligans.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
MS still controls the desktop, and lots of high end business market.
Hadn't you heard? We're going to the cloud. In the cloud the client OS doesn't matter. The processing, the apps, the data - they're all in the cloud.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
What if you threw an OS press party and nobody cared? Thats the attitude the world needs to take on any Microsoft product... just indifference
"Computers are a lot like Air Conditioners" "They both work great until you start opening Windows"
I've had 8 different Windows mobile devices since 2004 (Audiovox SMT5600 to a HTC Touch Pro 2) and they have always been some of the most capable phones available when I purchased them, and once you get to know one, they can do just about everything you want to do with a mobile phone. Especially if you spend a little time over at XDA Developers or PPCGeeks!
Windows Mobile 6.5 (and 6.1) works very well for me, and I rarely have to restart it after days of use, and after having WM for a while, you get all the apps you need, and just use one of the many free restore programs to reinstall everything after you reflash, or hard reset the device.
I trust my data (and there's a lot of it) on these devices, and I just don't trust it on an Android device yet. Don't get me wrong. I still think I get the occasional virus, trojan, whatever you wanna call it on my device, as it will show the tell-tale signs of being infected, but It's painless to restore it (and it gives me an excuse to upgrade ROMs:) and I know when it's gonna happen based on the sights I go to!
I can also run Android on my TP2, and it works pretty well, I just can't help but feel data-mined every time I boot it up though! Ubuntu runs suprisingly well also!!
So, I guess WM might not amke the most user friendly device as far as getting it to do what you want, but it's just like a mini Windows box, and once you find your way sround, and install a few of your favorite programs, it's all there. So to me (and I love linux too) Windows Mobile "just works pretty well".
I couldn't agree more, I'm a fairly light user of my xbox and I've had one failure, the thing roars like a 747 whenever it is switched on and doesn't play nice with video files - why do I have to re-encode files so they play when it can play fine on Linux for free?
My house is almost microsoft free, the xbox is the last remnant of the evil empire there, the sad thing is with Sony also being arses it's hard to know what to replace it with for games. My HTPC running linux is great for emulation, but not much good for the latest and greatest games.
If you think someone isn't free to have a different definition of "freedom" you may be a tyrant.
Yes.
Often doesn't return the results I am interested in on the first few pages, Google does for me. So for my personal use, Google is better.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
I've been looking for a good, detailed and high def video of the interface and finally found one.
The phone is in Italian but the review is in English. It really showcases the interface quite a bit when it isn't playing a questionable soundtrack...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKvRNcYyx1E
The question is what group MS is targeting with this feature. It appears that MS is only targeting users that already use their existing products instead of consumers in general. You'd think that if MS wanted more universal acceptance of the phone, they'd go for general consumers and not a narrower demographic. While very few get MobilMe, Apple isn't limiting it to people who use Macs; it's open to the same requirements as the mobile device that they are buying. Including Office support is different in that many people use Office; only gamers use Xbox Live. The litmus test would probably be the grandmother test: Would your grandmother care about Xbox Live integration on a consumer phone; very few would. They might care about Office integration.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.