Microsoft Launches new mobile OS called Windows Phone 7. Although previewed much earlier the phone has been released in Europe & Asia prior to the North American launch. Carriers at launch are AT&T and T-Mobile. A variety of multi-touch devices are available from Dell, HTC, LG, and Samsung. The user experience is a new design metaphor call “Metro.” It is based around a hub and tile language of organizing the navigation and data. Real time notifications keep the user up to date on incoming communications and appointments. Of particular interest is the new panorama view. Several screens width wide, it allows a collection of related data to be intuitively navigated and will open many creative possibilities to app designers.
Have test driven the devices. They are very performant to the touch when scrolling through the screens and large amounts of data. The interface can be reorganized to the users preference. Battery life seems long, display is very clear, and data transfer speeds are high.
This v1 of the phone is definitely aimed at consumers. It lacks many of the enterprise ready features of the previous Windows Mobile 6.5. Future versions will undoubtably be more feature full, but time will be of the essence.
The key questions the market is awaiting will be:
- Is it differentiated enough to convert other smart phone users?
- Will enterprises embrace the v1 version given the lack of enterprise features that Windows Mobile had brought to the market?
- How will the application gallery be received and what is Microsoft future plans for an integrated gallery across its products?
- What will the next version of iPhone look like?
David Williams
David MS Blog 
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