Preview: Windows Phone 7 Operating System
Microsoft has only made a small dent in the current smartphone marketplace with its Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system. The tough competition of Apple and Google on the consumer side and Blackberry on the business side hasn’t given the company an easy row to hoe, after all. Will its next iteration, Windows Phone 7 Series, be a game changer?
Microsoft has been in the mobile device and phone market since 2000, yet it has never left much of a mark. Windows Phone 7, which will be released in late September, seems to be the company’s chance to leave a more indelible impression.
Like Android, the OS will be incorporated onto partner smartphones. Dell, Asus, LG, HTC, and Samsung have all signed on. Microsoft is maintaining tight control of the OS, disallowing much customization by manufacturers. While this could keep the design clean, some critics see the lack of flexibility and room for customization as a failing in today’s nimble marketplace.
Thus far, early reviews -- which were done with an incomplete version of Phone 7 handsets used only for review -- have been mixed.
The new user interface, called “Metro,” is very similar to the Zune music player. The home screen is a series of big, primary-colored tiles with large, easily readable text. The tiles contain apps, contacts, and “hubs” of related content, which are collections of related apps, content, and functions in categories like People, Pictures, Games, and Office. Users can customize their home screen by “pinning” their favorite app, Web page, or contact tiles.
While the color and design of these tiles are remarkably minimalist, the user interface heavily features small animations that some call beautiful but may be just this side of obtrusive. The OS is also getting high marks for the standard functions most smartphones include today, including a QWERTY keyboard, multitouch capability, easy e-mail setup, camera, voice search, and maps.
Phone 7 integrates most of Microsoft’s usual suspects -- music and videos come from Zune, search and maps are Bing-based, and Games is a mobile version of Xbox Live. One of Microsoft’s strengths is its Office Suite, which is smartly integrated into Phone 7. Users can access Word docs and Excel spreadsheets, albeit with limited editing functions, view PowerPoint presentations, and collaborate with SharePoint.
Mentioning these Office functions, however, brings up one very glaring omission: the inability to copy and paste. This single flaw is what many see as a sticking point between Phone 7 becoming a viable competitor in the smartphone marketplace or withering in months like the Kin, Microsoft’s social-networking-focused phone that crashed and burned in just six weeks.
Other notable flaws include a lack of Flash (Adobe says it should be available within months after launch) and multitasking for only first-party apps. You can play your Zune songs while checking text messages, but not, say, from the Pandora app.
Another feature that seems to be dividing early reviewers is the way Phone 7 handles contacts. It auto-syncs all contacts from Windows Live, Exchange, and Facebook into one giant bucket. So everyone from your clients and grandma to your best friend and frat buddies end up in the People and Pictures hubs, which without a current Facebook app or any Twitter integration at all are the only places you can find this type of social networking activity. This may just muddy the experience beyond usability for users with a large number of contacts. You can pin particular contacts to the home screen, but that’s really the only way you can filter your friend-based noise.
One can hope that Twitter and Facebook apps and more games are on the way, and Microsoft is strongly courting developers by providing free development kits and handsets, cash for development and marketing costs, and revenue guarantees to some partners. The company is also supplying phones and development kits to employees.
Enterprise Customers
Courting enterprise is crucial for Microsoft. In a survey conducted by Information Week at the end of 2009, Windows Mobile 6.5 was the third most used smartphone OS for business, but it only trailed second-placer iPhone 24 percent to 27 percent. (Blackberry dominated at 61 percent.) So it is surprising that Microsoft only seems to meeting its enterprise customers halfway.
The new OS will support Exchange ActiveSync, allowing integration with e-mail, calendar, and contacts with Exchange Server. It will also integrate with collaboration platform SharePoint. But, upon launch, it will not support System Center Configuration Manager, and apps will have to be deployed through Windows Marketplace. It will be difficult to standardize apps on an enterprise’s army of smartphones, as well as keep the general public from downloading custom enterprise-only apps.
Note: This is not an upgrade. Previous users of Windows Mobile 6.5 can’t just upgrade to Phone 7; it’s an entirely new OS, which may require heavy-lifting on the part of IT departments.
