For the past several years I developed an acute sense of criticism towards Microsoft’s strategy in the mobile area. Watching first the iPhone and then, to a certain degree, the Android becoming shining stars while Windows Mobile was stuck in its own paradigm, had constantly fueled my criticism. It became obvious at a certain point in time that Microsoft will either come up fast with something truly spectacular or abandon the market for an indefinite period of time. And so it did. After all, who’s willing to abandon the huge market of the “new PC”?
Windows Phone 7 Series is the bet Microsoft has on its future in the mobile market. It’s a bet that comes in a rather difficult context generated by the fact that Microsoft lost so far the “coolness factor” battle as well as the online marketplace one. Despite the struggle to constantly improve Windows Mobile, it’s clear now that this road is closed. Unlike in other cases where it’s leading the game, Microsoft now has to come back. Does it have what it takes? Isn’t it too late? Will the technology be properly supported (aka international marketplace, international subscriptions, and the like)? Right now, I can say for sure that the concept is amazing. Whether it’s going to be successful or not, depends on many things. The “details” as I call them in the title of this post.
But let’s enter into some of the “details”, to help you better understand what’s really going on.
First, the user experience. This one is truly amazing. Surprisingly for some, Microsoft managed to outperform in this area its rivals. It’s fresh, fast, and fully adaptable to its user. For me this didn't come as a really big surprise, since I’ve been exposed to the user experience of Zune HD which seems to be the source of inspiration for Windows Phone. And the fact that Silverlight is supported natively is a blast. Here at MIX we’ve seen some demos of Silverlight-based applications which were spectacular. Speaking about Silverlight, we also need to mention that is fully hardware accelerated and it’s identical to the one that runs on your desktop.
Second, access to native phone functions. This one wasn’t addressed earlier this year when the concept was introduced. Fortunately, we’ve seen in the keynote demos clear indications of the fact that these functions are going to be fully accessible from our apps. I’m talking here about location, map control, accelerometer (get phone motion), microphone (access to the raw input files), and push notification support (react when something happens, even if the app is not running).
Third, developer tools. Microsoft did make a big announcement yesterday related to development tools for Windows Phone. The Windows Phone Developer Tools containing Visual Studio 2010 for Windows Phone 7, Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone 7, and XNA Game Studio for Windows Phone 7, are going to be free for all developers (actually, you can already download it from http://developer.windowsphone.com). But that’s not what really impressed me. Instead, it was the ease and simplicity of the development process itself. In addition to a bunch of apps that are already available (and do look better than their iPhone or Android counterparts), we’ve seen a few apps being created from scratch during the first day’s keynote. Visual Studio 2010 comes with a true Windows Phone 7 emulator, which is actually a Windows Phone 7 virtual machine running in the background. Expression Blend 4 comes also with project templates for Windows Phone 7 enabling the creation of mobile apps from the point of view of the designer. I witnessed an impressive developer experience with Blend 4 during the same keynote, when a data-driven, multi-screen app was built entirely in it.
Fourth, gaming. Windows Phone 7 supports XNA. Same programming, same code, same tools. We’ve seen a true 3D game demoed on it. If that’s not impressive enough, we were also shown how the same code developed with XNA gets deployed on the desktop, on the XBOX, and on the Windows Phone. Wow!
Fifth and final, ecosystem. I was glad to see that the main app used to sync with the PC is an evolution of the Zune software. Being a Zune user, I can tell this app is one of the best and coolest Microsoft ever released. No more ActiveSync, no more mess. There is one big question here, though. I’m a Romanian citizen, which geographically is not included in the United States. Tough luck. I don’t get access to the Zune marketplace. Hell, I’m not even supposed to be able to buy a Zune in my country. Since the marketplace experience seems to be heavily rooted the Zune experience, I’m a bit concerned here. No clear sign from Microsoft yet on the international dimension of the ecosystem around Windows Phone plus previous US-centric approaches are the main causes for this concern. Finally, another question: how’s the application marketplace going to evolve? No clear sign either. I think Microsoft will have to be clever enough to avoid past mistakes as well as learn from similar mistakes done by some of its competitors. Adoption will be tightly linked to the success of the ecosystem.
So, will Windows Phone 7 mark the rebirth of Microsoft in the mobile space? Too early to say. The start however, as late as it is, is more than promising. Good user experience and device integration, excellent developer story, and strong gaming support. All Microsoft needs now is to avoid the devil from the details…
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