I have to admit that, as many others did in the past months, I had quite a few times questions, even doubts, about the direction the WP7 team has been taking. Many times, I asked myself what is happening, why is this or that feature not available yet, why is this or that geographical region not supported yet, and so on…
Don’t get me wrong, I was a big fan of the Windows Phone from the very beginning. Above anything else, because it proved to be the fresh concept I was waiting for and because it showed that Microsoft had what it takes to fight its way back into the top 3 of the smartphone market. Last week I attended MIX 11 and had the unique chance to meet and discuss face to face with some of the key members of the Windows Phone team. I must say, these past few days produced a dramatic change of my perception regarding both the Windows Phone team and the phone itself.
To be more specific, I am talking about what was shown during the second day keynote @ MIX. Without any doubt, the developments expected for the end of the year in terms of both the user experience and the developer experience are a very good indicator of the solidity of the platform. Some of these developments are:
- Search Extras (connecting user actions on the phone with apps on the market place)
- IE9 coming to phone (the same code base from the IE9 running on the PC; this assures a consistent experience when it comes to markup and scripting)
- Built-in SQL database coming to the phone
- Access to Contacts and Calendar
- Access to raw data stream from camera, compass, and gyro (if the HW is available)
- Skype, Spotify, and Angry Birds (
) coming to the platform - Motion Sensor
- Multitasking (fast app switching as well as background running for audio,downloads, and alarms)
- Live Agents (the best combination for background apps and battery life)
While these will put Windows Phone in a clear and solid position among the platforms offering the best user experience, the one thing that makes it clearly stand out is the developer experience. I dare to say that the Windows Phone developer platform is by far the best available on the market. And if you take into consideration some of the announcements made at MIX (performance analysis via the profiler, accelerometer and location simulation in the emulator, native performance improvements of many aspects, 1500+ new APIs, database support, LINQ support, Silverlight and XNA running in the same time – to name just a few), there is no doubt in my mind that, as usual, Microsoft is set to deliver THE development platform of the day.
As I mentioned above, part of the change in my perception is also due to the face to face meetings with folks from the team. Without any exaggeration, I can say they won me over 100%. Although I previously had an idea about it, the meetings enabled me to fully understand the level of commitment, the dedication and the effort they are putting into the quest of making Windows Phone an equal competitor with iOS and Android.
It is for the first time that I feel not only enthusiastic about WP7 but also confident. Why confident? First of all because of the dramatic improvement promised by the updates presented at MIX. Second, because I had the unique opportunity of getting a glimpse into the real life of the team and a chance to understand the magnitude of the task they are facing. Third, because seeing somebody like Joe Belfiore acknowledge a mistake in the opening of a MIX keynote convinced me more than anything else that the team is 100% connected to the reality of the field.
Based on my experience at MIX, I can say Microsoft was able to prove it has the three key ingredients for making Windows Phone one of the best experiences available:
- A great phone platform
- Vision and the ability to execute it, as well as the ability to convince others to share it (thinking mainly about the Nokia deal)
- A fantastic team
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