As expected Microsoft announced yesterday, on Mobile World Congress, their new Mobile OS and rebranded it from Windows Mobile 7 to Windows Phone. Microsoft rebuilt the OS from the ground up and scrapped almost everything from the look and feel down to the code.
The OS will look quite like the interface already in place on the Zune HD and includes all techniques available on most modern smartphones. The OS has deep integration with Xbox LIVE and Zune and new and improved social networking tools which allows fast access to content in the cloud.
Windows Marketplace will of course be an important part of the new experience, allowing customer to personalize the phone to their needs. Given Microsoft’s choice to completely redesign the core, applications available to Windows Mobile 6 will not work on Windows Phone.
Given the buzz on Twitter at the moment and the positive press it seems that Microsoft will again successfully introduce an OS in the 7 series. Still, the question remains whether Microsoft is in time. The iPhone is already in market for almost 3 years and the first phones will only be available by holiday season 2010, i.e. end of this year.
Windows Phone 7 Series
According to the press release, partners from around the world have committed to include Windows Phone 7 Series in their portfolio plans. They include mobile operators AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone and manufacturers Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC Corp., HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm Inc. These partners are not, like in the past, free to develop the phones at their will, because Microsoft set rigid specifications that have to be met like the buttons configuration, CPU speed and memory.
Since Microsoft suggests that mobile devices will become more important than PC’s and estimates that more than 1 billion mobile devices will access the Internet in 2010 they surely see the importance of the market and given their long breath in the game console market they might succeed with the new OS. Very important to be successful will be the content in the marketplace, which according to our latest report (January 2010) is very limited in their Marketplace for Mobile today.
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