Windows Phone 7
Microsoft unveiled its new Windows Phone 7 mobile software at a New York event Monday. While it may have “Windows” in the branding, it definitely is not the desktop PC experience shoehorned into a cell phone. After the failure of Windows Mobile and the Kin phone line last spring, Microsoft has a lot riding on this launch.
The Windows Phone 7 offers a simpler interface and better integration than BlackBerry and could prove attractive to businesses that use technologies such as Office and SharePoint. Unlike today’s smartphones that read documents originally created in Microsoft Office, this phone lets you edit, save and upload to your desk/top or laptop.
Another promising feature is their “glance and go” format referring to WP7’s customizable Live Tiles that allows a user to customize a “desk top” to provide a variety of information at a glance.
“With WP7, Microsoft is trying to catch up to everyone else in mobile,” said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst at Yankee Group. “In many ways, I think they’ve missed the mobile window, not to play with words. Windows Mobile has left a bad taste in people’s mouths and, now, trying to get customers to try Microsoft and WP7 again will be difficult, especially with the popularity of Android and Apple.”
