"Windows Mobile 7 will dramatically change the way we use mobile devices. It will emphasize the use of touch on the device, as well as motion gestures created by using the device. It is, absolutely, Microsoft’s effort to beat back the iPhone, and the iPhone is referenced several times in the document. Windows Mobile 7 will use touch gestures, similar to how the iPhone does. You will be able to flick through lists, pan, swipe sideway, draw on the screen. A lot of emphasis has been put on making navigation easier and doing away with scrollbars, including a new scroll handle that allows for multiple ways of finding items extremely fast."
Some exciting news that has leaked out and found its way to light regarding the next version of Windows Mobile. While it all sounds extremely nice, especially the use of the camera to do more than just take pictures, I have to wonder if A) it will work correctly as planned and B) Why wasn't this released years ago when it's painfully obvious to anyone using Windows Mobile that touching the touch-screen is a logical step up from the Oh-so-1998 stylus? In any event, it looks exciting - bright times ahead it seems.
__________________ Jon Westfall
Contributing Editor, MS MVP, MCSE, Ph.D., and More.
this is certainly great news from microsoft. with all this new shift, i hope wm7 will work on the units we have now. the main thing i want with my ppc phone is the ease of use by touching and scrolling to get thru contacts and make a call one handed with just the touch of my thumb. closest thing i find to that right now is fun contact......(anyone know of another easier app to use then this, please pm me.)
but we have to wait a whole year for it!!
The sad thing is that after 8 years of developing PocketPC, Microsoft needed Apple to show it what and how to do on touchscreen devices and now they will need full 2 years (since the announcement of iPhone) to develop the new interface...
This kind of reacting instead of beeing proactive doesn't give much confidence in Windows Mobile team...
Yes it's nice and flashy and I'm sure it won't work on existing devices, but they should really ask themselves how many users will they lose in following months to Apple just because they didn't innovate...
We have probably not seen the worst part of it yet... They are definitely able to repeat the Vista phenomenon and just copy the bells and whistles without real new useful functionality ending to a slower system... ;-)
I have stopped with XP on my laptop; I hope I will not have to stop with WM6 on my PPC now.
It will be interesting to see if WM is the next Palm. Hopefully they will get their act together. At least they realize they need to change -- they just need to do it faster...
I went through pictures posted on Engadget and while it's nice it really lacks imagination - everything is just a copy of the stuff from the iPhone, with possible exception of shaking and tilting for doing stuff - something I doubt will be very usefull (but you never know...).
Since they will need 2 years to get the things iPhone has now, I really hope it won't be like Vista and that it will work well and maybe they will even come up with something innovative in addtion...
WM 7 to Focus on Touches & Gestures!
Linear Mode
