Wired.com: "How Microsoft Hit CTRL+ALT+DEL on Windows Phone"

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/11/making-windows-phone-7/all/1' target='_blank'>http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010...s-phone-7/all/1</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"Microsoft staff refer to December 2008 as "The Reset" - the month that the company killed all progress on its Windows phone project and started over. It's a measure of how deep a hole Microsoft had dug itself into that the employees interviewed by Wired.com were unanimous in calling this a good thing. Even though the software titan had a head start on phone software beginning with Windows CE back in 1996, the subsequent Windows Mobile OS suffered from steep declines in market share when pitted against more user-friendly phones, like the iPhone and the Android-powered Droid."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1293838017.usr1.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>This article was published back at the beginning of November, but it's an interesting read - especially for those of you out there who are angry at Microsoft for not reaching feature parity with a nine-year old OS with version 1.0 of a new OS designed, coded, and shipped in 12 months. Give it a read.</p>

[whydidnt]

I wonder how much Microsoft paid Wired for this "Puff Piece". Seriously, it reads like more of an ad for WP7 than it does an actual magazine story on the process MS went through.

Here it is, now 2+ years after the "reset" and we still have an OS that is hindered by hardware manufacturers (and some peculiar decisions by Microsoft) and far from feature complete. What exactly was accomplished? Yes, there is a prettier front end, and it probably is easier for basic tasks, but since that's all you can use it for, what difference does it make?

I expect all of these Mobile OS to continually evolve, add features, etc. I'm just waiting for Microsoft to show they truly understand how to deliver more than a feature phone without it being the complicated, unstable beast that was Windows Mobile 6.1 or 6.5...:rolleyes:

[Fritzly]

Well at least is more readable that the standard MS Press releases........ :-)

[Paragon]

I'm just waiting for Microsoft to show they truly understand how to deliver more than a feature phone without it being the complicated, unstable beast that was Windows Mobile 6.1 or 6.5...:rolleyes:

This statement is the best single line I have read that explains Microsoft Mobility.

I honestly don't think Microsoft does understand what it takes. The price they have everyone paying for what they call "Strong User Experience" in WP7 is far too high, and it isn't really accomplishing its goal.

They have been at it long enough that they should know what is needed even in a 1.0 version of an OS. Microsoft put themselves in a position with WM6.5 that they had to come out with a show stopper new platform if they were to win back substantial mindshare. What they have delivered is far short of show stopping. It lacks many features that the simplest feature phones have....Anyone tried to add a ringtone to their WP7 phone? Yet they spent how much time, money, and effort to create an app where I can build my little avatar guy, then poke him in the belly and make him dance. Cute but compared to copy and past, multitasking, turn by turn navigation, ringtones, Outlook tasks, Outlook syncing, and a list that goes on....it just doesn't cut it.

If they don't do some very astonishing things with their first update or two, they will quickly be loosing marketshare, not gaining.

I think they need a real visionary at the helm of their mobility, not your basic program manager type, but someone with superior vision, passion, and charisma, and a whole lot of fire in their belly.

Dave

[Jason Dunn]

Let's give it a year then see who's eating their words. :-D

[Paragon]

Let's give it a year then see who's eating their words. :-D

Oh, I have no doubt that its going to make it, Jason. I just think that Microsoft is just making it so hard on themselves, with the decisions they have made. Microsoft has always shown their ability and willingness to make something work over the longterm. If their intention was to reboot and make a splash...not many people got wet. ;)

[whydidnt]

Let's give it a year then see who's eating their words. :-D
I don't know, if today's rumor's about the 2011 upgrades is all MS has to offer, I think you'll be posting this same thing again in a year. From what is rumored - Cut & Paste, CDMA support in the early release and then Silverlight and IE9 in the late. Hardly going to move the OS to the front of the line, or even to the middle from a feature perspective. Microsoft needs to realize they have to put the peddle to the metal, but they seem quite content to motor along at the same upgrade cycle they have enjoyed on the desktop for years.

[Fritzly]

I don't know, if today's rumor's about the 2011 upgrades is all MS has to offer, I think you'll be posting this same thing again in a year. From what is rumored - Cut & Paste, CDMA support in the early release and then Silverlight and IE9 in the late. Hardly going to move the OS to the front of the line, or even to the middle from a feature perspective. Microsoft needs to realize they have to put the peddle to the metal, but they seem quite content to motor along at the same upgrade cycle they have enjoyed on the desktop for years.

And these rumored updates will have to be "approved" by the Carriers.......... quite far from early MS statements about updates coming directly as for Windows 7..........................

[Sven Johannsen]

And these rumored updates will have to be "approved" by the Carriers.......... quite far from early MS statements about updates coming directly as for Windows 7..........................
I'm not that worried about that aspect. When it was MS delivering the update to the carrier, and they had the option of saying, there is too much additional effort to be done, or just ignoring it, that was one thing. These are MS updates, on MS portions of the OS, via MS distribution channels. The 'approval' is an opportunity to ensure it doesn't break anything. I can't see all four (?) carriers getting together and saying no to an update, and if one lets it go, the others will be hard pressed to explain how it is a problem on their network. AT&T at least has gotten used to this sort of OEM control through the iPhone, so I think their culture is relatively comfortable with this sort of upgrade/update. Right now they have 75% of the models in the US.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

I'd love to see the reasoning behind dropping Tasks (yes, I'm not going to let go of this :P).

[Fritzly]

[QUOTE=Sven;731610]The 'approval' is an opportunity to ensure it doesn't break anything. QUOTE]

I always loved this "fairy tale" used by carriers, here in the US, to justify the delay of total lack of updates; in the rest of the World where the majority of phones are sold SIM free carriers have no say about updates....... and still networks work.......

[Sven Johannsen]

I'd love to see the reasoning behind dropping Tasks (yes, I'm not going to let go of this :P).
I'm sure you wouldn't agree with the reasoning, even if you knew it. My guess is they did a survey and found fewer than (pick a small percentage) of users used tasks.

[Fritzly]

I'm sure you wouldn't agree with the reasoning, even if you knew it. My guess is they did a survey and found fewer than (pick a small percentage) of users used tasks.

I wonder who MS supposedly surveyed, surely not the same people that the Office team surveyed......

Obviously a 14 years old kid would not find Tasks useful but the vast majority of people who spent $400 to buy Office are missing tasks and many other functionalities that, again, were available in WM 2002.

[whydidnt]

I'm sure you wouldn't agree with the reasoning, even if you knew it. My guess is they did a survey and found fewer than (pick a small percentage) of users used tasks.

I wouldn't doubt that to be true. But it is strange when you consider how many "tasks" type apps are for sale for both the iPhone and Android. Somebody must want to keep track of tasks, when these apps are so prevalent, right?

[Janak Parekh]

I wouldn't doubt that to be true. But it is strange when you consider how many "tasks" type apps are for sale for both the iPhone and Android. Somebody must want to keep track of tasks, when these apps are so prevalent, right? Many of those aforementioned Tasks apps are far superior to what WM had though. I use OmniFocus, which is about 1000x more powerful.

I sort of have to agree with Jason: I think you guys are being too harsh on WP7. For better or worse, the WM power users aren't the primary target market for the product. Apple has, for years, made tremendous success by making products that are "less is more", especially given their clean and functional UIs. I recently held and played with a WP7 device and was quite impressed. My biggest problem from switching, at the moment, is the apps I use, both commercial and in-house; otherwise I'd seriously consider it.

Finally, to be honest, I think Android will capture the power-user market for the foreseeable future. Most of my coworkers are using Android devices. Meanwhile, I putter along with the iPhone, happy in the clean UI and stable product. ;)

--janak

[Phillip Dyson]

I sort of have to agree with Jason: I think you guys are being too harsh on WP7.

I agree with Jason too. If the timeline was truly 12 months then I think WP7 is an admirable achievement. Of course admirable doesn't necessarily translate to marketshare.

As a software developer myself, actually a team lead, I can appreciate the scope of builting something from the ground up in that timeline and I'm sure MS' scale dwarfs mine solely on the nature of their business model.

I was a bit disappointed in the article though. I was expecting, or hoping for a timeline type piece where I could follow them all the way to market. But otherwise it was okay.

I haven't jumped to WP7 yet, I'm still skipping along with my Nexus One. I'm still waiting to see what MS is going to do with the platform in the long run. And based on what I've heard so far (update rumors) I'm not too impressed with their momentum.

But we'll see. Times have changed in the software iteration world. Hopefully they will pick that up.

[TheBigCheese]

Windows Phone 7 was started in December 2008 and delivered in December 2010. The author says designed, coded, and shipped in 12 months. Perhaps he is not the best qualified to write a tech story not being able to do simple arithmetic? Also, I'll bet much code was from the Zune so it really was not completely designed and coded starting 12/08.

[TheBigCheese]

I'm sure you wouldn't agree with the reasoning, even if you knew it. My guess is they did a survey and found fewer than (pick a small percentage) of users used tasks.

This is the same reasoning they gave for the feature set of the Kin. Their target market for the Kin (according to an MS spokesperson) was a teen to twenty something slacker who knew more bartenders than business people and was unemployed more than employed. The WP7 market was for late teen to 30's who had a career.

It appears that the target market for WP7 is the entertainment oriented subset whose digital life revolves around Facebook and Xbox. There are no features that would make it useful in a business environment or for a power user. These may come but for now, the device is pretty much an entertainment box.

[jimtravis]

Interesting article. Classic WM, like all platforms, needed some code tuning, and user friendliness added, but maybe (one of) the main reason they got their butt kicked by the iPhone, and Droid was both those devices were extensively advertised in the mainstream media vs. zero to little advertising for the platform whose butt was kicked. It was hard to go a night of network TV without seeing several iPhone / Droid ads. Add in the multiple lighted kiosks ads for iPhone downtown, the movie commercials for Droid at the cinema, and all the free mentions Apple gets in the mainstream press when a new product is introduced, and you have a marketing juggernaut. At the same time, the non-tech consumer saw - lets see - zero mainstream ads for Windows Mobile. After seeing multiple ads about the iPhone / Droid doing some nice things in the commercials, shock of all shocks, the non-tech consumer who never saw a WM ad, bought the iPhone, or Droid when they decided to upgrade from their dumb phone, or feature phone. Harvard MBA's please take note that several heavily mainstream advertised products massively outsold a competing product with little to no mainstream advertising. What a new phenomenon, first time that has happened. Apple followed the same heavy mainstream advertising strategy with the iPod, and now with the iPad. Meanwhile, the competition did no to little mainstream advertising while getting their butt kicked by the product being heavily advertised.

Owned about a dozen Classic WM devices over a 10 year period. All of them were very reliable, stable, and since I favored the larger screen devices, 95% of the time I used finger navigation. Don't doubt the horror stories I have seen on the web about WM, but for me, Classic WM is still the most stable of the mobile OS's I use, and still out of the box does more of the things I use than competing platforms. Fortunately, you can find apps for Android to add in many of the features, but not for iOS due to Apple's restrictions. I reset my iPhone 4, various gen touches, Android, and even WP 7 more often than any Classic WM device I own. In the interest of full disclosure, I usually purchased the top of the line WM device not the inexpensive devices with inadequate processor, and memory. In the two months I have owned the HD7, I have needed to take out the battery twice to reset a frozen device. In 10 years with a dozen Classic WM devices, I had to remove the battery about the same number of times. Twice with one WP7 in two months vs twice in 10 years with a dozen Classic WM devices.

Although I tried various shells with WM, I usually ended up with the Today screen customized to my liking with Pocket Plus. Microsoft should have constantly tuned the code, and added the slick UI / user friendliness the new smartphone users demand while keeping the customizability / feature richness vs. throwing out the old, and starting from scratch. Their marketing dept for Classic WM (if they had one) should have been CTRL ALT DEL'd, not the product.

In addition to the purchased HD7, I just won a LQ Quantum. The Metro UI is nice, but frankly I don't see it being the massive improvement in mobile UI that Microsoft was aiming at. It's slick, and smooth, but so are the competition. Again, in the interest of full disclosure, I am not a big gamer, or social network user, two of the target audiences for WP7. In its current rendition, WP7 is missing too many features I use to be my daily driver. Even if they added in the features, and the essential 3rd party apps were developed, I don't see any compelling killer app or feature that would cause me to go back to Microsoft from my newly adopted Android platform after Microsoft CTRL ALT Del'd their loyal Classic WM users for the new slick, smooth, but feature limited WP7.

[Sven Johannsen]

There are no features that would make it useful in a business environment or for a power user. These may come but for now, the device is pretty much an entertainment box.Not sure that is entirely true, IF, you have an Exchange/Sharepoint environment. Seems to actually cover that scenario pretty well. I don't get the lack of tasks support, but that has always been a little spotty. IIRC that wasn't an original EAS capability even on Windows Mobile. (I could be misremebering this). Notes has always been a sort of love/hate IMHO. A flat file of yellow stickies got unmanageable very quickly. OneNote is really a much better option form this sort of free-form bits of info catalog. My guess at a 'survey' was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but based on many the rational for many such bizarre direction decisions over the years. The followup question always becomes, "who the heck did you survey?" Sometimes you wonder if the answer isn't, 'a group that gave us the result we wanted' ;)

[Fritzly]

Not sure that is entirely true, IF, you have an Exchange/Sharepoint environment. Seems to actually cover that scenario pretty well. I don't get the lack of tasks support, but that has always been a little spotty. IIRC that wasn't an original EAS capability even on Windows Mobile. (I could be misremebering this). Notes has always been a sort of love/hate IMHO. A flat file of yellow stickies got unmanageable very quickly. OneNote is really a much better option form this sort of free-form bits of info catalog. My guess at a 'survey' was somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but based on many the rational for many such bizarre direction decisions over the years. The followup question always becomes, "who the heck did you survey?" Sometimes you wonder if the answer isn't, 'a group that gave us the result we wanted' ;)

Well the Exchange/Sharepoint scenario is quite tricky: my understanding is that first you need Sharepoint 2010, second depending of how are the Exchange security policies set a WP7 device could not be an option at all because it is not possible to encrypt it, third we were told by one of our software provider that in order to use Sharepoint 2010 and WP7 you also need to implement some instance of Forefront.

Granted the capabilities of the Calendar, Tasks and other apps that shipped with WM were not the best and most powerful available, I used Pocket Informant for example, but the basic capabilities were there. WP7 calendar is pathetic to say the least: there is no week view, the month view is useless, no categories and yes no tasks at all.

[whydidnt]

Don't doubt the horror stories I have seen on the web about WM, but for me, Classic WM is still the most stable of the mobile OS's I use, and still out of the box does more of the things I use than competing platforms.

Well, I used to feel, "it's not that bad". Then I used an iPhone and a higher end Android device for a while before purchasing the HD2, and truthfully, for me it was "that bad". Maybe I had a bad device, or something, but I was really frustrated by daily slowdowns, and found myself resetting constantly. I was also "trained" to use my finger by the other OSs, so trying to hit the right spot on the HD2 screen's outside of Sense was another downer. Microsoft had to do something, I'm not sure a complete reboot was required, but it probably was easier than trying to completely reskin and rewrite what they already had.


Their marketing dept for Classic WM (if they had one) should have been CTRL ALT DEL'd, not the product.

You make valid points regarding marketing. Microsoft has never been very good at marketing to end-consumers, and really has rarely even tried. I would be willing to venture a guess that their marketing budget is similar to the competitions, though. They just have always preferred to spend their $ on incentives to OEMS and retailers instead of consumer campaigns. The biggest issue is at the corporate level they still really haven't embraced the fact that their customers are the end-user, not the companies that make and market these devices. Until they do that, I think they will continue to see limited success in this space.

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Many of those aforementioned Tasks apps are far superior to what WM had though. I use OmniFocus, which is about 1000x more powerful.

Not having Tasks built-in means no database for tasks, which leads to all kinds of frustrating scenarios if you want to use your software of choice, but require other functionality from other software. For example, Pocket Informant on Android uses Toodledo for tasks sync, but if you want to sync with Outlook the few solutions out there use their own software (ie a separate database on your device). Then in my case, I want a nice widget, which so far seems to be Agenda Widget, but oh wait, they don't support Toodledo but another set of on-line tasks services.

This is all just very buggered up. Doesn't anyone organise their life based on the things they need to do, among other things?

[Sven Johannsen]

Well the Exchange/Sharepoint scenario is quite tricky:

Granted the capabilities of the Calendar, Tasks and other apps that shipped with WM were not the best
I'll grant the technicalities of getting a working Exchange/Sharepoint/Forefront implementation isn't trivial, but the opportunity for a full enterprise type installation is there. Support for me is not, when it comes to Office file management.

Wasn't commenting on the relative merits of the native PIM apps, just that in my recollection, we with direct Outlook sync had task and note sync way before the Exchange server sync guys did, and I don't think that ever supported notes. Just a point that it seemed that historically tasks didn't seem to be high on the list for some reason.

[jimtravis]

Well, I used to feel, "it's not that bad". Then I used an iPhone and a higher end Android device for a while before purchasing the HD2, and truthfully, for me it was "that bad". Maybe I had a bad device, or something, but I was really frustrated by daily slowdowns, and found myself resetting constantly. I was also "trained" to use my finger by the other OSs, so trying to hit the right spot on the HD2 screen's outside of Sense was another downer.

You make valid points regarding marketing. Microsoft has never been very good at marketing to end-consumers, and really has rarely even tried. I would be willing to venture a guess that their marketing budget is similar to the competitions, though.

I do have the HD2 as well since it is probably the last, and best of Classic WM devices. I have not experienced the slowdowns you mention. Rarely have to reset the HD2. Not doubting you had the problems, just not a problem for me. Did you perhaps have a rogue 3rd party app, or an app multi-tasking in the background that was using CPU cycles?

I did experience the touch situation you mentioned outside of Sense with one or two 3rd party apps. With Sense, and even the PIM apps when you exited to WM, I had no problems with touch at all. With a 3rd party app or two, it could be tricky, but did not encounter often. Since the HD2 was a capacitive screen device (first I am aware of) used with Classic WM, and the 3rd party apps were a year or so old designed for resistive screens, not surprised. If MS had not given up on Classic WM, updated 3rd party apps probably would have solved that problem. At least for me, it was an infrequent, minor inconvenience. Sense was as smooth as iOS, but the reduced smoothness with old 3rd party apps was acceptable since I could do tasks on the HD2 with those apps that I can still not do with an iOS device even a jailbroken touch. I'll take a bit of smoothness reduction vs. not being able to do the tasks at all.

You are probably correct in MS spent a lot on Classic WM marketing, but in the wrong places. Still go with their Classic WM marketing dept should have been CTRL ALT DEL'd, not the platform.

[Fritzly]

I'll grant the technicalities of getting a working Exchange/Sharepoint/Forefront implementation isn't trivial, but the opportunity for a full enterprise type installation is there. Support for me is not, when it comes to Office file management.

Wasn't commenting on the relative merits of the native PIM apps, just that in my recollection, we with direct Outlook sync had task and note sync way before the Exchange server sync guys did, and I don't think that ever supported notes. Just a point that it seemed that historically tasks didn't seem to be high on the list for some reason.

Same here; we use MS SBS and we are not going to invest in a Forefront solution just to be able to do with WP7 what we were able to do with WM. I also agree that while not perfect syncing with the desktop was extremely useful and yes, it included notes too, soemthing that as you correctly stated Exchange, at least the 2007 Edition does not seem to be able to do.

I am not interested to sync in the "Cloud" neither my personal nor our business documents, lots of companies would not even allowed to do it legally so I do not understand why MS executives keep heralding WP7 as a device for business while, at least for the time being, clearly it is not.

[BBF]

Windows Phone 7 was started in December 2008 and delivered in December 2010. The author says designed, coded, and shipped in 12 months. Perhaps he is not the best qualified to write a tech story not being able to do simple arithmetic? Also, I'll bet much code was from the Zune so it really was not completely designed and coded starting 12/08.

Yep... it definitely a fluff piece fed to MS zealots and people not familiar with software engineering. WP7 is built on Windows CE 7. Just like how WM5,6... are built on top of Windows CE 5.

I can say for certain that: MS DID NOT DESIGN THE WP7 OS FROM SCRATCH IN DEC 2008.

They may have scrapped plans for WM7, and redefinied what would be the next "Phone OS", but a lot of the building blocks, like Windows CE 7 were already well on their way to being finished independent of the WP7 project. However, having said that, building a whole new user friendly shell and development environment in even two years is quite an acheivement for Microsoft or any company for that matter considering how it's relatively bug free and stable enough for relatively mission critical (phone) use. Granted I bet most of the components used in WP7 had been floating around MS Research for years, so weren't actually conceived and implemented in two years. (Notice how the WP7 UI is very similar to the ZuneHD UI which was released in 2009.) I think MS pretty much used the ZuneHD as the prototype for WP7.

[Jason Dunn]

I do have the HD2 as well since it is probably the last, and best of Classic WM devices. I have not experienced the slowdowns you mention. Rarely have to reset the HD2. Not doubting you had the problems, just not a problem for me. Did you perhaps have a rogue 3rd party app, or an app multi-tasking in the background that was using CPU cycles?

I figured I'd weigh in here...for over a year I was using an HD2, and while I'd proudly proclaim that it's the best Windows Phone I'd ever used up until that point, it still had lots of problem. I had virtually no third party software installed, but the device would often become sluggish and non-responsive. It seemed to actually get a bit worse after the most recent ROM upgrade. Doing something simple like sending a text message felt slow and ponderous - and that on-screen keyboard....bleh. It sucked.

Now when I compare that experience with my LG Quantum, there's simply no contest. I can check email, send a text, or hop on the Web at least 3x faster than I could with my HD2. Sure, I give up a lot of power-user features...no tethering for me, no file system, etc. But I also get great Zune synching for my media files, which is important to me. Windows Phone 7 isn't a magically perfect platform for me, but I feel like, all in all, I gained more than I lost when I retired my HD2.

[Fritzly]

I figured I'd weigh in here...for over a year I was using an HD2, and while I'd proudly proclaim that it's the best Windows Phone I'd ever used up until that point, it still had lots of problem. I had virtually no third party software installed, but the device would often become sluggish and non-responsive. It seemed to actually get a bit worse after the most recent ROM upgrade. Doing something simple like sending a text message felt slow and ponderous - and that on-screen keyboard....bleh. It sucked.

Now when I compare that experience with my LG Quantum, there's simply no contest. I can check email, send a text, or hop on the Web at least 3x faster than I could with my HD2. Sure, I give up a lot of power-user features...no tethering for me, no file system, etc. But I also get great Zune synching for my media files, which is important to me. Windows Phone 7 isn't a magically perfect platform for me, but I feel like, all in all, I gained more than I lost when I retired my HD2.

I think most of the slow down you experienced were related to Sense; I got rid of it and never got delays.

As for WP7 I have mixed feelings: I have used a HD 7 for three months now and all its shortcomings are more amd more affecting my daily experience: I noted that browsing internet is slower with the HD 7 and I use the same provider, T-Mobile, and I am in the same location; the issues with a "primitive" calendar, the need to use Zune software, of course lack of tasks and categories and many other small details have made me interested to see what the iPhone 5 will bring on the table, while waiting and see what kind of updates MS will bring and how fast.