WM 7 to Focus on Touches & Gestures!

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://microsoft.blognewschannel.com/archives/2008/01/06/exclusive-windows-mobile-7-to-focus-on-touch-and-motion-gestures/' target='_blank'>http://microsoft.blognewschannel.co...otion-gestures/</a><br /><br /></div><i>"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."</i><br /><br />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.

[brayndeded]

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!!

[Dyvim]

All this sounds great and I can't wait to see it, but 2009? The iPhone will probably be on v3 by then. This should have been out in 2007.

[alese]

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...

[yildi]

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.

Murat

[MichaelA]

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...

[alese]

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...

[ianl]

Oh No - more bloatware for Gen Z. WM6 was bad enough ...

When will real issues like constant, debilitating RAM leaks be addressed ?

And worst of all, ROM changes "deactivate" expensive commercial apps because the DeviceID is changed.

It's clear we haven't yet reached the "bottom" in the race for it.

[twpd]

Oh dear!

Why don't they concentrate of fixing the bugs, making it easier to manage/set-up and, sorting out the poor functionality?

I have a Dell Axim x50v (fine device-poor O/S) and a Treo 680. The Treo is a revelation in terms of speed, ease of use, stability and ease of set-up.

[Dyvim]

everything is just a copy of the stuff from the iPhone, with possible exception of shaking and tilting for doing stuff
Which seems to be a copy of stuff from Nintendo's Wii.

[virain]

All those bells and whistles, that WM7 will bring to the table, must require much more power, Faster processor, more RAM. And knowing how OEMs try to stay at the minimum requirements, I do expect slow, laggy, and very expensive devices. Just look at Vista.

[deadeyed]

2009?? isn't that a bit too late?? :? :?

As apple will be offering HSDPA iphone &amp; release SDK for 3rd program this year. I think I'll give the upcoming iphone a try. :lol: :lol:

[Russ Smith]

What's with all the Vista-bashing? Vista's pretty face is a lot more than OSX me-too-ism. It's there because Microsoft totally revised the way the desktop renders, taking advantage of modern graphics card technology. Vista's most important advances are like that. The visable aspects are simply repercussions of (often totally) reworked underlying processing. I actually hope that WM follows Vista's trend and isn't just plastering a different UI on top of the same underlying OS.

Let's see if I can put 2009 in another perspective: It's 2008 already and we have to wait 12 whole months(!!) Good grief. I'd actually be surprised if Apple has another iteration of iPhone out by then. MS had already been working on WM7 when the iPhone came out. They undoubtedly took a look at it and modified a few ideas to more completely compete with it. Apple could have done more of that. They forgot a number of features all the competing products have (No 3g, no removable memory, no Exchange or Office support).

[virain]

What's with all the Vista-bashing?
There's nothing wrong with Vista! Problem is with hardware manufacturers! They intend to offer devices made to the MINIMUM requirement for running OS. And unlike your desktop or notebook that you can have made to order, to your specs, you have no choice for WM devices, s.a. smart phone. Hence, you will get slow, laggy, often freezing and crashing device, and of course Microsoft is the one to be blamed. Unless MS can force OEMs to produce devices with adequate power to run OS AND 3-Party Software

[Phillip Dyson]

I'd actually be surprised if Apple has another iteration of iPhone out by then.

Im thinking they will.
but it will be to add 3G and more capacity.
Maybe throw in a few more bluetooth profiles .

[Yata]

Oh dear, it's the Zune all over again.

All these changes are going to be competing against the last generation of iPhone, rather than the current version.

Oh well, I guess it's up to Nokia to give Apple a kicking.

[Dyvim]

Let's see if I can put 2009 in another perspective: It's 2008 already and we have to wait 12 whole months(!!) Good grief.
Yeah it's 12 months to January 2009, but 23 months to December 2009. Did they specify January? Because if they didn't, it probably means something closer to December.

So yeah, I do expect most of the other industry players to have 1 or 2 new device iterations before the first WM 7 device is actually in customer's hands (including WM which will be doing WM 6.1 some time this year).

[unxmully]

From the blog:

Touch may be the actual product name as it stands.

Hmmm, I suspect that one line may either turn out to be untrue or end someone up in court.

[mv]

Looks nice. But this was needed by WM a year ago, not a year in the future. By then, i'm sure the iphone, symbian, and other, will be more appealing. Or maybe not. I was impressed with WM back in 2000... and i was also impressed with WM2003. But since then, i have see no improvements in usability - this may be THE wm version that will atract the masses, but please, MS need it now!!!

I'll just wait in symbian. I need to see to believe. ;)

[reidme]

This has to be a joke.