Leaked Windows Phone 7 Docs Describe Updates, Customization

[Pete Paxton]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/04/leaked-windows-phone-7-docs-show-off-wince-6-underpinnings.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss' target='_blank'>http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/ne...tm_campaign=rss</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The documents reinforce our understanding of Windows Phone 7 as a revamped approach, though there are still obvious traces of Windows Mobile. Microsoft wants to control both the hardware and apps as much as it possibly can without actually taking away the role of its partners. Thus, it is trying to restrict the influence of providers, manufacturers, and users so that the overall experience is improved. We'll be watching closely for changes and additions in later revisions of the architecture's specifications."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1271824752.usr11642.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>The more I read about Windows Phone 7, the more nervous I get. I want it to work and be huge. I'd love to see Microsoft get back in the mobile device game in a big way. I just hope they can. With the Iphone being so big and a new OS and possibly a new Iphone coming, I just feel that Windows Phone 7 seems like a long way off. Things are sounding good though. The Snapdragon processor will be fast and the resolution sounds great. Thank goodness MS is taking over the update feature instead of waiting for the providers. And hopefully Direct 3D 11 will provide enough graphics juice to be impressive. What do you all think? Are these features going to be in time or will people be looking past Windows Phone 7 and on to the next best thing when this fall arrives?</p>

[Fritzly]

Interesting concept:

"Thus, it is trying to restrict the influence of providers, manufacturers, and users so that the overall experience is improved."

I wonder who decided restricting my "influence" will improve my experience.....
No big deal though: I am not going to buy a WP7 device.

[mlashmet]

Hate to say it, but I think I've already looked past WM as a viable solution for my needs. My Touch Pro will likely be the last WM phone I'll have for a while. I don't like the way they seem to be going backwards. No real multitasking, no cut and paste, no native support for external cards, no 3rd party developer access to native code. The list just gets longer and longer. Meanwhile, Apple seems to be going the other way, resolving many of these same issues that we complained about with the iphone. I want WM to succeed. I really do. I've loved it from day one. I've put up with the problems, the reboots, the lack of updates, all because I thought it was worth it. However, seeing the direction they seem to be going now, I think my next phone is going to be an Android OS. The Sprint EVO 4G looks great. Sorry, WM, you had an ugly car that occasionally broke down, but generally worked well. i could slap a new coat of paint on it (TouchFlo3d) and live with the flaws. Now you're trying to sell me a tricycle and tell me that i can do most of the same things I could before. I'm just not buying it.

[virain]

It all makes scense, MS target market is a regular user, who has other priorities in life, then sit and wait till a battery on a device dies out, so he can post time of it on blog. I am very interested in what MS has to offer. Although, I am not willing to offer my arm and a leg for a new device. Hopefully, prices will be competitive.

[Craig Horlacher]

If I wanted an iphone, I'd buy an iphone which already has a ton of apps and support behind it. I would not buy a new device that has basically no apps and almost no support behind it. The iphone is coming up on it's 4rd revision so there is a good chance it will be more polished. At this point all WinPhone has going for it over the iphone that I can see is Flash - assuming Adobe makes a Silverlilght version of Flash which I'm sure they will but I think that's kind of funny:)

[kerrins]

I agree with mlashmet. My current Tilt 2 is most likely going to be the last WM device I own. Every time I hear more about WM7, the more I freak out. It's getting more restrictive, no cut and paste, no memory cards (that's just stupid). MS is just going the wrong direction for me. My contract is up in about a year, so I have a long wait, but by then I'm pretty sure the iPhone 4.0 OS will be out, which looked awesome on the video I saw. MS - It was nice knowing you, but time to say goodbye.

[Paragon]

I am a longtime Windows Mobile user, and contributor, and I too will not be making the jump to WP7. I find the price (sacrifice) too high.

Loosing so many features that have been the backbone of the platform for a decade, seems totally unnecessary. I don't like the iron fist grip they are putting on this new platform. Every single WP7 device is going to look and act just like every other one. No customization. Part of the reason so many of us latched onto Pocket PC/Windows Mobile was because of the flexibility of it. It was a lot like cars are to some people, who don't buy a car just to drive it. You buy it because there are so many things you can do to it, and so many things available for it, to allow you to customize it. That aspect is gone with WP7.

I'm very disappointed in the lack of innovation in WP7. Other than it's future xbox integration there is nothing new. Even the iPhone is going to be far ahead of it by launch time.

Microsoft is the world's largest software developer. It has huge resources available to it that should make it easily the world's leader in mobility. Instead they have chosen to follow what Apple has done, by locking down the device, having a very tightly controlled marketplace, and stripping many lifelong features from the platform.

With this approach, by launch time this is going to be a rather dated OS, a couple of steps behind Apple even. And it a will have opened the door wide open for Android to continue on its fast pace. As it matures it will fill the hole Windows Mobile has left, and all the new WP7 can hope to do is pick up the leftovers from the iPhone.

With the tighter control MS is taking, they are making it much less appetizing for OEMs because now they are left with nothing to enable them to standout from the others. Look what TouchFlo/Sense did for HTC. They no longer have the ability to do this. It's the same thing for carriers as well, since they are very limited as to what they can add to the device.

Developers have less access to the OS giving them less ability to integrate their applications.

I think Microsoft made a very bad decision by putting too much weight behind one single issue, stability. Stability is important, but with WP7 they made too many cuts in their feature list in the name of stability. In its latest versions Windows Mobile has become a pretty stable OS. Any instability issues could have be dealt with in a much less draconian way.

I think that a lot of dissatisfaction we have been hearing from people about Windows Mobile has more to do with boredom with a very familiar platform and a loss of excitement that goes along with that, more than any anything else. I think staying on the path they were on, but with a fresh new look and feel would have made a lot more sense then dumping what they had in favor of trying to imitate someone else's success.

Thank you Windows Mobile for the memories. Its been a great run, but I think it is over for me. Hopefully WP7 will be a success for Microsoft.

Dave

[Don Tolson]

(to use the old '60 Minutes' segment concept)...

I'm actually looking forward to seeing what MS is going to do with this new concept -- moving away from providing a 'development platform' to an application one, which is more focussed on the general consumer, rather than those of us looking for a pocket laptop.

A number of developers I've seen on the airwaves are quite impressed by the tools being provided by MS to create customer-centric, social networking and media rich (and integrated) applications. It's a very different world from what we on the Pocket PC world have been used to.

Many of the features 'missing' are either a) not really missing or b) have very good reasons for not being there, if you read through the entire article. From what I read there, WP7 will have multi-tasking, can support copy-paste, and could support microSD cards.

My biggest concern is the lack of discussion from MS regarding Enterprise support features and 'work-related' capability. From what I read on MS' Windows 7 'backstage', it looks like there will be good integration with Office and Sharepoint, but some critical parts (for me) are absent in the discussion (like Tasks). It's the lack of enterprise integration which is holding the iPhone back (somewhat) from even more penetration.

Question for me is 'Why is MS going after the consumer phone market?' It's already a dog-eat-dog world, and outside of NA, the phones themselves are basically 'commodity' sells. I hope it isn't trying to go head-to-head with Apple in branding their own phone, with all the restrictions that implies....

[caywen]

WP7 isn't going to cut it and Microsoft knows it. The important objectives for Microsoft are, however:

1. Establish a new brand
2. Discard the stodgy old image of Windows Mobile
3. Create a new, flexible platform that they can rapidly iterate on
4. Rebuild and reset relationships with hardware partners

It's really all about WP8. WP7 is their mobile Vista and they know it.

[Quoin]

(to use the old '60 Minutes' segment concept)...


Question for me is 'Why is MS going after the consumer phone market?' It's already a dog-eat-dog world, and outside of NA, the phones themselves are basically 'commodity' sells. I hope it isn't trying to go head-to-head with Apple in branding their own phone, with all the restrictions that implies....


Good point - as a 10 year pocket pc enterprise user the launch of WP7 was a sad day. Without the apps I need (such as Pocket Informant, EWallet, Infinity Power One Calculator - all of which are now developed for iPhone) I will have to switch platform when my HTC HD2 eventually expires. But if I do that, I ask why my businesses would want to stay with Windows/Office/Outlook/IE8 at all - I wonder if Microsoft has really thought through the revenue implications of abandoning the mobile enterprise market and chasing the consumer?

[Mastersoft]

As a small developer I too am impressed by the tools for Windows Phone 7 but I wont be developing for it. Getting paid by Marketplace is hit and miss, submitting apps is very expensive, and as far as my own apps are concerned they just don't sell in volume on WM6.5 when compared with iPhone. I really hope WP7 is a huge hit in which case I may come back for WP8, but I'm more and more entrenched in iPhone development now and expect to target Android soon.

[doogald]

As a small developer I too am impressed by the tools for Windows Phone 7 but I wont be developing for it. Getting paid by Marketplace is hit and miss, submitting apps is very expensive, and as far as my own apps are concerned they just don't sell in volume on WM6.5 when compared with iPhone. I really hope WP7 is a huge hit in which case I may come back for WP8, but I'm more and more entrenched in iPhone development now and expect to target Android soon.

This sounds a little "chicken and egg." If app developers wait for users to adopt the platform, but users wait for app developers to create cool apps before they switch, that could be a huge step for this platform.