Windows Phone 7: The AnandTech Guide
by Brian Klug on March 21, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Windows Phone 7
- Mobile
Office and Email Integration
Microsoft will tightly bundle its Office suite with WP7S. So far, we've seen examples of Outlook, OneNote, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint up and running. Of course, these have all been given a healthy dose of "metro" UI inspiration, with the selection of typograhpically-dominant pivots at the top, content down below. Of course, Office itself is a hub, although Outlook will exist outside as its own email application. Interestingly, the focus of the Office suite is no longer creating and editing documents, but quickly viewing and adding comments to prexisting documents synced or emailed. This shift in focus Microsoft is attributing to its own user feedback and research - they claim most users simply use Office to quickly glance at their documents. We'll see how close to the truth that is as time progresses. As an aside, I honestly have to wonder whether this data was generated from the same user demographic that can't be trusted with multitasking because they leave every application open...
We got the chance to see excel on its own, populated with real data as well as a relatively complicated chart. In addition, there have been a number of shots of Outlook out by itself. Outlook's focus is now on what the WP7S team is calling "email triage" - quickly being able to select and manage a number of messages at once. We only saw bits and pieces of Office at MIX10, and it's obvious that most of the suite isn't done yet. Microsoft has promised to unveil more about Office this June.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
55 Comments
View All Comments
pcfxer - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
Android is far easier to develop for than WM and iPhone. For my engineering project my team is developing a device for non-verbal users.pro5 - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
Is android Java only? (I don't know) but if so that would reason enough for me not to develop for it. C# and objective C are 'bad enough' but java has always left me cold (I'm a C++ coder mainly).If it can use native C++ then great, still doesn't make up for it's other short comings. The only real advantage I see to Android is how 'open' it is, but really that's more of killer than a helper in the dev community (if money is your goal). How does the GPU compare to Winphone for example? Where is the 'standard' development target (screen size, hardware features). Stuff like iPhone and WP7 are 'easier' to develop for because you never need to 2nd guess the user's hardware config or screen size (ok 2 sizes in the case of WP7 in future)
Penti - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
Android has the NDK so you can run native code, you don't need to run your code in dalvik. That means C and C++. Just as any other Linux based Phone OS. Such as WebOS. Of course Maemo too. Bada too of course, and of course none Linux based Symbian.The shit runs at the same hardware so what's your problem? Nobody is forcing you to develop for free. That you can release your apps without review is not a bad thing. Apps such as Firefox (Fennec) are ported to Maemo and being ported to Android. There's an Alpha for WinMo too. Something that can't be done on iPhone OS or Blackberry. Or WP7. If you only want to develop for a specific phone thats fine, but then you miss millions of other users. Even if you do android apps you don't need to support every single phone there is. Old phones won't be upgraded to newer versions of Android OS any way. And it's really the software platform that should have the focus any way.
jms102285 - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
Hey Anand, I sent you an E-mail regarding what the implications of Microsoft Communications Server just before the release of the WP7 is.... I haven't heard anything back yet in over a week from anyone I mailed about it.Are you guys tight-lipped about it because of NDAs or something???
CSMR - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
Not really (http://jkontherun.com/2009/11/23/windows-mobile-vs...">http://jkontherun.com/2009/11/23/window...droid-wi... but hopefully it will be within a year.I'm hoping that it will get full, reliable exchange support (e-mail+calendar+tasks+scheduling meetings+search server etc.).