Windows Phone 7: The AnandTech Guide
by Brian Klug on March 21, 2010 12:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Windows Phone 7
- Mobile
Final Words
At the end of our discussion, I talked with Andre about the work the WP7S team has ahead of them. It's hard to not get excited about just how dramatic this platform reboot is, but there's obviously still much to be done before launch Q4 2010. What really stuck out in his response was one line - he mentioned that the Microsoft team is approaching WP7S with a "crawl, walk, run" philosophy. Right now, they're still at crawl.
That isn't to say the team is crawling forward, but rather that they're nailing down core things first and plan to rapidly deploy extra features later. They call these extra features "delighters," and although copy and paste and multitasking won't be among them at launch, it's very likely (if not critical) that they come later. I asked about whether they're going to update WP7S devices continually - the same way older Zune hardware saw software platform updates years later - he confirmed this would be the case. There's something very Apple-like about this approach; focusing on what you have time for, only delivering what's done, and steadily updating. It's a refreshing difference from the oft-uncertain upgrade path most Windows Mobile devices were left at.
WP7S will have a hard case to make this holiday, against heavily entrenched competition - the same competition which will very likely have compelling updates of their own rolled out by Q4 2010. We'll likely see iPhone OS 4.0 before the year is over, and more flagship devices and software updates from Android. Microsoft needs to plan and develop for the future, and they're already behind - but they know it. The team will have to finalize and carefully decide on the remainder of their Marketplace criteria, get a number of carriers on board, nail their launch hardware with OEMs, build a large catalog of applications ready for launch, and keep their third party developers excited. The WP7S dev team knows it has this hard work cut out for them, but what we've seen so far is a promising and compelling deviation from the past. They've demonstrated they're not afraid to purge themselves of the old, and start anew.
It's a philosophy that's radical for Microsoft, a company that has built its empire on backwards compatibility. To have a key OS team within Microsoft accepting the fact that sometimes you need to douse the place, light a match and walk away is huge. That's exactly what Windows Phone 7 Series feels like. I only hope that the rest of Microsoft is willing to do the same, if necessary.
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Hrel - Friday, March 26, 2010 - link
Yeah, pretty sure I'll never buy any portable ANYTHING that doesn't support expandable memory. I don't need more iphones out there, thanks anyway.jconan - Tuesday, March 23, 2010 - link
Will Microsoft support Unicode in its WP7S phones? They never got around to it on the Zune. I hope they do for WP7S and hopefully in Courier. It's easier to read text the way it's meant to be read than in gibberish ascii with diacritics.MonkeyPaw - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
Wow, all this talk about Web-capable smartphones sure makes me wish for a mobile version of Anandtech.com. :|toyotabedzrock - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
We have heard this promise of adding features before!RandomUsername3245 - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
The article says, "There's also of course the stigmata attached to buying a phone preloaded with a bevy of carrier-branded applications."The author should have used "stigma" rather than "stigmata". Stigmata is a Roman Catholic reference: (from dictionary.com) marks resembling the wounds of the crucified body of Christ, said to be supernaturally impressed on the bodies of certain persons, esp. nuns, tertiaries, and monastics.
CSMR - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
Stigmata is just the plural of stigma. "Stigmas" is normally better but stigmaga is correct. So the problem with the sentence is that "is" is singluar and "stigmata" is plural.jhh - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
Applications can't currently run in the background, but they can process push notifications. Does this mean that any application that wants to provide background processing needs to wake the phone via push notifications? If so, do those mean that the push notifications need to come through a Microsoft back-end notification server? If so, that would be another case of application lockdown. I can't see Facebook or Twitter wanting to run their traffic through Microsoft just to be able to use the notification service.ncage - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
Is it perfect? Nope but i still think its pretty dang good. Can't wait. I will still probably get a nexus one when it comes out tuesday but will get a wp7 near xmas. Have a BB Tour now and i hate it with a passion. If your not an email addict then i don't think you would ever like a BB. I'd get a palm pre instead if it didn't sound like they were just about to die. RIM should buy them.hessenpepper - Sunday, March 21, 2010 - link
Will the tight hardware requirements allow Microsoft to release upgrades directly to the end users or will they release in to the manufacturers/carriers? Will we be at their mercy for timely upgrades?MGSsancho - Monday, March 22, 2010 - link
Part of the reason Microsoft wants tight control over hardware is so they can focus on other stuff and not write 9000 drivers. Windows CE works on ppc, x86, arm with varying amounts of ram and configurations. It is the same strategy Apple has, only have a few select hardware platforms and focus on the user experience.