Windows Phone 7

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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It’s been dogged by uncertainty but it now looks like Windows Phone 7 will be released in October.

The latest version of Microsoft’s mobile operating system, the successor to Windows Mobile 6.5, has had a number of false starts so far and although originally scheduled for release last year, has yet to be seen. Instead, Microsoft released Windows Mobile 6.5, a stop-gap release. Windows Mobile 6.5 was never actually part of Microsoft’s mobile roadmap but was released in October 2009, when it became obvious that Windows Phone 7 was not going to be completed in time.

Then in January this year Steve Ballmer announced Windows Phone 7 series – it’s official name – at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona. Despite the announcement Ballmer wouldn’t be drawn on the details of exactly when it would be released, saying only that it would be by the “holidays”.

It’s been seven months since that announcement and now it looks clear that Windows Phone 7 will be released around October. Earlier this week the company release a beta version of its developer tools for Windows Phone 7 [http://developer.windowsphone.com/] and at its Worldwide Partner Conference, chief operating officer Kevin Turner said that come October the company would be “back in the game” when referring to the company’s mobile strategy [http://www.thevarguy.com/2010/07/14/microsoft-coo-paints-google-as-evil-empire/].

Part of the delay in releasing Windows Phone 7 is that the new operating system is not just an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.x but a completely new offering. WP7 is intended to compete with the likes of Android and the iPhone and had to be completely overhauled.

The primary focus for Windows Phone 7 is on the business market, a place where Windows Mobile has always been strong. Focusing on this sector makes sense for Microsoft as it avoids going directly head-to-head in the consumer sector with Apple and Google. There will naturally be some overlap but if Microsoft can get business services right in Windows Phone 7 its chances of success are good.

What to expect

Although just about everything in Windows Phone 7 has changed from Windows Mobile 6, the most noticeable changes are in the interface.

Users that have used Microsoft’s Zune HD will feel immediately at home. The new user interface mimics that of the Zune. Large “tiles” on the home screen are used to launch favourite applications or websites. In addition, users can add “live” tiles to their launch screen with links to things such as a Facebook profile. The content on these tiles is automatically updated as the content on the linked sites are.

The tiles on the launch screen can also be dragged to re-order them, while swiping across the screen to the right brings up a screen with all installed applications.

One of Windows Phone 7′s core features is to provide “hubs” of information. For example, the People Hub aggregates friends from social networks into three areas: Recent, New and All. This makes it easy to follow status updates from friends and contacts.

Images on the phone are managed through the Pictures Hub which includes photos on the phone as well as new images on social networks. Pictures can also be shared from the Pictures Hub.

The Office Hub is a place for synchronising documents and includes OneNote, Microsoft’s very good note-taking application. The Office Hub will also include access to Outlook Mail which will have many of the features users are used to.

Windows Phone 7 will also use the Zune Marketplace in a similar way that the iPhone uses iTunes.

The big advantage Windows Phone 7 has is that it is able to seamlessly integrate the kinds of tools business users are most interested in: Microsoft Exchange, Office Communication Server, and other widely-used applications. The advantage that Microsoft has in this area is that many users are already accustomed to using these products so will easily slot into using them on Windows Phone 7.

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