Windows Phone 7 Series
Microsoft nailed it. Before today, I walked into the world of Mobile Operating Systems and saw the world everyone else saw. iPhone and Android will rule, out in the distance RIM, Nokia, and Palm will exist, and Windows Mobile would continue its slow and painful death. After today, unknowing of the world’s opinion, I’m going to say that the three that will rule will be Apple, Google, and Microsoft (and this is in no particular order).
Actually, after today, I would pit Microsoft as having the phone OS that I would most like to use followed by Android, and then by Android. I love the iPhone, it’s design, the visuals, you name it I love it, but recently I’ve been finding myself wanting more from the device. And this more can’t be found in the 150,000+ Applications. I find myself looking for an OS that is easy to navigate and organized, and is going to reduce my number of taps. The iPhone no longer does this. Having nine or more pages of sixteen apps was appealing in 2007, but now it’s boring, dull, and inefficient. Even the Android’s method of navigation is by pulling up a bar is dull when you come to think of it.
This is where Windows Phone 7 Series (man that’s a terrible name), and the Palm Pre truly accelerate. Rather than developing a mere SDK, and allowing for thousands upon thousands to be created and sold, what Palm, and now Microsoft are doing is opening up API’s and allowing developers to build upon the bare basic applications created. Take for example the social networking giant facebook. When they begin developing for Window Phone 7 Series, they don’t need to make a whole new application. Rather they can build on the “Hubs” created by Microsoft. For example, the “People” and “Photo” “Hubs” can both serve as the newsfeed and photo feed/uploading to facebook. Though, facebook is the only application that Microsoft demoed, plenty of web services could make use of Microsoft’s “Hubs”. The Palm Pre also does both, but not in such a neat fashion.
Moving onto organization, the “Hub” comes into play once more. By creating five “Hubs”, Microsoft has now defined the parameters for developers. When developers do make thousands of apps or do what I mentioned above, they’ll have to be part of “Games aka Xbox”, “Music/Video aka Zune”, “Productivity aka Office”, “People aka Facebook/Windows Live”, or “Photos aka Flickr/Facebook/Windows Live Photo Gallery”. It’s remarkable at how organization will fall into one of these five items, and how much time it can save the user at the end. Speaking of time, how about all those taps on the iPhone that I really hate doing. Windows Phone 7 Series seems to have a solution.
The best example of this was when Joe Belfiore was hungry and wanted Sushi. He’s in Barcelona, and has no idea where to get Sushi, so he presses the dedicated Search button on the bottom of the phone. Here pops up Bing, and he searches “Sushi”. Instead of searching the web or images, Bing brought up Local first and shows and lists a map of local Sushi joints in Barcelona. So now he chooses a place and decides to get info on it. Not only does it bring up location, phone number and the usual stuff that even Google Maps brings up on the iPhone, it also connects with Yelp and brings in review. Instead of having a map app, a yelp app, and who knows what else like on the iPhone, one simple Bing search gets it done. Similarly in the Zune/Music App, Pandora is integrated into the experience, so I don’t need a Pandora App, and an iPod app. It’s all neatly packaged for me.
Now I’m sure one could argue, and mention that if I did a search on Safari for Sushi, it too would find me everything I needed and give me reviews, thus I wouldn’t have to go to a ton of apps to get all the information I needed. You’re right… it probably does all that. If our future is truly be more dependent on the internet, then we must look at the big picture. Microsoft’s got Bing and Google’s Android OS has Google. Apple’s got no one and thus falls at the mercy of either Microsoft or Google to make the powerful applications that will aggregate the information we want. If Apple wants Google Maps on the iPhone to show Yelp results tomorrow, so it can match Microsoft’s OS, the change will be difficult as Apple isn’t in complete control of Google Maps (unless there’s some back deal going on that I’m missing). I’m not sure they do, but I think Steve Jobs saw the exact same problem that I do now. Google controls too much of the iPhone, and if we become more dependent on Safari and the Internet, Apple is in jeopardy, because Google will own the iPhone experience.
Neither Microsoft nor Google have to worry of this, as they have their own robust internet services. At the end of it, Microsoft’s smart methods of allowing developers to integrate with the “Hubs”, and organizing the OS into five “Hubs” will give users a pleasant experience. I’m praying that Jobs unveils iPhone OS 4.0, and proves that the iPhone is and will continue to be the dominant mobile OS, or the inevitable just might happen.
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