Windows Phone 7 Series, my thoughts

So as the dust settles on the Windows Phone 7 Series details announced at Mix 2010 I thought it was about time that I chimed in with my thoughts on this new platform.

First off, after it was announced at Mobile World Congress I was genuinely excited, the first time in a long long time that a Windows Phone product has got my juices flowing, unfortunately after MWC I was left with lots more questions than answers but following Mix those questions are now getting answers but are they the right answers.

In my opinion Microsoft has taken a long hard look at the competition, it’s history and it’s future and has chosen to chase the dollar, what do I mean by this, well Windows Mobile was the power users platform of choice, the OS that the geeks of this world were proud to use, an OS that you could do anything with, no limits, no restrictions and a huge underground community to assist with those whims, of course attached to this were lots of complaints that devices slowed down, were buggy and crashed a lot, and to be honest they were.

That has now been blown apart with Windows Phone 7 Series, this OS is following the Apple model, locked down to the hilt, synching only with the Zune desktop software, apps only available via the Marketplace, very restricted multi- tasking, no memory card slots oh and I nearly forgot, no customisation of the user interface and wait for it……. No copy and paste, you can hear the screams and gnashing of teeth from the die hard Windows Mobile fans who have stuck up for the aging OS for years, Microsoft have said thanks but get lost, it’s not the choice for the geek anymore that is for sure, Android has just received a huge sales boost, you can read the comments on many popular Windows Phone forums, it’s the end of an era.

As far as I am concerned it’s the start of something fresh, new and usable, it’s a UI designed for finger navigation, structured and easy to use, app development is structured also and will have standards to be followed so apps will function and operate in similar ways like the iPhone and sandboxed, so it’s not all bad but Windows Phone 7 Series has just done the biggest U turn in OS history, geeks need not apply, Microsoft is targeting a whole new Market!

Let’s hope it has enough good features to attract this new market and also stand alongside what Apple has to offer with their new hardware and software in the summer, I fear for the future of Windows Phone 7 Series, I really do, if you copy a winning formula you have to have something special to compete with the original, I just don’t see what they have here, apart from less features, sure Xbox integration is nice but how deep will that go really and does anyone really want all that Facebook integration on their home screen, I don’t that’s for sure.

If Microsoft really wanted to wow the consumers who love their products, there should be Media Center integration, Windows phone 7 Series should be an extender and a remote control at the very least, access to TV Guide data and the ability to set up recordings, what a missed opportunity to bring everything together. It could also be a Windows Home Server remote admin tool, you should be able to use the My Phone service but not in the cloud but on your Windows Home Server, thats what its for, maybe I am being impatient, I just feel Microsoft could have done much more, they have had a long time to put this together, maybe they will add these features in time, but history does not show that, we will see.

What do you think?