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Summary: I watched this week’s announcement of the new Windows Phone 7 Series from afar. Still, even over the Internet, it was an impressive demo, and the post-announce buzz has been positive. I’ve come up with seven big questions that stand out in my mind, wondering about the missing apps, the long wait, and whether that awkward name is really a liability.
I watched this week’s announcement of the new Windows Phone 7 Series over the web. It was in Barcelona, and I was stuck here at home digging out from under a mountain of work that piled up after a pleasant vacation. Still, even over the Internet, it was an impressive demo, and the post-announce buzz was uniformly positive. (ZDNet’s coverage includes excellent posts from my compadres Mary Jo Foley, Matthew Miller, and Joel Evans, analysis by Larry Dignan, and a slick image gallery.) After looking at the announcement and thinking over its ramifications, I’ve come up with seven big questions that stand out in my mind.
Is this a complete reset of the Windows Mobile line? And can Microsoft pull it off?
This is a new operating system, a new user interface, and a new set of requirements on hardware makers. What’s left? All in all, this is indeed a complete reset and a pretty spectacular admission that the old Windows Mobile line was years past its sell-by date.
The ZuneHD wasn’t a mere media player, it was a stealth, hidden-in-plain-sight workout of a new hardware platform.
It does invite shuddering comparisons to the XP-to-Vista transition, doesn’t it?
Fortunately, this isn’t as big a leap as it appears. The hardware, the OS, and the new UI have already had a pretty thorough shakedown in the evolution of the Zune hardware, which culminated in the ZuneHD, which is impressive technically even if it hasn’t been a hit sales-wise. For Zune-watchers who wondered why Microsoft was persisting in its seemingly quixotic competition with the iPod juggernaut, you now have your answer: The ZuneHD wasn’t a mere media player, it was a stealth, hidden-in-plain-sight workout of a new hardware platform. Based on the ZuneHD experience, we already know what the UI and hardware can do at a minimum, and there are some pretty impressive new technologies in the Windows Phone 7.
There’s a lot we can’t evaluate about the Zune/WinPhone7 platform, because it’s so opaque. Long Zheng identified the Zune’s “Iris” UI framework several years ago, but we still know little about it. In a private conversation yesterday, Rafael Rivera called Iris “a huge blackbox of a framework” and promised to tear it apart to see what makes it tick. I’m looking forward to reading about his discoveries.
So yes, there are unmistakable similarities to the reset that resulted in Windows Vista, but three years later I think there’s no question Microsoft has learned from those mistakes. No one within a thousand miles of Redmond wants to be associated with anything even remotely like another Vista, and there’s enough understanding of where that project went wrong that I think history is unlikely to repeat here.
Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications.
Ed Bott is a freelance technical journalist and book author. All work that Ed does is on a contractual basis.
Since 1994, Ed has written more than 25 books about Microsoft Windows and Office. Along with various co-authors, Ed is completely responsible for the content of the books he writes. As a key part of his contractual relationship with publishers, he gives them permission to print and distribute the content he writes and to pay him a royalty based on the actual sales of those books. Ed's books written prior to fall 2011 have been distributed by Que Publishing (a division of Pearson Education) and by Microsoft Press. As of November 2011, Ed is a partner in the independent publishing company Fair Trade Digital Exchange, which exclusively publishes his books.
On occasion, Ed accepts consulting assignments. In recent years, he has worked as an expert witness in cases where his experience and knowledge of Microsoft and Microsoft Windows have been useful. In each such case, his compensation is on an hourly basis, and he is hired as a witness, not an advocate.
Ed does not own stock or have any other financial interest in Microsoft or any other software company. He owns 500 shares of stock in EMC Corporation, which was purchased before the company's acquisition of VMware. In addition, he owns 350 shares of stock in Intel Corporation, purchased more than two years ago. All stocks are held in retirement accounts for long-term growth.
Ed does not accept gifts from companies he covers. All hardware products he writes about are purchased with his own funds or are review units covered under formal loan agreements and are returned after the review is complete.
Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades' experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications. He's served as editor of the U.S. edition of PC Computing and managing editor of PC World; both publications had monthly paid circulation in excess of 1 million during his tenure. He is the author of more than 25 books on Microsoft Windows and Office, including the recently released Windows 7 Inside Out.
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