The new Windows Phone 7 (not mobile) is out & is getting some rave reviews . Was at the congress in Barcelona this week & had a play with it, very, very slick ...
Yes stellar reviews, which is nice to see. Windows 7 has been successful all round in fact which considering Microsoft had been pretty much written off in the face of google and Apple it shows that there is very much life in the old dog yet!
I still happen to think Android will win the race in the end, but I think second place will be closer between apple and microsoft now on the mobile platform.
I'm planning to buy a smartphone in the fall so I'm keeping a keen interest on what's coming out. I've been planning to get an android and nothing has changed after seeing that. I'm sure there are loads of people who'll dig the social network stuff. I'm not one of them though. I've got profiles but not once in my life have I posted a status message.
I'm a PS player as well so I'm not interested in the xbox feature.
Apart from that it seems the OS is just an Iphone lite. They tell you what the OS will look like and what they'll allow you play.
I don't like handing over my money to freely join a monopoly.
With android I'm confident there'll be programms equally as good to the ones on Iphone and windows mobile but Andriod is the only one you'll be able to dump something and change it if you don't like it plus you won't have to ask google if it's allowed by taken it of their exclusive store
I'd steer clear of google then if I were you.
So is this just a home softphone then...? (Terry does not quite get technology haha)
Serious question. Why's that?
They seem to be the only ones not fully controlling the layout of the phone. Fully controlling the apps which will be available and banning rival apps of each own.
Am I wrong? Is it really a matter of choosing the lesser evil?
Yes and no. It depends what you mean by monopoly.
The platform is a monopoly of the company that owns it for a start. Apple own Apple OS, Microsoft own Windows 7 Mobile and Android is owned by Google.
Above that there are the applications on the phone. Apple are by a country mile the most "monopolistic" in control terms on their phone - if it doesnt pass the apple police you dont have a chance.
Microsoft as yet havent dived into the app world but would like to set up their own store im sure, however with a well embedded development language in .net I would be suprised personally if they didnt allow independant sales of applications for windows 7 mobile from whoever chooses to sell them.
this is much the same model as google though google seem to have said that the actual os, android itself will be "available to developers". But this isnt as clear to me as it seems. If the phone OS is avaiable for true developement, in terms of the core kernel, then any developer who modified it would then have to sell that as their phone OS which is a non starter. if its just making the phone applicaiton interface available to developers then they are in my own personal and not really that informed opinion, more open than apple but not really any more open than microsoft . thats assuming MS dont do their own "microsoft only" approach where all apps have to be vetted by them, which if they do, is a mistake and they deserve the same fate apple will probably come to.
Mike
Hi,
as a developer, Microsoft does have the more interesting platform for development for me as they do not force me to downgrade my computer in order to develop apps or force me to go through anti competition checks in order to publish my application.
Google Android, especially with the HTC Sense UI does look interesting but I use very few Google apps and none that I would miss if I stopped using them. So would I be getting the full value from the platform ?
If windows mobile 7 delivers it might be my next phone os. However, I hope they don't make the mistake again of not allowing you to change the language on the phone.
Interesting times.
Have fun
Martin
There are two major problems with Winmo 7:
- the mere announcement of Winmo7 coming out in December will hamper the sales for WinMo 6.5 devices. A lot of people who were about to buy a new phone (like the HD2, which, apparently, won't be upgradeable to WinMo, at least not the European version) will now go for an iPhone or for Android.
- Since WinMo7 won't run WinMo 6.x software, software developers will stop producing software for the current platform more or less immediately. At the same time, since the dev kits aren't out for WinMo 7, they won't be working on WinMo7 software, either. They'll instead concentrate on the iPhone and on Android. By the time WinMo7 comes out, there will be about as many apps for it as for the Palm Pre (meaning: none.)
If you look at how much damage the (one year) late release of WebOS has done to the Palm Treo brand, it's hard to imagine how Microsoft can pull the car out of the mud again.
Peter
Well they better release it shortly because win 6.5 is utter crap!
Agreed completely...
Even now, the market place of windows mobile is pretty miserable.
Which is fine because win 6.5 is all buggy anyway!!
I take it you weren't happy with the HD2, either?
Peter
erm....maybe.
Well, it looks very nice!
I just have problems with windows mobile, the many bugs, the slow reaction time, the automatic data connection, the programs always in memory using battery, the lack of decent apps, etc...
See how a bit of competition makes you try harder. Maybe Microsoft have learned how to behave in a market where they don't have a monopoly. I'm not a fan, but they do have a record of keeping on plugging away and not giving up.
Smartphone shmartphone. Software platform aside, Google's weakness is the same as Microsoft's: a dependency on someone else to make the hardware to run the software. Apple effectively make their own kit. But this can also be a weakness...
Funny how, despite the iPhone detractors, most smartphones now look like iPhone clones. (I know, I know. HTC or someone had something that looks like an iPhone out before Apple, but you know what I mean).
Disclaimer : I don't have a smartphone. I hate mobile phones in general. No gadget appeal. I've had a mobile for 10 years (not the same one of course!). Wish I could still get one with no camera and no colour screen.
man thats just needless. Every single time someone has to put the boot into MS.
Apple released the first one but it was just a technology evolution, all the players would move to this design as surface computing evolved.
They're still around. They can afford it. They also deserve it .
I'm not so sure it was as natural as that. I'm sure the incumbents were doing a bit of rent seeking until the Apple upstart appeared.
Apple went from nothing to 18% marketshare by platform and manufacturer by Q3 2009. What's their profit share of that? They're doing something right. Meanwhile MS share declined from 12.2% to 8% from Q3 2007 to Q3 2009.
Microsoft are miles behind in smartphone's I am not arguing that, I was pointing out that this idea of using the screen as the interface would have arrived anyway - the API is built into Windows 7 and was from the start for example, to demonstrate how another vendor (and that it is microsoft is irrelevent) would have evolved into this platform.
What I dislike is when MS release anything, on any platform across their entire spectrum, people who follow Apple will look down with a caustic spitting tone and announce that this is just so inferior to Apple.
Apple are a monopoly who control every aspect of their phone from the hardware component to every single application sold on it. If they carry on getting bigger then they will have to change, or they will come under the same anti competitive pressures that they just love to crow on about when it comes to Microsoft.
I can confirm that :-/