Category: Software

Paul Foster, Developer Evangelist – Windows Phone 7 Series for Microsoft UK has spoken to Windows Phone Expert about the new Windows Phone 7 series OS.

To start with, he confirmed that Windows Mobile Device Centre will be dead as a doornail, killed by Zune PC software for media transfer.

Windows Phone 7 Series will be using the Zune PC software.  It was designed to be a best in class media experience and offer users the ability to easily synchronize music, videos and photos.

This change is probably long overdue, and we understand from other presentations most interaction with the device (synching and management) will happen over the air wirelessly, with the Zune software only handling media management. The Zune software will also be able to sync over WIFI, meaning OEM’s can finally make that super sliver device with no ports at all that syncs wirelessly

Next, asking about customizability of the OS, for both users and OEM’s Paul answered:

We redesigned the Windows Phone 7 Series from the ground up recognizing that phones are personal; not one-size-fits-all:  The iPhone, with its single form factor and locked-down user interface, can’t be right for everyone.  Phones are very personal and we believe people want to choose from a variety of phone designs (touch, keyboard, combination touch/keyboard, different screen sizes, etc…) and to be able to customize a phone to make it their own.  Windows phones meet these needs because we don’t follow a one-size-fits-all model.

We have dramatically changed our approach to the user experience with Windows Phone 7 Series and are taking accountability for the entire experience.  That means you will not see layers built on top of the UI by OEMs or MOs which have historically led to confusion and performance issues.  OEMs or MOs can customize the experience to bring their world class brands and services to the forefront.   Additionally, they can innovate in the HW design and we feel confident that our OEM partners will take advantage of this.

So basically the same situation as in the PC market.  While this works for Microsoft I am not so sure OEM’s will appreciate it.

Lastly and most importantly, he asked about the reception they expect in business from their entertainment-focussed OS. The response:

We’ve spoken to many enterprise customers.  The most important need we’ve heard from IT professionals and business decision makers is to deliver a phone that is compelling for end users. End users’ expectations have changed and grown to embrace mobile devices as more than just productivity tools.  They expect Smartphones to connect them to their friends, the services they use every day and a world of entertainment – all in a simple, intuitive way.  Windows Phone 7 Series has a smart design which makes it feel as if your phone understands what you care most about, so you never miss a moment that matters. We’ve also designed Windows Phone 7 Series to bring information together in end-to-end experiences so customers don’t have to.   

Mobile productivity, defined as access to e-mail, calendar, contacts and work documents, is the most frequent work usage scenario for Smartphones.  Windows Phone has a strong heritage in exceeding customer expectations for mobile productivity and the 7 Series will continue to deliver the most seamless Exchange e-mail, calendar and contacts experience for end users.   The 7 Series enables full access to documents on SharePoint sites and rich support for viewing and editing Office documents, including optimized mobile navigation and commenting in Word documents. No competing Smartphone on the market today offers these capabilities.

Combined with IT capabilities that businesses require and a choice of form factors from a range of device manufacturers, Windows Phone 7 Series delivers Smartphones that end users want with capabilities that organizations need.

Unfortunately the answer leaves out important 3rd party productivity tools.  Not everyone lives in Office and Excel, and custom 3rd party software is often a major feature of enterprise productivity.

Interestingly the interview turned up a particular focus on Android by Microsoft, presumably because they are direct competitors for OEMS.

Developers are important to Microsoft and particularly to Windows Phone; we take responsibility for creating a stable platform:  Platform fragmentation is a reality that all platform vendors face and it can create significant hurdles for the developer community.  Microsoft recognizes this and is taking a proactive approach to address it.  By maintaining a managed platform with a consistent set of API’s, plus a disciplined application certification process, Microsoft is able to ensure application compatibility across different Windows phone device IDs.  Making sure that Windows Phone 7 Series is consumer-ready is also important:  With a more complete consumer experience delivered with the launch of Windows phone – backed by our proven track record for delivering and supporting world-class consumer software and services like Windows Live, Xbox LIVE, Bing and Zune –Microsoft remains committed to providing a mobile platform that scales to deliver high-quality Smartphone experiences that delight millions of people around the globe.    The value of the Windows phone platform extends beyond the basic OS components delivered with Android to include an integrated package of rich end-to-end mobile services and features (e.g., easy and intuitive synch of photos and music, seamless integration of Outlook email and calendar, My Phone online service to manage and back-up contacts, calendar, texts, photos and more).  Partner profitability is also very important to us:  With 30 years of experience building software development platforms that generate revenue for partners, including nearly a decade of working closely with partners to ship over 50M mobile devices worldwide, Microsoft has a proven track record for fostering a healthy, vibrant, and profitable global partner ecosystem.

We speak with Android developers and find that they are increasingly frustrated.  While managing application and device compatibility across point releases is a challenge developers face on any platform, Android has made it extremely difficult and frustrating because 1) Android lacks an application certification process and 2) Android SDKs are not released in a timely fashion and they trail behind the rapid frequency of Android releases.  These problems have led to applications that crash Android phones and situations in which developers don’t have the chance to proactively create fixes before a new SDK releases that breaks their applications.  Additionally, Google is now competing directly with OEM partners and coming between carriers and their customers:  With the launch of Nexus One – Google’s first proprietary phone – Google is competing directly with their OEM partners.  They are also undermining the value of their carrier partners by coming between them and their customers by restricting distribution and creating customer dissatisfaction with their lack of customer service.  (Note:  Google’s Nexus One phone is only available directly from Google online and the only way to get support for the phone is to email Google and wait for a response within 48 hours).

Who knew Android developers were so unhappy?

What do our readers think?  Are you satisfied by the answers?  Let us know below, and read the full interview with many more questions here.

We recorded this video at Mobile World Congress which shows a detailed demo of SPB’s latest cross platform shell which will now be available on Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android.

The software relies heavily on OpenGL 2.0 and runs very well on the HTC HD2 and Samsung Omnia 2.

Are our readers interested in this UI, or with the improved UI’s from OEM’s these days are they becoming irrelevant? Let us know below.

It’s sort of a non-news bit of news, but today at Mobile World Congress, Research In Motion announced that its BlackBerry devices will enjoy a WebKit browser sometime this year. Why isn’t that very newsy? Well, if you’ve followed the RIM acquistion of Torch Mobile last year, then you pretty much already knew this. Torch Mobile used to make a WebKit-based browser for Windows Mobile devices, but no longer does. The company resources are devoted to bringing the browser to BlackBerry handsets instead. WebKit is already used as the basis of browsers for Apple’s iPhone, Google Android devices, and Palm’s webOS handsets, so RIM plans to bring a similar mobile web experience in-house.

Having used the WebKit browser on all three devices mentioned, my experience is that it generally does offer the best mobile experience to the masses. The lone outlier could be the Mozilla-based browsers on the Nokia N900 — the native microB and the new Firefox for Maemo —  but I don’t consider the N900 a “device for the masses.” They’re both exceptional browsers, but the device itself is better suited for true mobile enthusiasts. Other solid alternatives on the market include the various Opera products, SkyFire and other server-side rendering clients. But the browser on a BlackBerry never really got me excited and I don’t see other companies trying to emulate RIM’s browser experience. It’s definitely the other way around as evidenced by this CrackBerry.com first look video of WebKit on a BlackBerry.

Although Research In Motion isn’t sharing details on the timing for their new browser, I think they have to deliver it this year and sooner is better than later. By some measurements, RIM is starting to lose market share to other platforms that are innovating and maturing faster. I’d be the first to say that RIM has made a very successful transition from an enterprise-centric brand to one that appeals to consumers as well. But as that transition completes, the company needs to continue forward momentum with features that keep it on par with competitors. Email might be the crown jewel for RIM’s BlackBerry devices — they’re among the best for mail management — but the mobile web is becoming at least as important, if not more so. A new WebKit browser is just what the doctor ordered for preventative market share care. How quickly the prescription is filled is up to RIM.

Image courtesy of Unwired View

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

What Does the Future Hold for Browsers?

The new version of Microsoft’s suite of productivity applications will ship by the end of 2010, including better compatibility with Windows version, improved collaboration tools, Visual Basic, and Outlook.

[Source: MacWorld]

This is swanky. RIM’s showing off BlackBerry’s new WebKit-based browser, and yes, it’s fast! JavaScript actually loads! It even scored a perfect 100 in the Acid3 rendering test. Still months away, but we’ll take it. [BlackBerryRocks]

So with the announcement of Windows Phone 7 series, is Windows Mobile 6.5 dead? It better not be, as Microsoft gas said in Barcelona that they expect 30 more Windows Mobile 6.5 handsets to ship globally , with 14 going to Asia in the next 6 months.

They would add to the 30 million installed base of Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 handsets shipped so far.

Some, notably Gizmodo, have said the announcement of Windows Phone 7 series Microsoft has “brutally kneecapped their existing phone software, effectively taking Microsoft out of mobile for the next six months”.

I think however the biggest issue affecting sales of Windows Mobile has been the constant negative propaganda the OS has suffered from big gadget blogs, an ire one do not see directed to ancient operating system such as RIM’s Blackberry OS for example.

Now that the idea that Microsoft’s mobile OS efforts are not relevant are no longer tenantable it should make for an interesting next 6-9 months. 

The simple solution for handset OEM’s are of course simply to offer an upgrade path, something  hope we will be seeing more off over the next few months.

Meanwhile we expect to hear more about developments to the Windows Mobile 6.x platform soon also.

Read more at CNET Asia here.

Ryan McBride wrote:

PatientsLikeMe is pursuing new ways to enable patients to manage their healthcare online. The Cambridge, MA-based firm, which operates a social networking website for patients, reports today that it has acquired the online pain management firm ReliefInsite. Financial details weren’t disclosed.

ReliefInsite’s software helps people to track their pain levels online and share the data with their doctors. The technology will be integrated into PatientsLikeMe’s website, providing a new tool for more than 20,000 patients in its online communities who have noted that they experience serious aches due to their illnesses, according to the buyer. PatientsLikeMe also plans to continue supporting ReliefInsite’s existing pharmaceutical and clinical clients.

Fred Eberlein, the founder and CEO of ReliefInsite, is becoming an employee of PatientsLikeMe in Cambridge, according to a company spokeswoman. PatientsLikeMe also plans to continue operating ReliefInsite’s main office in Hungary.

PatientsLikeMe, which has a user base of more than 55,000 patients, makes this acquisition as competition heats up among providers of online health management tools. Last week the firm’s West Coast rival, Keas, announced a deal with New York-based drug giant Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) to expand the use of the startup’s Web-based software, which is designed to help people monitor their health and receive health advice from medical experts.

PatientsLikeMe president and co-founder Ben Heywood gave me an overview of his firm’s strategy and progress earlier this month, saying that the company has been growing as more pharmaceutical firms work with companies like his to, say, access information about patients with specific diseases or recruit those patients for clinical trials. The company has provided services to Swiss drug giant Novartis and Brussels-based biotech firm UCB, among others.

It has been a long wait which has made Microsoft appear quite unresponsive, but they have now finally set about to fix the many issues which plague Marketplace for Windows Mobile.

Areas addressed are below:

World View: previously known as “geo selector”, the World View feature will allow Marketplace users to browse and purchase applications from different geographic catalogues. For example, a user in France could choose to browse the English US catalogue, or a user in Canada could browse the catalogue from Japan. All application prices will show up in the user’s local currency and Microsoft will be in touch with registered independent software vendors (ISVs) in the weeks ahead to provide step-by-step instructions on how to re-price their apps for all markets.

Installation onto storage cards: a highly requested feature by end users, it will allow users to install applications downloaded from Marketplace onto storage card memory. This will solve a common pain point today where the main memory of the phone runs out after installing a few apps from Marketplace.

Free app submissions to additional markets: ISVs will no longer have to pay a $10 fee for submitting applications to additional markets. With this change Microsoft is simplifying its fee structure and providing more opportunities for ISVs to submit their applications to smaller markets. Once an application has been certified for a primary market ($99 submission fee applies) ISVs can submit for free that same application to other catalogues, as long as they meet the current Market Validation guidelines.

Improved ISV registration flow: The ISV registration flow in the developer portal will be simplified, with different registration paths optimized for the type of ISV (company, individual, student) and additional guidance for completing the application submission process will be provided.

Deep linking: Microsoft is releasing deep linking capabilities for ISVs to allow users to purchase their apps from Marketplace. On the web, ISVs will be able to construct a URL to link directly to the purchase page of their applications in the Marketplace Web site, and will have access to the “Get it Now for Windows phone” logo, which standardizes the way ISVs link to Marketplace. On the device, ISVs will be able to call Marketplace from within their applications and open the purchase page for a specific app, allowing them to offer additional titles or provide free users the option to purchase premium version of an application.

Expansion to Russia: users in Russia will be able to access and purchase apps via credit card from a local catalogue of applications, as well as purchase from other catalogues through the World View feature. ISVs from Russia will also be able to register with Marketplace and submit their creations to any supported Marketplace country.

Applications policy changes: Changes are being made to Microsoft’s existing application acceptance policies to allow VoIP applications that use the carrier network unless explicitly prohibited by a mobile operator. Mobile Operators who sign a Marketplace deal with Microsoft will be able to dictate if they allow or prohibit the use of VoIP apps in their networks.

The improved marketplace is not yet available, at least in UK, but we cant wait for the update to roll out soon.

Via Pocketnow.com

Ryan McBride wrote:

SkillSoft (NASDAQ:SKIL), a provider of educational and performance-support software with U.S. headquarters in Nashua, NH, has agreed to be acquired by a syndicate of private equity firms for $10.80 per share or a total of about $1.1 billion, according to a press release. The private equity buyers include Advent International, Bain Capital, and Berkshire Partners, all of which have offices in Boston, according to their websites. SkillSoft, which has its global headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, said the deal is subject to shareholder approval and other customary closing conditions.

We have managed to record this 28 min long video of the briefing being given to journalists after the Windows Phone 7 series announcement which provides more detail about the OS than was initially available at the announcement yesterday.

It’s not an OS update like we were hoping, but BlackBerry has taken the lid off its free Enterprise Server Express software which syncs the smartphones to Microsoft Exchange and Windows Small Business Servers.

It’s a less-whizzy (ie, free) version of BES for small businesses or individuals who don’t want to fork out for the full service. It’ll still wirelessly synchronize email, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks, allow for edits of Word, Excel and PowerPoint files and access files on the business network, which should be enough for the average user. Out in March.

SPB has recently announced their new version of Mobile Shell, but unfortunately did not release any video to go along with it, which is unfortunate for such a visual product.

LearnBeMobile has however managed to catch them on the show floor and captured this video of an interface which appears to be getting increasingly sophisticated.

Of course we have not seen a full review yet, and feel that to really become more than eye candy the user interface needs to move beyond being a simple launcher to engaging active applications, such as HTC did with its twitter client built into Sense.

Read SPB’s press release after the break.

February 15th, 2010 – SPB Software, a leading mobile applications and games developer announces the release of SPB Mobile Shell 5.0, a major upgrade to the world’s bestselling mobile application, popular among both end-users and OEMs. Unlike all the previous versions of SPB Mobile Shell available exclusively for Windows Mobile smartphones with touchscreens, version 5.0 is to be released for Android, Windows Mobile and Symbian. Thanks to the new portable SPB UI Engine, SPB Mobile Shell is planned to be spread to more mobile platforms.

Major updates to the new version include a new 3D engine and an improved social networking integration. The former means support for new types of eye candy effects such as 3D Media Player, 3D Photo Viewer, 3D Weather, dynamic 3D widgets and more, while the latter involves message, contacts, photo and status sync with popular services, namely Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

One important innovation in SPB Mobile Shell 5.0 is the Natural Interaction Engine which includes support for G-sensor and multitouch, a dedicated Feedback Engine providing realistic visual and haptic responses, and a Physics Engine responsible for the real-world behaviour of all objects.

SPB Mobile Shell has been publicly recognized as the best-selling mobile application across all smartphone platforms for three consecutive years: 2007, 2008 and 2009. At the same time SPB Mobile Shell enjoys popularity among mobile carriers and OEMs. It’s been shipped to over 15 device manufacturers, including Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, and O2. To make implementation process even smoother, we have added SPB UI Builder 2.0 – a tool-chain for easy customization of SPB Mobile Shell and other products that are built using the SPB UI Engine. It includes APIs for pluggable components, the skin builder and a set of plug-ins for integration with industry strength design products such as 3DMAX and Microsoft Expression Blend.

*** What’s new in SPB Mobile Shell 5.0: ***

– New 3D engine

– Natural Interaction Engine

– 3D widgets

– Tight integration with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks

– SPB UI Builder 2.0

– Multi-platform support: Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian

Via Pocketnow.com

Bruce V. Bigelow wrote:

Today San Diego-based TelCentris is announcing at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that it has incorporated a new free offering—a “universal translator”—as part of VoxOx, its free, cloud-based, unified communications service.

Some online services, such as Babelfish.com, currently enable users to copy and paste in foreign language text to get a translation. But TelCentris says its VoxOx Universal Translator is the first translation service built into messaging and VoIP messaging software—making VoxOx the first to provide an instantaneous foreign language service that automatically translates e-mail, text messaging, Internet chat, and certain social networking messages.

It’s a cool feature, kind of Star Trek-y, and the announcement is tailor-made for the wireless industry’s biggest international conference, which just happens to be held this week in a big international city. TelCentris spokesman Erik Bratt tells me the VoxOx Universal Translator is an ideal application for companies that do a lot of international business. The company’s cloud-based translation software currently supports 50 languages for instant messaging, e-mail, and social media; it also supports 37 of those languages for text messaging.

In a statement issued by the company, TelCentris president Michael Faught says …Next Page »

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

The global expansion continues for Winshuttle, one of the unsung heroes of the Seattle tech scene that I highlighted back in August. The Bothell, WA-based software company is announcing today it has acquired the German firm A1 Professional Software.

Financial terms of the deal weren’t given, but Winshuttle is keeping the A1 Professional team of eight employees in place at a subsidiary organization in Bremen, Germany. The trans-Atlantic move is not surprising, seeing as Winshuttle’s main business is built around helping customers get maximum productivity out of management software from German tech giant SAP.

The new German subsidiary, called Winshuttle GmbH, is led by A1’s founder and president, Klaus Garms. The acquisition immediately adds a few prominent customers to Winshuttle’s lineup, including an airline (Lufthansa), an electronics powerhouse (Siemens), and a maker of printing presses (Heidelberger Druckmaschinen). The company’s existing German customers include drugmakers like Bayer and Merck KGaA. It also has a number of other global customers, including Starbucks, Nike, Johnson & Johnson, and Proctor & Gamble.

Winshuttle was co-founded in 2003 by Vikram Chalana and Rajat Oberoi, who remain the company’s chief technology officer and chief business development officer, respectively. The firm, which was bootstrapped and never took any outside capital, makes software to help corporations shuttle data and bridge the gap between Excel spreadsheets (and other familiar programs that anyone can use) and SAP’s sophisticated business-management software. Last summer, Winshuttle had about 70 employees worldwide, spread across offices in the U.S., France, England, and India. It now has 90 employees.

Lewis Carpenter, Winshuttle’s CEO, calls Germany a “key market” for SAP software users. The acquisition “allows customers and partners within a critical region of Europe to get enhanced support and access to new products,” Carpenter says in a company statement.

Like almost everyone else, Winshuttle’s sales slowed in the early part of 2009, but the company seems to be back on track. Its total sales for last year climbed by 48 percent over 2008, when it was projected to make about $10 million in revenue. Winshuttle says it added 70 new customers in the fourth quarter of last year, while remaining profitable. Although the current sales growth isn’t as fast as Winshuttle experienced in previous years—when it was doubling revenues annually—it seems like a more mature and sustainable growth rate for an increasingly global company.

Brent Frei wrote:

The bigger the company, the tougher it is to innovate. There are two main pillars to this “innovation resistance” that seem common in large, profitable organizations.

1. Fear that innovative products will cannibalize existing revenue streams. The bigger the product line revenue, the more resistant that product group is to innovation that would threaten its growth.

Consider the post by former Microsoft exec Dick Brass in the New York Times Op-ed section, titled Microsoft’s Creative Destruction:

“At Microsoft, it has created a dysfunctional corporate culture in which the big established groups are allowed to prey upon emerging teams, belittle their efforts, compete unfairly against them for resources, and over time hector them out of existence. It’s not an accident that almost all the executives in charge of Microsoft’s music, e-books, phone, online, search and tablet efforts over the past decade have left.”

There’s a lot going on in this Microsoft example, but the undesirable effect of cannibalizing existing revenue streams is a substantial contributor to resisting innovation. As an example, e-mail built into a social networking app could threaten Exchange revenue, so naturally the Exchange team might lobby to restrict that feature on behalf of revenue protection. (Note: there is an increasing percentage of people that leverage Facebook’s messaging capability as their primary e-mail service.)

2. Product re-invention means throwing away deep feature lists. Market-leading products measure their dominance by revenue and feature depth. Feature depth broadens their relevance to a wider array of customers. So, adding functionality and features to a product trumps re-invention.

Clayton Christensen’s explanation of the impact of “disruptive technology” is a straightforward summary on why this is so common. One part of Christensen’s theory states:

“Low-end disruption” occurs when the rate at which products improve exceeds the rate at which customers can adopt the new performance. Therefore, at some point the performance of the product overshoots the needs of certain customer segments. At this point, a disruptive technology may enter the market and provide a product which has lower performance than the incumbent but …Next Page »

We will have a brief 1:1 interview with Microsoft reps tomorrow.  Now we are much better informed about Windows Phone 7, what questions do you wish answered? 

Let us know in the comments below.

We will not be judging Windows Phone 7 Series in this story, but we will just tell you how it was unveiled and what are our feelings regarding this unveiling.

And we tell you how it is or how it was. No BS.

So, behind seven seas and seven mountains there was a land called "Catalonia" where people were driving cars with "CAT" country symbol. Capital of this land was a city called Barcelona. To this very city Brits, who de facto are organizers of the Mobile World Congress, have moved this event from Cannes, France, because Cannes was too small and we even remember times, when in Cannes we had to carry out interviews on a motor boats and yachts, because there was not enough space elsewhere. Anyway the general idea of that Brits was to have this event in "some city at the seaside in a warm European country".

Unfortunately in early 2010 global weather went bonkers (north of the planet super cold and south of the planet super warm) and also city of Barcelona, instead of being sunny self, was cold and rainy.

More after the break…

On February 15, 2010, on Monday, 3PM, a majestic event in history of mobility has taken place: Microsoft has decided to unveil its major version of their mobile operating system for cell phones: Windows Mobile 7. That is what it would be called Windows Mobile 7 logically thinking but the real name is "Windows Phone 7 Series".

So how this legendary (as there were many rumours about it before) event started?Well, it started with very very long queue:

Actually the room where this meeting was organized (called "Garden Room") is just a hotel restaurant where for example hotel guests are eating breakfasts. Clearly it was too small for such an event but since Microsoft for many years has its headquarters in Hotel Catalonia Barcelona Plaza, this year it was also there.

The only requirement to enter the press conference was to have press accreditation (i.e. press badge) at Mobile World Congress and no pre-registration was necessary. If you were not press you would have to be invited by Microsoft individually. However this lack of registration and lack of order at the entry was a bit annoying as several people were jumping the queue in a boorish way, and Spanish ladies who were scanning the badges (with use of Windows Mobile devices with SDIO card with RFID scanner attached to it) were obviously not strong enough to stop these queue-jumping boors. One of these queue-jumping boors co-owns quite popular website about gadgets and his initials are V.N. – you can guess who he is.

The broadcasting journalists were the first who were allowed in. These journalist had special podium in the back of the room, from where they could film from their mighty tripods.

Then the rest, i.e. other journos and bloggers and however got press accreditation at Mobile World Congress were allowed in. Even we.

Obviously the event didn’t start immediately but there was small chit-chat between Microsoft people and guests:

In photo above you can notice Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft (the first from right in the standing group in the middle) chatting with guys from HTC. Speaking of HTC: nobody from HTC was speaking, even for few seconds, during this press conference and only 2 HTC employees were allowed in, one of them being CEO of HTC.

When the session started, it was Ballmer who was talking as first one. It was however clear that this whole mobility thingy is not his area of expertise or even interest, because he quickly introduced another guy – Joe Belfiore – who actually was introduced as the one who designed this whole new Windows Mobile, i.e. Windows Phone 7 Series. We will not delve here into details of the new Windows Phone 7 Series, but it was actually Joe Belfiore who introducing it. And he was very full of himself. Geez, it was like looky at me: I designed Widnows 95, and then I was working in Zune and here I am bringing my brilliance to cell phones.

It struck us strange that he portrayed "tiles" and "hubs" as something totally revolutionary. Hey, what about Android and WebOS widgets? Anyway, we wouldn’t like to judge this new major version of Windows Mobile, but generally speaking we got impression that in fact Windows Mobile 7 Series is actually a Zune Phone. The reason number one being that Zune is now integrated into 7 and this whole experience of Zune is transferred now to cell phones.

When Joe Belfiore was talking about 7, apart from his arrogance, what struck us was that a hot blond was being shown in one of screen shots and he suggested that it is his wife. Geez. Another savoir.

Another strange thing about Joe Belfiore was that he mentioned that he started working on these pesky cell phones merely 1, 1.5 years ago. So we thought: err, what? But Windows Mobile 7 is under development in Microsoft since 2006! The only conclusion that could be is: around 2008 Microsoft has dumped all older developments and started from scratch. Not that it is a bad thing.

During this whole presentation we could hear unusual cheering from the audience. We were almost certain that Microsoft hired some professionals to pretend that they are excited about these new announcement. We wanted to shout: calm down dude, this OS is coming in 9 months or so and competition is not sleeping and don’t know how it will sell yet… but then we realized: no, it cannot be, these super-loud cheers must be artificially manufactured by some hired professionals. Too load to be spontaneous.

Then Steve Ballmer came back:

… and another strange thing that surprised us was that impression that he gave that users will have the same experience across all 3 platforms/screens of Microsoft. Heh? And where is design of mobile-friendly user interfaces gone? Clearly a desktop user interface can’t be the same as mobile? No, that couldn’t be. Or could it? Maybe Microsoft thinks that it could.

Speaking of Steve Ballmer: no matter what is your opinion about him (generally speaking: a close pal of Bill Gates, who on his own would never become CEO of Microsoft, but as close pal of Bill he could) one thing worth noticing, particularly if you were in the audience and not watching via stream, was his shouting of some words. This shouting was brilliant because it was waking audience up and very well underlining some points (like the fact that Microsoft has no OBJECTION to Flash, that he shouted during FAQ session so loud that we had to clear our ears).

It was clear that Steve Ballmer is high in the sky on cloud 7 and he is only rarely lowering himself to this mobility thingies. Example of this was when he introduced Andy Lees, a Brit, who is now in Charge of Windows Mobile from the point of view of cooperation with partners, not design obviously (that is done by Joe the plumber, err, Joe the smartphone-er Belfiore):

Voice of Andy Lees was soothing to our ears as he is a Brit and clearly he was speaking nice British English. He mentioned 2 things: carrier/operator launch partners and hardware launch partners.

First came hardware launch partners (see picture above) and we were surprised to see Dell there (aren’t they doing Android smartphones now or something?). Obviously HTC was now considered as "one of many" and clearly neglected (as CEO of HTC was not even speaking at this event, not even for 5 seconds).

Then came mobile operator (i.e. carrier) partners: 
 

… and no big surprises here, although, then Andy Lees mentioned so called "premium mobile operator launch partners":

… and our collective jaw dropped and one could hear in the room things like "what? isn’t AT&T an exclusive iPhone vendor in USA?". Anyways 2 guys from AT&T and Orange were asked to say warm things about Microsoft and were thinking: "oi, Andy Lees and your 2 premium partners, why don’t you get a room?".

Funny thing was that obviously iPhone was not mentioned at all when David Christopher was talking (introduced by Microsofties as the guy that takes buying decisions for tens of millions of customers of AT&T – what a BS! Aren’t customers taking these decisions themselves?). David was trying hard to underline how early and well he was partnering with Microsoft in mobile phones.

Then Olaf Svantee from Orange (a European-only operator) came out and in Microsoft-love-fest he underlined that no, that actually he and his Orange SPV was even earlier than AT&T. One year earlier or so. Once again: get a room boys? Is it who loves Microsoft the most competition or what?

Then there was a FAQ session with questions from audience. These questions were so soft that your grandma could ask them. We were almost certain that people asking these questions were planet by Microsoft. We were raising hands too but we were not picked. We wanted to ask some really important questions like "when it comes to multitasking in Windows Phone 7 then is it possible for example to download podcast in background and browse Internet in foreground or are non-active tasks frozen?", but obviously Windows Phone 7 Series phones are still in early alpha development phase and running only on prototypes… so no luck here in asking hard questions.

When it comes to commercial availability then holiday season 2010 was mentioned, what could mean as early as October or November, but realistically speaking it means December 2010.

All in all we are satisfied with the progress. Microsoft has introduced new (new for Microsoft not for the mobile industry) look and feel where it is underlined that one can see everything at one glance in tiles or hubs instead of jumping to individual apps. However we must say that we have impression that around 2 years ago Microsoft has mostly replaced people making Windows Mobile and this arrogance and smugness from old times of Windows Mobile (5 years ago? when Windows Mobile was on the most sophisticated smartphones that only businessmen, professionals and geeks were buying) has returned in new people. Example: when later we asked Microsoft staff at Microsoft stand if they have some Windows Phone 7 to play with, they laughed us out with "we don’t have Windows 7 here, we don’t have desktop versions here, only mobile versions". Generally Windows Phone 7 was running on prototypes and it was shown to selected journos and bloggers but not shown to public, that had to be satisfied with big touch screens remotely connected to Windows Phone 7 phones:

This is amazing what Microsoft has done: pre-announced an operating system 9 months before commercial release. In case of Apple it is maximally 2 months before commercial release. However Microsoft might have a point: it was underlined in this press conference that from the developer point of view, Windows Phone 7 will be discussed at MIX conference next month.
Where this story will end? Well, Microsoft has revived interest of masses in their mobile phones. Whether it will translate into sales (a trick that Zune HD, despite being praised by experts, failed to achieve) is another fairytale…

By Edward, WMPU correspondent at Mobile World Congress

In this video, Albert Shum, director of Mobile Experience Design at Microsoft, has taken some time to explain the design inspiration for Windows® Phone 7 Series.

Andy Lees, Senior Vice President of Microsoft’s Mobile Communications Business, expanded on the work:

“We made a very big decision to re-examine everything, because the industries surrounding mobile are at an inflection point,” Lees says. “The technological advances over the past few years enable us to do bold new things we’ve never done before. But the most important thing is that we are bringing it all together with an almost maniacal focus on the consumer.”

“With all of that, we couldn’t be announcing more change than what we’re doing,” Lees says. “The reason we took such care with this release is we’re setting up for the long term. We’re excited about Windows Phone 7 Series, but we’re even more excited about the long-term vision and what that’s going to mean to consumers.”

Read more about the Windows Phone 7 design philosophy here.