Windows Phone 7 Mobile OS to Rival Android and iPhone

The system was originally slated to be called Windows Phone 7 Series and was set to be released in 2009. Not only has Microsoft decided to push the release date to the holiday season of 2010, but on April 2 they also decided to change the OS's name. Now, the system is being called Windows Phone 7, and it's being considered an entirely revamped OS that has a new focus: social networking, web browsing, and gaming, as it will seamlessly integrate with Xbox Live, Zune, and Bing services. According to Microsoft's senior vice president of mobile communications business, Andy Lees, the delay was "due to the mobile operating system's overhaul...We took such care with this release because we're setting up for the long term."

Setting up "for the long term" is all well and good, but by the time of its release the OS may be old news. As we all know, technology is constantly evolving, and if anything changes more rapidly than the tech world, it's the mobile world. Usually, targeting the holiday season (as Microsoft has chosen to do) is a smart business move that leads to a major payoff and spike in popularity, but it also means that others have a whopping seven months to announce new updates that may not only rival WinPhone7, but trump it altogether. If an iPhone update is expected as early as the beginning of this summer, it's only fair to assume that what appears fresh on Microsoft's end today may not look so hot seven months down the line.

It appears as if Microsoft took a good, hard look at both the Android and iPhone operating systems for clues as to how to create the next generation OS, and with its simple, elegant design, some industry insiders are wondering if it's Microsoft's aim to narrow the gap between its OS and those it decided to emulate. You know what they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and according to recent statistics, Microsoft couldn't have chosen a better time to make their move.

comScore , a market research company that provides marketing data and services to many of the Internet's largest businesses, recently reported that of the 42.7 million smartphone users in the United States, Windows Mobile users have dropped by four points (from 19.7 percent to 15.7 percent) between October of 2009 and January of 2010. During that same period, Apple gained 0.3 percent and Google's Android grew by 4.3 percent, thus taking 7.1 percent of the U.S. market. It should be pointed out, however, that Research In Motion's (RIM) Blackberry devices trumped them all. RIM can easily lay claim to being the most coveted smartphone, as they have 43 percent of smartphone users in the country.

Let's take a look at what WinPho7 (as it's come to be called) has to offer and how it stacks up against its competition.

Designed from the Ground Up

According to Andy Lees of Microsoft, Microsoft's new OS was built to focus on consumers, which means it was designed from the ground up. "We made a very big decision to re-examine everything because the industries surrounding mobile are at an inflection point," he said. Doing this required creating a core concept for the design and sticking to it, and that's exactly what Microsoft did. It built a broad software platform that will work no matter what device is being used to access it. Not only will it be integrated with the Xbox Live, Zune, and Bing services mentioned previously, but it will also include a new version of Microsoft Office, perfect for any mobile devices that feature SharePoint Workspaces and OneNote. Additionally, Microsoft's new WinPho7 OS will come equipped with Windows Live Web-based services like Windows Live and Hotmail.

It appears as if a new focus has also been placed on the hardware component of Microsoft's devices. It's been reported by PC World that the company is forcing manufacturers to ship Windows Phone 7 devices with "just three physical buttons: Home, Search, and Back. Device makers will also be prevented from changing the Windows Phone 7 user interface, and all handsets must have capacitive touch and multitouch capabilities," the magazine reported.   

It's also obvious that Microsoft has taken quite a few moves from Apple's playbook. Most notably, the fact that Windows Phone 7 apps will take advantage of some of the very same frameworks that iPhone apps currently use, such as location-based services, an accelerometer for motion control, cameras and mic, multitouch, and push notification.

It is with this last feature that some users may take issue, especially those incredibly fond of multitasking. Just as iPhones are notoriously bad multitasking devices, Windows Phone 7 devices will also lack this distinctly twenty-first century necessity. More specifically, Microsoft's OS will only enable third-party apps to run one at a time. The only exception thus far seems to be Microsoft's core Window's Phone 7 app, Hubs, but that's unique to that particular app. As a result, Microsoft has decided to offer push notification, which enables a server to send information to a mobile app (similar to instant messenger), rather than having the app run in the background and have to routinely call the server for updates.

According to Wired , there is reason to believe that this may change in the future and that Microsoft will eventually let multitasking come to the Windows Phone 7 OS. It would be incredibly helpful to users, but it may not give Microsoft an advantage over Apple, because rumors are also circulating that the iPhone might get multitasking and soon, as the next iteration of the iPhone OS is expected in June. 

The App Situation

Along with revamping its OS, Microsoft has decided to give their Windows Phone 7 users a brand new place to get their phone applications: The Windows Phone Marketplace. This new store will be the only way for users to get apps onto their Windows Phone, and just as Apple has done, Microsoft has decided to keep a tight watch over their ship. This means that each and every application that wants to get featured in the Marketplace must first be approved by Microsoft.

One of the most interesting features offered by Microsoft's Marketplace (that wasn't first thought of by Apple) is the "try before you buy" option, which will enable Microsoft Marketplace application users to test an app for an undisclosed amount of time before having to pay for it. Microsoft is remaining rather quiet on the subject, but some reports have surfaced claiming that developers will be able to determine the length of the trial.

Mobile platforms these days sink or swim based on their applications, and it can only be assumed that the same will apply to Windows Phone 7. Perhaps this is why Microsoft has already stated that it intends to feature many familiar mobile phone apps, such as Foursquare, the Associated Press, Sling Media, Seesmic, and Shazam, among others.

Similar to the way things work for iPhone application developers, Windows Phone 7 developers will be given the option of downloading a suite of tools intended to help them develop their mobile apps. They must also pay a yearly fee of $99 in order to be a part of the Windows Phone 7 development program.

It's believed that developers will only be able to offer a maximum of 5 applications in the Marketplace at any one time. Chances are, however, that the rule will change once the OS is up and running later this year.       

A Work in Progress

As mentioned previously, though other operating systems may announce updates in the coming months before Windows Phone 7 is even released, the next few months also give Microsoft the opportunity to address any weaknesses and tie up any loose ends before it hits the shelves. One of the things that will hopefully be addressed before its release is the Microsoft app store's lack of applications.

Essentially, this holiday season will see the first run of a brand new platform, so some hiccups should be expected. That being said, chances are the Windows Phone 7 platform will be less "buggy" than other operating systems when they were first released because Microsoft does more extensive beta testing than both Apple and Google, both of which had many widely reported problems upon first being released.

It's tough to tell whether or not Windows Phone 7 will be on par with its two biggest competitors, namely the Android and the iPhone. No doubt it's stiff competition, but based on what we already know, Microsoft has a real fighting chance; perhaps not of dominating the smartphone market (leave that to Research In Motion), but at least stacking up as a real rival. The next few months will either give Microsoft the time to make its new OS stronger, or it will give its competitors time to adjust. We'll just have to wait and see how it pans out.