Windows Phone 7 preview and features
If there’s one industry that has developed faster than computers, its the mobile phone market. Everything we knew about mobile phones when it was first introduced have been changed, if not changed a couple of times over! Once heavyweights that ruled the market like Nokia, Motorola and Ecrission are simply trying to survive.
Development of wireless technologies and the speed of the internet has given birth to new kind of intelligent phones called “smart phones”. These phones are faster than computers that came out about 6 years back. They can handle things once you just dreamed of having on a handheld device. Connecting to the internet, checking email, motion & gyro sensors, built in cameras & videoconferencing, voice activation & navigation, multi-touch displays & handwriting recognition, GPS tracking & maps, shopping online, music and live video steaming, games, e-books, chat & social networking are some of the popular features that’s becoming standards.
Currently the Apple’s IPhone and Android phones are the ones who lead the market while Blackberry has a small but loyal percentage. And now we have a new player in the already crowded mobile phones market: Microsoft.
Microsoft have been developing their next smart phone OS for some time now. They have dropped the previous “Windows Mobile” brand name completely with good reason: you don’t want to associate a new OS with an obsolete name!
It will be an uphill task for Microsoft to play catch up with Apple and Google’s Android but the new windows phone 7 OS seems to be everything microsoft is NOT known for :
- Fast and lightweight
- Simplicity and ease of use
- Robust performance (no annoying bugs or crashes)
Its really fast!
The new phone boots faster and executes programs without any delays. Its a breeze to use and the new “facebook” like Tile navigation has replaced the “Widgets” and is clean and precise. What’s more it gives more information on hover, when clicked on and what not, grabbing your attention when its supposed to.
Messaging & Contacts
Messaging and contacts is simplified. You see exactly what you need to do in big fonts and in simple English. Email setup and use is clean and uncluttered. Text messaging shows up as scrolling conversation bubbles.
Applications
Office is back and uses cloud features. Which is a good addition because you won’t be creating word files and doing spreadsheets on a tiny phone. So the stand outs will be online collaboration tools like One note and SharePoint. In case you want to do a presentation you’d be happy to know the PowerPoint files will retain all the custom effects (animations and transitions).
Like Iphone’s Apple Store and Android’s Market Microsoft will have its own online download store appropriately named as the “Marketplace”. You can buy various applications and games just like you would in any other smart phone store.
Maps, Games and Music
Maps will play a huge part in WP7 (Windows Phone 7). Find restaurants, driving directions all thanks to Bing Maps. Multi gestures will allow you to pinch and punch (zoom in and out) of maps with fingers. Exciting stuff indeed.
Games and entertainment will play a huge part in the device. In the previous windows mobile versions this always took a back seat and now it has been given a lot of thought. Expect to see a horde of absorbing games with top notch graphics & animations to hit the WP7.
Zune, Microsoft music device and store is integrated and will provide entertainment. Download and play music and movies is a breeze giving you non stop entertainment (and a lot of options).
Final words
The Windows Phone 7 seems to have the right stuff. Some might argue its a bit late to compete and Microsoft has already lost. But ultimately its fate will be decided by the consumer.
