A phone is not a PC
Phone veep Joe Belfiore gave the main presentation, and opened with the telling statement "A phone is just not a PC." What he meant was that Microsoft didn't just start from scratch with the design of WP7 series, it had to fundamentally alter its internal culture too.
The user interface is based around the Zune, which makes us think that the Zune was never a serious attempt to take on the iPod, but a massive public beta of a handheld UI. "Every Windows 7 series phone will be a Zune," said Belfiore. The new OS focuses on big icons and large letters to make touchscreen finger navigation easier, but it's still intended to provide a Windows 7-like multitiouch experience.
We've been playing with a Google Nexus One out here, and one of the things that has most impressed us is how easy it is to access all our Google services, like gmail, reader, etc. Microsoft had to provide a similar level of integration with its many offerings, and WP7 offers instant access to Windows Live, Xbox live, Bing search, Bing maps, Outlook syncing, PC syncing and a special version of Internet Explorer. Facebook was also mentioned extensively.
One of Apple's biggest advantages over Microsoft is the stable, closed hardware platform for its products. Microsoft has looked to address this weakness, not by making its own phone, but by setting a minimum hardware spec for any WP7 phone, and by collaborating closely with Qualcomm, which looks like it will be the exclusive chip partner.
All WP7 phones will also have the same three ‘hard' keys: ‘start', ‘search' and ‘back', and all will have capacitive screens. It has got buy-in from the following OEMs, all of which will have handsets ready when WP7 launches later in the year at a still unspecified date:
- Samsung
- LG
- HTC
- Sony Ericsson
- HP
- Dell
- Garmin Asus
- Toshiba