Windows Phone 7 Series : My Opinion
What an exciting day yesterday turned out to be at MWC (Mobile World Congress). Rumours had been floating around the internet that Microsoft we’re going to make a big announcement and they sure did. They announced Windows Phone 7 Series (A bit of a mouthful).
Start Screen
They have gone back to the drawing board with this one. Gone is the Windows Mobile we all knew and hated. Everything is now finger friendly. We have the smooth animations which Apple made us all want. We have multi touch gestures throughout the OS. It really is an entirely new beast. One aspect which really excites me is the Xbox Live integration. If done properly and given the attention it deserves, this could be an excellent addition to what’s already looking like a great OS. I should give the Zune integration a little mention as this also has great potential.
Games Hub
I love the Hub concept, it really worked in the Demo’s we have been shown so far. Some of the neat little touch, such as inside the People hub, being able to touch the letter and then filter by a different letter. Its the little things like that which make this OS really exciting. I was worried Microsoft wouldn’t go back to the drawing board like they really needed too and once again polish the turd that is Windows Mobile 6. However they have alleviated all my fears and shown off something which could change the landscape of the mobile phone industry just like Apple did all those years ago.
Picture Hub
Despite all this praise, I do have some concerns and whilst I’m sure these will be addressed at MIX10 (Microsoft has promised more details then) for now, they continue to worry me. What will support be like for third party developers? How well will third party applications be able to interact with existing hubs? Is there any multi tasking support (Can I listen to last.fm whilst writing a word document?)? Copy and Paste?
These are all questions which need answering and I hope Microsoft tell me developer support will be good and multi tasking will be present because if they do, I may very well be sold. Unless Google’s continuous Android improvements manage to bring it to the same level as what WP7S appears to be at. Whilst we wait until MIX10, we will just have to live with the very pretty interface demo’s.
