Microsoft’s WP7 mobile operating system fails to impress
16 Oct 2010
It has been reported that Microsoft was giving away WP7 devices to its staff and interns, and now it is said that the software giant is also giving AT&T workers free WP7 devices to increase acceptance. According to an employee about 100 devices were given out to those attending an event in Minneapolis, whether this was a US-wide polity was not clear. Though it was not mentioned which particular model amongst the many WP and devices were given, but given the Samsung Focus being the first to ship, it has been assumed that the lucky ones received the phone.
Analysts say such a move was not new as Apple gave away 8GN iPhones to all its full-time workers back in June 2007, with the launch of the first iPhone, both by way of rewarding their work as well as to familiarise them with the platform.
Meanwhile though reports in the IT industry press have expressed guarded optimism over the prospects for Microsoft's latest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 (WP7), according to some analysts the device will fail to make any impact on the market. They point to three reasons, why they think this will happen.
They say firstly, the WP7 is handicapped by the legacy of the Windows Mobile line of operating systems for mobile phones put out by Microsoft over the past 10 years. They add that the devices based on the Windows CE software platform were initially developed for Pocket PC gadgets, and Windows Mobile never did satisfy users on either feature phones or smart phones.
It is also telling that the company renamed WP7 in a desperate and probably vain attempt to distance it from the clear design, execution and marketing disaster that was Windows Mobile, they say.
The Windows Mobile platform has already been rejected by a whole generation of mobile users, which is likely to work against WP7 in user attitudes.
Second, they say the smartphone specifications laid down by Microsoft for its devices are not particularly attractive in any way but are rather depressingly ordinary and in certain ways lower generally lower-end that those of the decent competing smartphone lines.
They say Apple's Iphone 4 with it s3.5 inch 960x640, 326ppi 'retina' display, features a sharper, more attractive screen than the WP7 phones' 800x480 displays of different sizes ranging from 3.6-inch to 4.3-inch.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, they say, Microsoft seems to have released WP7 in an unfinished state and tried to excuse this claiming that the latest version of its mobile OS was "a complete reboot" of its mobile strategy. Microsoft said the features - including some formerly present in Windows Mobile would be rolled out only when they reached a certain level of quality.
What this means, analysts point out its that Microsoft developers have not yet managed to code the features yet, so like many of Microsoft's initial products this was merely a partial first implementation and it was okay for the company to flog it to all those gullible enough to buy it, even as it develops the fully completed version of the product.
