Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Series Should Be Called the "Zune Phone"

**brad jones** · Mar 16th, 2010, 10:10 PM

This week is Microsoft's MIX10 conference. While I'm not attending in person, I am trying to catch some of the keynotes and such online as well as noting some of the twitter comments. In the opening keynote hosted by Scott Guthrie, there was a lot to be noted, but it was clear that some of the big news was on the efforts of Microsoft to take one more stab at the mobile market.

A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7 Series, or Windows Phone 7. If you are like me, you'll find that this name simply doesn't roll off the tongue. It isn't slick like iPhone or Android. It isn't even geeky like System 40. As a name, it is simply...drab.

The initial demos, however, were not as drab. If you watch the MIX Keynote, you'll get a nice long look at this phone and even be able to see Scott Guthrie walk through creating a Twitter application. The one thing that seemed clear when the phone was demoed is that people agree that it does step up to the challenge of the iPhone and Android. It seems that the interface is clean and simple, yet robust to do what you'd want.

One thing that is clear with the interface is that it is not all completely new. If you've used a Microsoft Zune device, you will feel very much at home with the navigation within much of the Microsoft Phone. The concepts in the Zune are solidly founded in the Windows Phone. This includes both the veritial and horizontal scrolling and cateogorizations. Being that the phone will do contacts, music, applications, and more, this is a good move.

Interestingly enough, many of these concepts are also finding their way into Microsoft's Xbox Live system as well. When you consider the connectivity, the menuing, and more, then in my opinion, this is all great! If Microsoft can pull the features of the Xbox Live community into their phone and combine that with the media features of the Zune along with the lessons learned in search and location based tracking found in Bing, then it might just be an like an alignment of the planets, and it could cause massive tidal waves in the mobile market.

Windows Phone 7 Applications

Of course, to really succeed, there needs to be applications. Microsoft has stepped up to help make building applications. This includes providing free tools. If you have Visual Studio, you can download Windows Phone 7 Series add-in that can e used with the current Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate. If you don't have Visual Studio, then you can use Windows Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone. The Express editions of Visual Studio have been free downloads. You can also use XNA Studio 4.0 and the Expression Blend for Windows Phone Community CTP.

Have a thought on Windows Phone 7 or on what it should be called? Have you built an application? If so, comment on my blog and let us know what you think or have done. Microsoft wants you to be able to download the tools and be able to build an application in 30 minutes. Is it possible? Again, share by commenting on the blog with your experience!

Images from Microsoft Corporation

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**techgnome** · Mar 16th, 2010, 11:35 PM

It should be called "Developers Proceed with Caution"....
Here's the kicker... I only skimed your posting, so I'm not sure if it was mentioned... but apps developed for WinMo6 and previous..... will not work under WinZune. So yes, that means if you have an app that currently runs on WinMo6, you'll need to scrap it and re-write it for WinZune. To me, that seems like a kick in the teeth.; If I still had the link to where I read that I'd post it (the site is restructuring, so I'm not sure where the article went).

Never used a Zune, so I can't offer any opins on how it works.

-tg

**dilettante** · Mar 17th, 2010, 10:27 PM

Gosh, name ideas? How about the TaterPhone? For couch potatoes, since it's aimed at passive consumers like the iPhone.

Not too happy to see this direction myself.

**brad jones** · Mar 19th, 2010, 08:31 AM

Techgnome - I would not be surprised that older Windows Mobile apps won't work. I might look into that and see what I can learn officially. The WIndows Mobile market I beileve was losing ground, so something radical had to be done. I'll specualte that the hope is that the ease of using .NET and Silverlight will boost the ease at which apps can be created, so for the long haul things could be better. I'll ask around and see if I can get an official comment on that.

Dilettante - I agree it is aimed at consumers; however, if that drives the phone into the market deeper, then in the long run it could help drive it deeper into the enterprise. While the feel is still a bit consumer, that is a small thing to give up for higher adoption.....

**brad jones** · Mar 19th, 2010, 08:37 AM

Microsoft re-emphasized at the MIX 2010 conference in Las Vegas that its upcoming Windows Phone 7 Series devices would not be backwards-compatible with current Windows Mobile applications, a situation attributed by one executive to the company needing to deliver the new smartphone operating system on an accelerated timetable.

The above quote is from eweek....

It is intersting that while this seems so late, it was 'rushed'....

**Merrion** · Mar 19th, 2010, 08:37 AM

It should just be called "Seven"

(Maybe "Seven (beta)" until they get a version that we can code in VB)

**brad jones** · Mar 19th, 2010, 08:39 AM

Originally Posted by Merrion

(Maybe "Seven (beta)" until they get a version that we can code in VB)

Isn't that coming right after the VB version of XNA.....

**dilettante** · Mar 19th, 2010, 09:54 AM

Originally Posted by brad jones

Dilettante - I agree it is aimed at consumers; however, if that drives the phone into the market deeper, then in the long run it could help drive it deeper into the enterprise. While the feel is still a bit consumer, that is a small thing to give up for higher adoption.....

Higher adoption is one thing, mass adoption quite another.

If the PocketPC/WinMo core user community was primarily 30 year old Peter Pans living off their parents they'd have moved to iPhone already. Market segmentation exists for a reason: it increases the size of the market as a whole by addressing diversity. Phone 7 seems to have completely abandoned Windows Mobile's niche: people who require or desire portable computing beyond those $20 drugstore blister-pack PIMs.

I fail to see how abandoning surfboards to make floating lawn chairs does anything at all for surfers.

**brad jones** · Mar 19th, 2010, 10:29 AM

I can't argue with that. I believe Microsoft is going for mass adoption.

I don't have stats in hand to proove it, but I think even those that are not 30 year old Peter Pans have started moving off Windows Mobile too..... or if not moving off, extending their solutions to support iPhone or Blackberry devices.

I think the real issue is that Microsoft rarely (if ever) is satisfied with being a nitch player.

**dilettante** · Mar 19th, 2010, 10:52 AM

Originally Posted by brad jones

I think the real issue is that Microsoft rarely (if ever) is satisfied with being a nitch player.

Yes, this is probably the key to all of it.

**Merrion** · Mar 20th, 2010, 05:02 AM

What Microsoft need to do is get an end to end solution, and brand, in place.

This will be using phones and slates for data viewing, notifications and limited data entry - netbooks and notebooks for data entry and "the cloud" for storage and intensive computing. They have steps in the right direction (I would really recommend looking at the MESH beta if you are into that) but need to get a more coherent view.

Then they need to re-engineer search so it is also pervasive (and based on a metaphor like LinkedIn) so when I do a search it searches my data, the internet, and my contacts published data in one place.

**brad jones** · Mar 20th, 2010, 09:07 PM

Merrion -

Merrion -

It seems like Microsoft is headed that way.....

There are a lot of pieces all over the place right now, but if they can pull off bringing them all together, it could be very interesting.

Brad!

**techgnome** · Mar 20th, 2010, 10:26 PM

Or back fire really badly.... Cloud may be the future, but it should only be PART of the future. It shouldn't and can't be the be all, end all.

-tg

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