Hasta La Gadget!

Windows Phone Series 7 is here, and it’s like nothing we’ve seen from Microsoft—or anyone else—before. But how does it measure up? And where does every other smartphone OS stand?

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iPhone OS 3.x

The third major release of the iPhone’s software, and the second since the platform got its App Store, iPhone OS 3.x has succeeded on the strength of simplicity, intuitiveness and a tremendous selection of applications. It serves as the basis for the OS that will ship with the new Apple iPad.

Available: June 2009
Open Source/Free: No
Multiple Handset Manufacturers: No
Multitasking: No
Multitouch Interface: Yes
Browser/Engine: Safari/WebKit
Video Recording: Yes
Upgrades: Sync/Patcher
Syncing Software: Yes
App Store Size: 100k+
App Sideloading: No
Jailbreaking/rooting: Yes
Flash Support: No

Android 2.x

In just over a year, Google’s Linux-based Android OS has gone from a rough-edged software experiment to a smartphone powerhouse, running atop some of the most powerful hardware available. Version 2.1 is the software platform for Google’s own first phone, the Nexus One. Android phones vary in both hardware configurations and software versions, but are generally increasing in popularity.

Available: October ’09
Open Source/Free: Yes/Yes
Multiple Handset Manufacturers: Yes
Multitasking: Yes
Multitouch Interface: Yes
Browser/Engine: Chrome/WebKit
Video Recording: Yes
Upgrades: Over the Air
Syncing Software: No
App Store Size: 20k+
App Sideloading: Yes
Jailbreaking/rooting: Yes
Flash Support: Within six months

Palm webOS 1.x

Palm’s webOS represented a complete reboot for the company, whose aging Palm OS found itself outpaced by more modern, finger-friendly offerings from Apple and Google. At the core of the OS is a novel multitasking system, with which users can cycles through apps, or “cards.” Another webOS selling point is the deep integration of social networking directly into the OS, and an emphasis on messaging.

Available: June ’09
Open Source/Free: No/No
Multiple Handset Manufacturers: No
Multitasking: Yes
Multitouch Interface: Yes
Browser/Engine: webOS/WebKit
Video Recording: Coming soon
Upgrades: Over the Air
Syncing Software: No
App Store Size: 1400+
App Sideloading: No
Jailbreaking/rooting: Yes
Flash Support: Within six months

BlackBerry OS 5

RIM is known for issuing frequent updates for its mobile OSes, but they are minimal, and at heart, BlackBerry OS 5 is deeply similar to its early, decade-old predecessors. BlackBerry OS is inclined towards messaging—its inboxes feature prominently—with web browsing and apps as secondary focuses. RIM’s recent success with the consumer (as opposed to enterprise) market shows they’ve taken pains to improve the usability and aesthetics of the OS, though its corporate roots still show through.

Available: November ’09
Open Source/Free: No/No
Multiple Handset Manufacturers: No
Multitasking: Yes
Multitouch Interface: No
Browser/Engine: BlackBerry/Proprietary (WebKit forthcoming)
Video Recording: Yes
Upgrades: Sync/patcher/over the air
Syncing Software: Yes
App Store Size: 3k+
App Sideloading: Yes
Jailbreaking/rooting: No
Flash Support: Within six months

Windows Mobile 6.5.x

Windows Mobile 6.5 is the last predecessor to Windows Phone 7 Series, and it will coexist with WP7 for the foreseeable future, as a bridge for corporate customers. Its basic design and codebase harks back to the early 2000s, and while it featured multitasking, copy and paste and a significant number of 3rd party apps well before the iPhone or Android did, WinMo failed to keep up with its competitors. Even with version 6.5, which added new, finger-friendly interface elements and an app marketplace, success was not to be. Despite its successor’s seemingly related name, this is the end of the road for the WinMo OS.

Available: October ’09
Open Source/Free: No/Licensed
Multiple Handset Manufacturers: Yes
Multitasking: Yes
Multitouch Interface: No
Browser/Engine: Internet Explorer/Trident
Video Recording: Yes
Upgrades: Sync/Patcher
Syncing Software: Yes
App Store Size: Under 500 1000+, depending on handset
App Sideloading: Yes
Jailbreaking/rooting: No
Flash Support: Yes

Windows Phone 7 Series

Windows Phone 7 Series is a total revamping of Microsoft’s mobile strategy, drawing more on design philosophy of the Zune HD than of Windows Mobile. The interface is designed primarily for touch input, and eschews icon grids and menus for a series of paneled hubs. The unreleased OS features deep integration with Xbox and Zune services, as well as a completely new app store.

Available: Holiday ’10
Open Source/Free: No/No
Multiple Handset Manufacturers: Yes
Multitasking: No, probably! (With possible exceptions.)
Multitouch Interface: Yes
Browser/Engine: Internet Explorer/Trident
Video Recording: Yes
Upgrades: TBD
Syncing Software: Media
App Store Size: TBD
App Sideloading: TBD (Unlikely)
Jailbreaking/rooting: TBD
Flash Support: TBD (Probable)

They might not have been revealed at MWC, but that doesn’t mean the news flow on Microsoft’s long-rumored Pink phones needs to stop. Following the FCC entries that hinted at the future character of these devices, we now have word of an industrious hacker getting hold of the firmware for both the Turtle and Pure handsets. According to his data, the Turtle (believed to look like the square-ish creature on the left) will sport a 320 x 240 screen, while the Pure will have a more generous 480 x 320. Neither would encourage much hope for seeing these as the vanguard handsets of the Windows Phone 7 movement, but a litany of references to Premium Mobile Experiences would both confirm our earlier information and suggest that Microsoft is still going to hit us with something more than a simple feature phone. This is backed up by “a strong connection” to NVIDIA’s Tegra chipset, which would be powerful enough to service the rumored video and media management capabilities. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, separate codenames of Lion and Pride have been uncovered, indicating CDMA versions of the Pure and Turtle, whose names are attached to the GSM variants of the two phones. Now if we can just get a release date, we’ll be all set.

Microsoft’s ‘Turtle’ and ‘Pure’ phones linked to Tegra chipset, expected in both GSM and CDMA varieties originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not just Windows Phone 7 – it’s Windows Phone 7 Series. That last word has generated a lot of confusion about Microsoft’s hot new mobile-phone OS. What the heck is “Series?” Does this mean there will be a Windows Phone 7 Home Basic and a Windows Phone 7 Ultimate?

I asked Microsoft’s Rena Lunak, and she said, absolutely not. “Series” just means that Windows Phone 7 will be continuously updated, and that phones will be able to receive updates – just like Google Android phones or Apple iPhones.

So instead of the confusing welter of non-updateable dot-versions Microsoft has had in the past – Windows Mobile 6 phones, 6.1 phones, 6.5 and even 6.5.3 phones – there will only be Windows Phone 7s that can be upgraded on the fly.

It’s about time, Microsoft. But since this is the experience everyone expect from a smartphone OS nowadays, I have one tip – ditch the “series.” It’s just confusing people.

Hear that, globetrotters? Just months after your hopes and dreams were obliterated, we’re now hearing that the Zune HD and its associated music / video services are going international, and it could happen by the end of the year. At least that’s the word given to Mary Jo Foley from Casey McGee, Microsoft Senior Marketing Manager. In a recent sit-down, Casey noted that the company’s Zune music / video service “would be available in all countries where Windows 7 Phones will ship,” and while it has yet to make that full list of nations publicly available, we already learned that the new mobile OS has gained support from mobile operators all over Europe. Putting two and two together can be difficult at times, but hopefully we aren’t reading too much into this (painfully simple) equation.

Microsoft Zune music / video services going wherever Windows Phone 7 Series goes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The first time Microsoft mentioned apps today, it was to mock Apple, and they completely nailed what’s wrong with the iPhone app metaphor. But apps define the smartphone experience, so what’s the plan for Windows Phone 7? It’s… coming together.

When the iPhone launched without apps, Microsoft countered with the most impressive, humiliating figures it could rake up: We have thousands of developers! Over ten thousand apps! Years of development! A thriving ecosystem! Then the iPhone got apps, and everyone else, from Google to BlackBerry to Palm, consolidated and organized their ecosystems. By the time Microsoft managed to do the same, it was too late—the Windows Mobile platform was dying. The ecosystem was rotten to the core, the core being a limping, tired, and deeply ugly relic of an operating system. Microsoft is right to leave this behind with Windows Phone 7, but they’ve got some serious catching up to do. So how do you close a two-year lead? Good question!

Microsoft is staying vague on their app strategy until the MIX conference next month, when they’ll lay out their plans in full. What they’ve done today is paint their app strategy in broad strokes, and drop some telling clues. The picture that’s emerging is of apps that mingle with the operating system, rather than sit inside of it; of an earnest attempt to forget (and make up for) years of lost time with WinMo 6.x; of a company that isn’t afraid to sacrifice sacred tenets of its prior strategy—and perhaps even multitasking—to make things work; of a platform with massive promise, but an incredibly steep climb ahead of it. Here’s what we know.

The Basics

Windows Phone 7 is a clean break. Barring some kind of emulator, Windows Mobile apps just won’t work. They’ll have to be developed anew, written with a new set of tools and leveraging a whole different set of APIs. As anyone who’s used Windows Mobile can attest, this is a good thing. Microsoft needed to cut this dead weight to survive.

To the user, Windows Phone 7 amounts to a series of hubs: one for music, one for people, etc. They’re like live widgets, previewing information from deeper inside the OS, and serving as application launchers. Third party apps won’t just integrate with the hubs, they may depend on them. Earlier today, Wilson interviewed Windows Phone head honcho Joe Belfiore, and here’s how he answered our question: “How do you integrate apps that you don’t design in house [into hubs and the OS in general]?”:

What we’re going to try to do is ensure the developers have a great set of tools that helps them fit right in. The main idea of the hubs is to bring things together in a way that users can go to a single place and find the stuff they’re looking for, and applications play a role in that. Applications can also add benefit that’s distinct from the hubs… In some cases [a hub is] guiding the users to the apps, in other cases it’s pulling data from the app or the app’s associated service

There is an app launcher menu in Windows Phone 7, which keeps a simple list of all the apps you’ve got installed, whether they’re integrated into a hub or not. But it’s clear that the app launcher grid—or as Microsoft called it, the “sameness”—is something Microsoft trying to avoid, and that the list is secondary. Apps are intended to launch from, and in some cases be a part of, the hubs.

The App Store

As for an app store, Windows Phone 7 will have the Marketplace, which is where you’ll be able to “easily discover and load the phone with certified applications and games,” according to Microsoft. You probably won’t be able to download from outside of it. Also not clear is how this’ll actually play out. A two-tiered download strategy that separates games from the rest of the apps is possible, as is a single, unified storefront. UPDATE: Here‘s the storefront.

In today’s demos you could spot a Marketplace menu item, though it was housed in the Zune hub. The only apps shown on the demo unit were music services, which is odd—they’re clearly keeping apps under wrap until MIX.

Multitasking (Or Maybe Not)

And finally, you can’t talk about smartphone without talking about multitasking. The iPhone doesn’t do it. Android does. Palm does. Windows Mobile did. This issue was at the center of virtually every comparison of smartphone OSes, and gave iPhone critics—including some Microsofties—endless snark fodder. So, obviously, Windows Phone 7 supports multitasking, right? Don’t be so sure. From Wilson’s interview with Belfiore, again:

Yeah, so the core operating system in Windows Phone 7 Series phones is a modern multitasking operating system which we use for a lots of things. If you play music, for example, the music will play back as you navigate around the experience and be smooth and glitch-free and all those sorts of things. If you’re using email, we have great support for push email, and that happens in the background.

Technically, this does describe multitasking, but it’s multitasking in the strict, limited sense that the iPhone multitasks, which is to say, it’s really not. So, uh, what about 3rd party apps?

For third party applications, we’ll get into a lot more detail on this in MIX, but we have a few ways we going to make sure that 3rd parties can bring their value to the user even when the app is not running. Live tiles are an example. Data feeds in the hubs are another example.

If applications can run in the background, why would Microsoft need to “make sure” that they have ways of staying useful when they’re not running? Could it be that (!!!) Windows Phone 7 doesn’t multitask? Or that if it does, it’s highly managed? Yes. Yes it could.

The Big Questions

Microsoft hasn’t said a word about the next SDK, developers policies, or app limitations. We have no idea if apps will have to conform to a strict set of design rules, or if the SDK will encourage a consistent aesthetic, like the iPhone’s does.

And while it may be instructive to look back at the current App Marketplace for a glimpse at their developer strategy, it might not. It’s significant that Microsoft has been so vague about this so far. It implies that there’s something to announce beyond, “It’s going to be just like what we’re doing now.” (Speaking of what they’re doing now, those poor WinMo 6.x devs!They’ve just been thrown into the desert without food or water, basically. Though they should have seen it coming.)

And anyway, nobody doubts that Microsoft can put together a solid set of dev tools tools, or manage a developer program properly. The real questions about Windows Phone 7’s apps are existential: Who’s going to make them? How long until it’s worth it for developers to move to the platform? Can iPhone developers be drawn away from Apple’s ecosystem? Will game developers do their part to fulfill Microsoft’s new mobile Xbox dream? These are massive uncertainties now, when Windows Phone 7 is the brightest, shiniest platform in town—just imagine what the landscape will look like a year from now, and how much more time, money, and experience app devs will have invested in the iPhone and Android.

It took Android about a year to reach a remotely comparable level of development to the iPhone, and that’s being generous. With Windows Phone 7, you’ve got a series of phones that won’t even hit the market until late 2010, that won’t have a significant user base until months after that, and that’ll be competing with two or three much more mature app platforms, with existing user bases in the tens of millions. Even if Microsoft does everything right—liberal app policies, a generous developer revenue share, a powerful SDK, and smooth, wide phone rollout—Windows Phone 7 might not catch up with its competition until 2012.

2012.

Don’t rule out a gamechanging announcement at MIX next month, or underestimate how badly Microsoft wants to claw its way back to mobile relevancy. But Microsoft is rich, not magical—no matter how you cut it, and no matter how Microsoft fills in the blanks, this isn’t going to be easy.