+ Zune-like, but still very fresh and minimal UI
+ Smart integration of MS services
+ More focused set of hardware requirements and form factors
+ Inclusion of popular social network support
- Navigation looks to require a bit more swiping than i'd like, though that could've been the demonstrators preferring to swipe to show off panoramas versus tapping
- Huge amount of wasted space on the home screen (i expect to be tweaked)
- i understand what "Series" refers to, and i think "series" sounds cool (think BMW) but they should've kept it short at Windows Phone 7 because that's what everyone's gonna call it anyways.
- i've like the Zune UI but felt it was better suited for MP3 players and the demographic they're targeted at. It's certainly usable but i think it might be a bit less intuitive for some, especially coming from iPhone.
- i don't like the iPhone-style task switching and was hoping for something along the lines of Maemo 5 at least, or WebOS
? Multitasking...
? How deeply will OEMs be able to brand their devices
? OS update strategy/schedule
? Power draw given processor requirements and constant cloud connectivity
? How useful the default apps will be given the minimal interface
? Were motion-based gestures (ie. wave hand over front camera to silence a call) held back for WP8?
? Making items private -- i don't want
all my photos to to be visible in the photos hub. (i miss be able to make practically any data private like in PalmOS.)
It's really hard for me to come up with a lot of pros for my usage based on what little was shown. i expect my smartphone to be a pocket computer essentially, as Windows Mobile has been for years, so obviously i'm not exactly thrilled with what i saw, although i see a lot of potential in the OS. i do understand the reason for the change, so i'm not angry at Microsoft's 180 here.
i also understand that, aside from the fact that this will be a very connected, media-heavy consumer-friendly device, we still really don't know much. They showed the UI, a couple of hubs, and a couple of apps. MIX will give us some idea of what to expect as far as far as what developers can do, and GDC will give us an idea of sort of gaming experience we can expect. It's way too early to make heads or tails of the OS but i'm still cautiously optimistic and pretty open to most of the changes.
iharper said:
Any veteran computer geeks here? Remember the endless debates of Linux vs Windows? Every 6 months some new distro would show up and it would be the big Windows alternative....but never caught on? Remember that? Overlay that onto what Android is doing right now. The momentum is outrageous and MS got caught with it's britches down. With this perspective does the 7 strategy make ANY sense at all? You guys can wax 'metaphor' all you want, but the apparently fundamentall strategy of basically ditching corporate/enterprise to re-invent iphone/droid/webos with the 'potential' of adding the enterprise stuff in later.....well, i think we finally see the linux 'distro' that IS the mobile desktop replacement of Windows.
The Linux vs Windows debate really only works with the Linux vs Windows debate because there's so many factors at play. There's several reasons Linux never caught on -- no marketing, too much choice, poor consistency in application interfaces being just a few that come to mind. And frankly, those last two plagued Windows Mobile as well. You could, however, say that the Linux kernel has been successful in a way Windows never could, finding it's way on every type of device imaginable.
iharper said:
Aside from 'metaphors', at the end of the day do you want to hear that 17% of your phone experience that day was watching meaniingless 'wow' animations wander on and off your phone? Is this really productive?
Versus roughly the same percentage spent watching four multicolored balls spin? Aside for uses of visual presentation, transitions are also used to hide loading. Not once did we see a wait cursor. The iPhone uses this to great effect to make it seem faster than it is.
iharper said:
I can't help but be pessimistic here. IS 6.5.3 'the' business OS? IS it going to be developed in parallel with the 7 series? If so, Will they merge down the road so that corporate productivity will be preserved? Is such a discussion of intent not unreasonable to ask for? This whole process makes MS look like newbies and it's disconcerting to me.
MS hasn't explicitly said anything about enterprise. To me, their focus on the consumer at MWC was meant to show a huge shift in their mobile strategy, not the loss of enterprise support, and it's resonated across the media in a largely positive way from what i've seen. We did see them demo Exchange integration in email and in the calendar, which had home and business appointments on the same calendar. And we know that Office is there as well. Enterprise support for WM 6.5.3 may be better than WP7
at launch, but the latter will probably offer the better experience overall.
iharper said:
Add that to the fact that you see no new 6.5.3 or 6.6 devices on any radar and you get the feeling that MS is ditching it's one clear advantage to re-invent someone else's toy.
i have to admit, i was disappointed by the number of 6.5.3 devices on display at MWC and i hope this doesn't mean the platform is completely dead. But i do realize that there's OEMs that are supporting two versions of Windows, Android, as well as whatever proprietary OS they have for their dumbphones. Also MWC is one event, and i'm sure we'll see more 6.5.3 devices over time.