Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Analyst Angle. We’ve collected a group of the industry’s leading analysts to give their outlook on the hot topics in the wireless industry.
You have to hand it to Microsoft Corp. They have certainly fulfilled the old saying, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Microsoft has had a number of previous attempts to build a successful operating system for the mobile market with WinPad, Windows Mobile and Win CE. These efforts – simply because they were Microsoft – generated some market presence, but nowhere near the market share achieved by major players such as Research In Motion Ltd. (BlackBerry), Apple Inc. (iPhone) and Google Inc. (Android).
I thought it was poignant when Rob Tiffany, Mobility Architect for Windows Phone 7, told me at CTIA that Microsoft went back to the drawing board to develop a new mobile OS from the ground up.
The reviews on Windows Phone 7 (WP7) have generally been positive. I appeared on Brian Sullivan’s show on FoxBusiness to explain why I thought Microsoft would succeed with WP7, especially in the enterprise space.
One of the most important changes that WP7 provides over past Windows Mobile efforts is a re-architecture of the user interface. Microsoft abandoned the desktop metaphor of the “Start” menu driving a list of applications. While that was acceptable on the desktop, it wasn’t well-received in the mobile environment.
There are a number of user interface and technical innovations that WP7 brings to the mobile market, including:
–New platform. WP7 is not an enhancement to previous Windows mobile efforts. It’s developed from the “ground up” – no more forcing people to go through the Windows “Star”t menu. It was designed to provide users with easy access to the information they want and need.
–Active tiles. Users can decide what’s important to them and allocate tiles to give them the information they need, e.g. a tile for messaging, a tile for social, a tile for news, etc.
–Panoramas. With panoramas, you swipe left and right to get more information. This is a new user paradigm much like flip/scroll has become in the iPhone and Android for looking through lists by swiping up and down. This allows you to swipe left and right – a very cool concept. Vertical scrolling is good for lists where panoramas are good for showing more of one kind of information such as a photo or image or set of items in a group.
Applications. Microsoft has created solid development tools to make it easy for (consumer and enterprise) developers to build exciting apps, e.g. extending Xbox for gaming, etc. and then publishing them in the Windows Phone Marketplace.
Phones will be produced using WP7 by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., HTC Corp., LG Electronics Co. Ltd. and Dell Inc. I suspect that Motorola Inc. may follow along as well in 2011. Windows Phones will be distributed through AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile USA Inc. in the United States at first and then via Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. in 2011. Some Windows Phones will have integrated keyboards and others will be touch screen only. For example, the Samsung Omnia 7 incorporates a Super AMOLED screen, a 4-inch display, 5-megapixel camera with high-definition video and support of Xbox Live gaming and media content.
Microsoft has implemented multiple processes in the first rendition of Windows Phone which allows each app to switch back and forth. Some developers may need full-scale multi-tasking for background operation which Microsoft will likely support at some future time. They store the last place the user was in an application and then re-store it back when the app is re-launched to give the feel of being multi-tasking. But, Microsoft wanted to make sure the first version was solid and, therefore, they deferred true multi-tasking to a later version.
Microsoft has made WP7 work well for both consumers and enterprise. Consumers get a good user experience right out of the box that they can then personalize with Live Tiles. Consumers will also get a streaming music service based on Microsoft’s Zune efforts.
I believe that WP7 will be received well in the enterprise for a number of reasons, including:
–Microsoft Office. Right out of the box, WP7 will support opening and editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint files in a mobile edition of MS Office.
–Outlook. Because Outlook is included as well, enterprise users who already are using Exchange/Outlook will get a friendly, familiar user interface for e-mail.
–OneNote. This is a note taking application that has seen very little adoption in the desktop, but may find a much larger following in WP7 especially when joined with sharing of notes from a meeting with co-workers.
–Security. Microsoft has invested a great deal of effort “under the covers” to incorporate end to end security to make sure that enterprise IT professionals will be comfortable deploying WP7.
–Enterprise Development. Microsoft has provided the same development tools that many enterprises have used to create mobile applications.
Personally, I would have preferred if Microsoft had made a further separation from Windows by calling the new platform Microsoft Phone (with different version numbers) so that they could then have Windows 7 (for desktop and laptops) and then Phone 7 without the reference to Windows (for phones).
As for the tablet arena, most firms are leveraging the personal user interfaces and environments from the mobile world for tablets. Apple has done this by using iOS from the iPhone with enhancements in the iPad (rather than using the Mac desktop operating system). A number of tablets (including the Samsung Galaxy Tab) are using Google’s Android mobile OS. Thus, it seems likely to me that Microsoft will eventually develop a version of Windows Phone that they might dub Windows Tablet to support larger screens, gestures and the application Windows Phone Marketplace in the tablet arena.
I think RIM should be somewhat worried with the introduction of Windows Phone. The BlackBerry user interface has not changed much in the past 10 years. BlackBerry devices are rock solid and work well but don’t provide the “sex appeal” provided in Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android. Also, Microsoft has great relationships with enterprise IT departments. They make it easy for enterprises to roll out Windows Phone instead of just BlackBerry phones. It will be interesting to see how RIM responds to Windows Phone over time.
Overall, Microsoft is back in the game with Windows Phone 7. I look forward to spending some time with a Windows Phone and getting some hands-on experience. In the end, it’s the users and enterprises that vote with their pocketbook, but it seems highly likely that Microsoft will earn significant market share over the next few years as they evolve Windows Phone. Kudos to the Microsoft team to give the mobile world another good user experience.
We’ll look back on the mobile market 30 years from now and see how important it was to provide a number of different user interfaces and then to see how customers declare what they like the most.
J. Gerry Purdy, Ph.D. is Principal Analyst, Mobile & Wireless, MobileTrax L.L.C. As a nationally recognized industry authority, he focuses on monitoring and analyzing emerging trends, technologies and market behavior in the mobile computing and wireless data communications industry in North America. Dr. Purdy is an ‘edge of network’ analyst looking at devices, applications and services as well as wireless connectivity to those devices.
Dr. Purdy provides critical insights regarding mobile and wireless devices, wireless data communications and connection to the infrastructure that powers the data in the wireless handheld. He is author of the column Inside Mobile & Wireless that provides indus
try insights and is read by over 100,000 people a month.
Dr. Purdy
continues to be affiliated with the venture capital industry as well. He currently is Managing Director, Yosemite Ventures. And, he spent five years as a Venture Advisor for Diamondhead Ventures in Menlo Park where he identified, attracted and recommended investments in emerging companies in the mobile and wireless. He has had a prior affiliation with East Peak Advisors and, subsequently, following their acquisition, with FBR Capital Markets.
For more than 16 years, Dr. Purdy has been consulting, speaking, researching, networking, writing and developing state-of-the-art concepts that challenge people’s mind-sets and developing new ways of thinking and forecasting in the mobile computing and wireless data arenas. Often quoted, his ideas and opinions are followed closely by thought leaders in the mobile & wireless industry. He is author of three books.
Dr. Purdy currently is a member of the Program Advisory Board of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) that produces CES, one of the largest trade shows in the world. He is a frequent moderator at CTIA conferences and GSM Mobile World Congress. He also is a member of the Board of the Atlanta Wireless Technology Forum.
