Windows Phone 7: Don't bother with this disaster [InfoWorld]

Windows Phone 7: Don't bother with this disaster | Mobilize - InfoWorld

The bottom line is this: Windows Phone 7 is a pale imitation of the 2007-era iPhone. It's as if Microsoft decided in summer 2007 to copy the iPhone and has shut its developers in a bunker ever since, so they don't realize that several years have passed, that the iPhone has advanced, and that competitors such as Google Android and Palm WebOS have also pushed the needle forward. Microsoft is stuck in 2007, with a smartphone OS whose feature checklist might match that era's iPhone but whose fit and finish would look like a Pinto next to a Maserati.

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Man, he doesn't cut 'em any slack whatsoever in that article.

I think the only word to describe that is scathing.

I had always thought that the UI was interesting. The key word there is interesting in that I was never able to make up my mind whether or not I liked it. I've never really had that problem with UIs from Palm, RIM, Apple or Google. The interfaces from other companies looked either useful and productive or looked like a mess. The W7 UI on the other hand leaves me puzzled (but still intrigued) and honestly, I shouldn't be puzzled about the usability of the interface of something as simple as a phone.

Wow I never thought I'd see that written about anything Microsoft. If he is right there is no way that they have all of these issues cleaned up by the end of 2010.

BTW Anyone else find it incredible that they do not appear to have done UI testing with actual users? I know this is Microsoft but I thought they did more testing than that.

I think I'll reserve judgment until the phone is released - and the author probably should have too.

I have a friend who works on the Windows Mobile team at Microsoft. And he sad the review got many things wrong in reviewing this. And secondly, the non-disclosure agreement was in place at the time he wrote the article, so he obviously doesn't have any experience with testing it out either.

This is no different than the media hyping up the iPhone 4's antenna problem, when they have never tested it out themselves either.

I agree with this guy, there too late to make an impact in the phone market.

Couldn't the same have been said of Apple when they joined? Or Google? I don't think it's ever too late as long as you bring something fresh, innovative and unique to the market. Whether MS does this or not will only be determined once it has been released.

some good articles on that site

Windows Mobile (WM) operating system has not impressed me at all. Sluggish performance and battery-hogging bugs are a major drawback. Perhaps this will improve when MS puts it on their own hardware, but I wouldn't count on it.

Just the fact that MS doesn't even let people to change language on a handheld device with WM installed, makes me wonder what they're thinking of. A friend of mine lives in Belgium, and she bought an HTC phone with WM. It turned out that the pre-installed language was French while they speak Dutch in her part of Belgium. Trust me - those two languages are very different, and there's no way the OS language can be changed. And no, she is not even allowed to change it to English. *** is that?

Microsoft developing a mobile phone? Makes me think of the car that Homer Simpson designed in ep 7F16.

I'm taking this with a grain of salt (well, a few grains anyway) considering that:

-the phone is not out yet
-WM 7 is not out yet
-the history of WM platform worked great here on one device, but badly on another

And since MS is trying hard to capture a slice of the mobile OS pie- this might fail, it might crawl along.

Whatever happens, happens. No guesses on what could happen either.

That's pretty funny, and almost how I predicted it. But we'll see when the phone is actually dropped on the market. Anyways, it's not even on my radar regardless of how it sells.

I have to agree with what this article says. And saying a product being developed is so bad it's better to cut development and consolidate your losses then release it it very harsh indeed. But from what I've read about the whole Windows mobile experience and from the whole Kin debacle I think the article is spot on. Sure in the future they can fix these issues but by the time that happens you'll have an iphone 5 or 6 and new android phones.

Sure MS can fix these issues. But the question is what's the point if they are always behind the 8 ball as I said about. As soon as MS make their current phone good, the competition releases a phone 100x better do MS need to catch up always.

I think for that reason MS should pull out of the mobile OS hardware game. And just make mobile Apps for the iphone/android and sell them that way. MS were always known for their software and not their hardware. And I think they should stick to what they are good at. Making software for machines that others build.

Hmmm

Hmmm... i think it's highly unlikely that they would be ale to surprise us with something REALLY innovative

I wonder if it's "Powered by Bing!"... That would give it a real edge over Google

XJ-linux said:

I wonder if it's "Powered by Bing!"... That would give it a real edge over Google

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I really tried to like Bing, but it just can't hold a candle to Google. It failed me too many times.

lifeisabeach said:

Windows Phone 7: Don't bother with this disaster | Mobilize - InfoWorld

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What an idiot. Gee, a beta (or maybe even pre-beta) version of an OS lacks polish, seems buggy, and lags, all the while running on prototype hardware? Well no s&*(. I hope they didn't pay this fool for that story.

You guys should see the drooling posts on this Engadget article. Most everyone posting are peeing in their pants over the posted pictures of the Dell Win7 phone. Those pics probably aren't even of working prototypes… more likely computer mockups. But solely on these pictures that really demonstrate nothing… they are bleating over how awesome it is. Either the people who comment there are really low-brow… or there's some faked viral marketing nonsense going on.
Microsoft confirms Windows Phone 7 manufacturers: ASUS, Dell, HTC, LG, and Samsung all on board -- Engadget

moved.

lifeisabeach said:

You guys should see the drooling posts on this Engadget article. Most everyone posting are peeing in their pants over the posted pictures of the Dell Win7 phone. Those pics probably aren't even of working prototypes… more likely computer mockups. But solely on these pictures that really demonstrate nothing… they are bleating over how awesome it is. Either the people who comment there are really low-brow… or there's some faked viral marketing nonsense going on.
Microsoft confirms Windows Phone 7 manufacturers: ASUS, Dell, HTC, LG, and Samsung all on board -- Engadget

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I would be willing to bet that these are Microsoft employees in a tag-team shilling effort.

Don't underestimate the desperation. This product (Windows Phone 7?) is fairly pivotal for MS. If they can't get a piece of the pie with the OS, they're done for in this market. One could say that they haven't a snowball's chance in hades to be resurgent now - but by next year, it will be absolutely impenetrable.