Windows Mobile NEXT or WM 7

Mobile-review have posted an interesting article about Windows Mobile 7. Here is the final conclusion.

Obviously, there is much room left for going into details about WM7, but what for? It will not change anything in a big way, specifically what the developers put into the system when they were only designing it. And if you take a good look at what is happening today, you will realize one thing. That is, once again, Microsoft picked the wrong opponent, and if you want to be really specific – the spectacular, yet still undeveloped Apple iPhone. Going through all features prescribed as the edges of WM7, it won’t be all that hard to notice that all of them will be implemented in the Apple iPhone 2G, 3G (second and third generations respectively). In fact, Microsoft has what is already available in prototypes and Apple’s development plans, only on paper or very early engineering samples. That’s where the long development time for WM7 stems from. By the time WM7 arrives, its capabilities will already look not so revolutionary, and at best will be on par with other solutions out there (if they will actually manage to do so, it will be Microsoft’s true victory, but the most probable scenario is that WM7 will be eye-candy, yet trumped by Symbian S60 and UIQ both in terms of the user interface and feature pack).

The early leak of information on WM7 hasn’t sparked any craze – even today the new version of the OS isn’t hyped or discussed all that much. And what it is going to be in 1,5 years’ time? From my point of view, Microsoft suffers from one strategic misstep – the company picks wrong rivals. With the release of Nokia S60 5th edition it will become crystal clear, although, an updated edition of UIQ will well serve the same purpose. But then they will need to plan WM9 for 2011 and design it after already existing operating systems and user interfaces, which puts the company in the shoes of a chaser. Regrettably, already today WM7 brings nothing revolutionary, for it only aggregates the experiences of different manufacturers. There is nothing bad about this particular approach, but they will never roll out a solution that will take the competition down this way. On the other hand, all changes brought about in the interface of Windows Mobile are very positive no matter how you look at them. The thing is, today this operating system stands out among all others for being somewhat archaic and not packing a lot of basic features that have been available in phones for ages. Wrapping it all up, I want to say that before the release of WM7 we have yet to see WM6.1 and a couple of intermediate versions. The OS keeps moving forward and that's a good thing. But it is more important for Microsoft to really start putting money into this field, rather than stick to some hazy funding principles, when the operating system seems to be the corporation’s own, yet unloved child, who gets only leftover funds.

P.S. If, by any chance, you are offended by the thoughts expressed in this write-up, please discuss them in our forums in a civilized way, rather than reduce forum posts to angry exclamations, claiming that once again we have touched upon matters we would be better off staying away from. Just focus on facts and the OS abilities, and then we will have a good constructive dialogue.