Windows Phone 7 Gets Waves Of Upgrades
There is not much success Microsoft can claim with Windows Phone 7 (WP7) yet, with the exception of great customer feedback, perhaps - which we hear every time is a public event.
But we hear, Microsoft is in it for the long haul and a first wave of updates is being prepared, for March, a second wave before the end of the first half of the year and another one in the second half. And: We should be prepared to see Microsoft leveraging its console assets much more aggressively in the form of Kinect integration.
In march, Microsoft promises to deliver copy & paste, as well as accelerated application performance. Scheduled for the first half of the year are CDMA WP7 phones, which should extend the reach of the platform by default, especially if Microsoft can build some buzz. And, just in case you wonder: No, Nokia WP7 phones aren't on the horizon anytime soon. According to the handset manufacturer, first WP7 devices aren't planned until 2012. That may hint to devices that are designed from the ground up and aren't quick and dirty shots, which should good news for consumers.
In the second half of the year, WP7 will get Twitter integration as part of the People Hub, document sharing via Windows Live SkyDrive as well as more multitasking features where users can switch between active applications much faster. Microsoft highlighted the release of IE9 for WP7 in the second half of the year, which is an eye catcher, given the fact that the browser will support hardware acceleration as well. However, we still wonder what value a web browser on a smartphone will have down the road, if we move more and more to applications and the browser itself turns into an app itself.
Much more interesting is Microsoft's idea to integrate WP7 with Kinect games. Users could introduce their phone as controllers (which works a bit against the controller-free concept of Kinect), but the interaction between Kinect and WP7 phones could help Microsoft building an ecosystem and create a considerable incentive for buying a WP7 device. Microsoft did not say when it will deliver such a feature.
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They can and do also crow about the success of their App marketplace, with 1 million SDK downloads, 30,000 registered developers and 8000 apps, which is ramping up as fast as the iphone did 3 years ago, and faster than Android did 2 years ago (and much faster than Nokia ovi store, Webos App catalog or Blackberry App world ever did).
I just bought a Windows 7 Phone for free from T-Mobile with their sale last week.
sweet bring on the updates! heres hoping they bring on the Texas holdem game thats rumoured to be about - im itching to gamble!
Slow, Slow, Slow!!!!
Windows Phone 7 released to manufacture in late August 2010.
Still no update at all.
First update will be mid-March, 2011, to fix the broken Copy-And-Paste. C&P still won't work with many 3rd party apps.
Next update at the end of 2011, to fix the broken 3rd party multitasking.
The rate of updates is abysmal. Microsoft cannot catch up, let alone get ahead, at this slow pace.
No RDP and no Instant Messenger... REALLY!!
I just bought a Windows 7 Phone for free from T-Mobile with their sale last week.
howd you buy it if you got it free?
I hate to troll, but Douglas please re-read the article and note how many errors there are. Hint: lots.
I got overlapping ads in the left sidebar, the newegg scrolling banner overlaps the static WD My Book ad. Happened in Firefox, Chrome, Opera, and IE9. Yes, I am bored, also the reason why I read this. :-P
Gonna have to agree with retrig, there are quite a few spelling and grammar errors throughout your article. The one that I think stands out like a sore thumb is
Fail.
sweet bring on the updates! heres hoping they bring on the Texas holdem game thats rumoured to be about - im itching to gamble!
Should have been enough of a gamble to even buy the phone in the first place...
Big ups cor more competition.
I love it how everyone slammed the iPhone when it didn't have cut & paste. Now M$ is still 2 years behind that.
Slow, Slow, Slow!!!!Windows Phone 7 released to manufacture in late August 2010.Still no update at all.First update will be mid-March, 2011, to fix the broken Copy-And-Paste. C&P still won't work with many 3rd party apps.Next update at the end of 2011, to fix the broken 3rd party multitasking.The rate of updates is abysmal. Microsoft cannot catch up, let alone get ahead, at this slow pace.
Didn't it take Apple several years to get copy and paste as well as many typical features like Printing and making folders?
i still hate iphone and possibly w7 phone ewen more. Nokia RIP ima gonna haw to go android, sight i dont like android much eather but i dont got much choice now.
Games games game ... bring on the games
Obviously Douglas has never even held a Win 7 phone in his hands. They are totally
awsome and they are easier and more fluid than an iphone. And unlike iphone users you can actually make a call with a win 7 phone.
Obviously Douglas has never even held a Win 7 phone in his hands. They are totallyawsome and they are easier and more fluid than an iphone. And unlike iphone users you can actually make a call with a win 7 phone.
I have a iPhone. I can make a call with it. Where did you get that info from?
Seriously guys, who cares if there's a few grammatical errors, everyone makes mistakes, you don't need to point out others' errors... it's just rude...
this sounds all fine and dandy but now I have my eyes on the new sony xperia play (playstation phone) their physical buttons will making gaming for cell phones allot better, hopefully microsoft does something of this nature as well because I am really considering a WP7 handset due to the fact that I doubt that the xperia play is going to come to sprint and I am not willing to switch carriers, but if it did I would jump right on that bandwagon because sony seems much more into gaming with this device then microsoft is with their mobile XBL integration.
Seems like the sleeping giant has awoken, should be intressting to see what impact it will have on the market (and more intresstingly me as a consumer!)
I think WP7 is doing just great so far - launching in this crowded market isn't easy.
WP7 is clearly the better device.. Now that Microsoft has shipped 2 million "test" devices and got all the feedback, the next round of updates and new devices should be truly unbeatable.. ios and android are really just app phones.. WP7 is shaping up to be so much more.. Once WP7 catches up with the apps of those other devices there will be no comparing this phone with those.. I love HTC, but I cant wait to see what the top of the line Nokia phone running a updated WP7 OS will look like... Im saving my money now, lol... I dont care what that phone costs, I gotta have it...
bad
bad
Windows Phone 7 is so good that it needs Nokia help to enter the phone market.
But since Nokia is also entering crisis mode both will surelly sink... poor Nokia. I still remember the days Nokia was the innovator and technology leader. Nowaday Nokia can't even choose the right partner to survive and went with unpopular Microsoft instead of popular Android platform. Bad, bad, bad.
@powerbaselx
because business decisions should be based upon popularity contest....
MS has the convenience of large coffers or it would have failed miserably as a cell OS provider on its own. Win Phone 7 was late to the game and though I hear good reviews it will take awhile to catch on since iOS and Android are pretty good too! Also lets not forget the forgettable Cell OS Windows tried to pawn off before which lowered confidence with many smart phone consumers. If Win Phone 7 came out before Google's Android it may have been a whole different story.
@powerbaselxbecause business decisions should be based upon popularity contest....
@PopularityContest:
well, popularity means more market, more success, more business. That's what all companies seek for their business and thus good business decisions are based on popularity factors (or contest as you call it...).
could the nokia phones with WP7 be pitted against Intel phones woith MeeGO?