Microsoft has just recently announced the release of their smart phone. The Windows Phone 7 will officially be for sale November 8th, and is already anticipated to receive positive reviews. There are currently 2 phones that will be running the Windows operating system, the Samsung Focus and the HTC Surround.
Microsoft has already tried a few times to release a smart phone. There were two different phones that they developed that were aimed at a younger, social-networking audience. Both attempts were struck down in two months.
The idea of Microsoft having a smart phone seems like a no-brainer. They need a product to rival Apple, their biggest rival, and need it to be something that will be successful. The system will be much different than that seen on Apple’s iPhone and all of the Google Android phones. The main screen will have six “live tiles”, which will open menus to other categories. This is much different than having to scroll through pages and pages of applications. The only downside to this is that the six tiles lead to large menus that the user will have to scroll through.
It seems that all of the big name, like Research in Motion and Apple, and not so big name companies, like HTC have developed either a smart phone or multiple smart phones. With the rise of Androids, Blackberries, and iPhones, the market seems to be saturated. This makes the idea of a smart phone by Windows seem like a bad idea. Had the phone been released a year or two ago, I feel that it would have been an undeniably good idea. However, there are just so many other substitutes and competitors on the market already that the Microsoft’s phones may just be shadows on the market.
The biggest advantage is that the operating system is completely new. It is not just another Apple look-alike system, nor is it anything like Google’s system. The use of the live tiles mentioned before will make it a more interesting system to use, and will let people play around with the phones to customize them to their liking.
The music player will use the Zune software, and will be very simple to sync with your computer’s music library. There will also be applications that will let you load photos on to your phone and directly to programs like Facebook. However, there it will be much harder to use websites like Flickr, which may drive some of the market away. There is also Twitter application, which may hurt them. With programs like Flickr and Twitter rising in popularity, it is interesting to see that Microsoft just left them out of their phones.
Windows will be spending a good amount of to advertise their phones, and are hoping to make them a major hit. Microsoft has also hit the ground running. With November 8th as the first release date for the two phones, they plan to have as many as 20 smart phones released worldwide by Christmas. While Microsoft has developed this great possible product, it may be to late for it to be a successful idea.
Here is a copy of the article: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_45/b4202080197549.htm
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