Windows Phone 7 Series

[UCF w00t]

Gizmodo...

It's astounding that until this moment, three years after the iPhone, the biggest software company in the world basically didn't compete in mobile. Windows Phone 7 Series is more than the Microsoft smartphone we've been waiting for. Everything's different now.

Today, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft is publicly previewing Windows Phone 7 for the first time. The brand new, totally fresh operating system will appear in phones this year, but not until the holidays. All of the major wireless carriers and every likely hardware maker are backing it, and they'd be stupid not to. It's awesome.

Engadget...

Forget everything you know about Windows Mobile. Seriously, throw the whole OS concept in a garbage bin or incinerator or something. Microsoft has done what would have been unthinkable for the company just a few years ago: started from scratch. At least, that's how things look (and feel) with Windows Phone 7 Series. This really is a completely new OS -- and not just Microsoft's new OS, it's a new smartphone OS, like webOS new, like iPhone OS new. You haven't used an interface like this before (well, okay, if you've used a Zune HD then you've kind of used an interface like this). Still, 7 Series goes wider and deeper than the Zune by a longshot, and it's got some pretty intense ideas about how you're supposed to be interacting with a mobile device. We had a chance to go hands-on with the dev phone before today's announcement, and hear from some of the people behind the devices, and here's our takeaway.

I don't think MS will just automatically take over but the game has been stepped up for sure. Anticipating Apple and Google's responses.

[rudack]

I was very impressed with what they put out. They really needed to get this moving faster about 3 years ago to make a dent in the market. You never know with MS though, they may just pull a rabbit out of the hat by the time the phone launches.

[UCF w00t]

Originally Posted by rudack

I was very impressed with what they put out. They really needed to get this moving faster about 3 years ago to make a dent in the market. You never know with MS though, they may just pull a rabbit out of the hat by the time the phone launches.

Devlopers, developers, developers!

Microsoft knows that's the key. But honestly, they've already got all the key stuff built in or already shown to be included (Pandora, Facebook, various email services, etc). I have no doubt that they'll get the rest of the major stuff on there at launch (except Flash which they've stated is in progress).

I'm pretty excited for it. Just need to see the rest of the details (multitasking, general OS access, etc).

[SSOOCH]

One word...."ZUNE"!

It will fail.

[UCF w00t]

Originally Posted by SSOOCH

One word...."ZUNE"!

It will fail.

The Zune, particularly the Zune HD is a fantastic device. Sadly, people are locked into the 'iPod or nothing' mindset. This doesn't exist in the smartphone market. Yea, the iPhone has a large mind share but it doesn't own the market like the iPod does. The smart phone market is still relatively small.