“Microsoft is belatedly trying to take on the iPhone and Android phones with its own phone software,” David Pogue reports for The New York Times. “It’s available on several phones from Samsung and HTC, at prices from $50 to $200 with two-year contracts; each major American carrier offers at least one. (The Windows Phone 7.5 software, code-named Mango, is also available as a free upgrade for older Windows Phone 7 phones.)”
“Windows Phone 7.5 is gorgeous, classy, satisfying, fast and coherent. The design is intelligent, clean and uncluttered. Never in a million years would you guess that it came from the same company that cooked up the bloated spaghetti that is Windows and Office,” Pogue reports. “Most impressively, Windows Phone is not a feeble-minded copycat. Microsoft came up with completely fresh metaphors that generally steer clear of the iPhone…”
“Now, if this phone had arrived before the iPhone, people would have been sacrificing small animals to it. But Microsoft’s three-year lag behind its rivals is going to be very tough to overcome. Windows Phone is considered a weird outlier. Unlike with the iPhone, there’s no teeming universe of alarm clocks, chargers, accessories and cars that fit these phones,” Pogue reports. “Similarly, Windows Phone’s app store has 30,000 apps, which is an achievement — but Android offers 10 times as many, and the iPhone store has 16 times as many… In other words, Microsoft may face quite a Catch-22, no matter how superb its work: Windows Phone isn’t popular because it isn’t popular.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Windows Phone will be popular. Over time, it’ll eat the lunch of the increasingly fragmented, increasingly insecure, and increasingly costly Android (losing patent infringement lawsuits and dropping features/paying royalties to multiple IP owners will do that to you).
The not-iPhone world will begin to dump Android and move to Microsoft’s mobile OS offering because it will eventually cost less, work better, and come with far fewer legal issues. In the iPhone wannabe market, it’s already happening (Nokia, for example). We expect the same to happen in the iPad wannabe market, too. Google and Microsoft will long battle each other for the non-Apple markets and that’s a much better scenario for everyone than having a single ripoff artist flood the market with fragmented, insecure, beta-esque, mediocre-at-best products. Google’s attempt to be the next Microsoft is doomed.
This, of course, will also impact Google’s search business. Apple’s Siri will increasingly deliver info to users sans Google and Microsoft will, naturally, use Bing for their search. As we’ve said many times in the past: Google will rue the day they got greedy by deciding to try to work against Apple instead of with them.
The bottom line: We’d rather see a company trying unique ideas, even if – shockingly – it’s Microsoft, than the wholesale theft of Apple innovations that we’ve been seeing for over four years now. Don’t steal IP. Even worse, don’t steal IP and “claim to be innovators.” We have no problem with any companies that attempt to compete with Apple using their own unique ideas and strategies.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward Weber” for the heads up.]
It’s colder in hell than it is here in Nebraska.
Come on.. MS has always been a fan of text-based OSes. Like DOS.
Correct… and no matter what this is merely a copy yet again.
…and look closely they even in a demo steal the Mobil me icon and iCloud from Apple.
http://www.engadget.com/photos/windows-phone-mango-social-and-email/#4254338
I am really shocked at anyone thinking this is
good INTERFACE DESIGN.
TILES (blocks with text) and a
SINGLE sans serif font (with indentations)
as clean as it appears – it tires the eye – will not be useful to all people (children/challenged people/business people)
It looks got a cosmetic styling, it clinical and boring.
The main feat Microsloth might have achieved is desktop apes running on a mobile device – yet I don’t think this will be so true.
wow more vaporware from Microsoft… they sure did abandon the courier project. The surface idea is worthless for mass adoption.
And now M$’s future version of augmented reality and Siri connectivity without voice. IF this is the future, they are already behind with an idea they in no way could implement as Microsoft.
Great take.
Gorgeous, classy, satisfying, fast and coherent…sounds like pandering to me.
Couldn’t believe it myself too. So looked into it and found this at Engadget.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/27/windows-phone-7-5-mango-review/
The truth was far from the “pandering” that was in this article. See for yourself. What a mess!
A mess? Are you hoping that people won’t actually *read* what you link to?
FYI, here’s Engadget’s summary of their review:
“While Windows Phone still needs a glass of water to get rid of a few hiccups — and let’s face it, every mobile OS has plenty of their own — it ironed out a lot of the wrinkles from earlier versions and made it a much more feature-laden, user-friendly experience. With Mango, WP7 has caught up with Android and iOS in nearly every way, and in some areas it’s even surpassed the other two in functionality.”
Gorgeous, classy, satisfying, fast and coherent…sounds like the perfect date to me.
Pandering would be good too.
That would be a third-party opportunity.
Baldmer to the rescue. The enemy of my enemy has become my friend.
Well played mdn
LAME – Microsloth has down nothing…
form and function is in the footsteps of APPLE.
WHy after all these years has Microsloth not gotten a jump on voice. Because they like all the others can not predict where the puck will go. Hence their are coping as does Android.
Just think: Even with no real competition, Apple has given us the best computer operating system, the best computer hardware, the best smart phone, the best tablet and the best smart phone/tablet OS. Imagine what great things lie ahead when Apple, finally, might actually have a worthy competitor.
First Pogue, now MDN? What has happened to our world? It’s changing, and Microsoft’s persistence is going to pay off nicely for them. I’m impressed.
Nothing is changing. Microsoft has always known how to make a major product of theirs receive glowing reviews.
e.g., the original reviews of Vista were adoring.
WinPho 7 was an indescribable failure. It’ll take a whole lot more than tweaking it a little, bumping the version number up to 7.5, and buying some praise to hoist Mango out of the crater.
Remember the Zune HD and how how it was pretty much universally acknowledge as a significant improvement over the original Zune? Yeah.
I’ve never doubted that Microsoft had talented people working for them, it was upper management that kept getting in their way.
Now that Windows Phone 7.5 people came out with a good product, how long will it take for Microsoft management to take notice and start monkeying around with it?
“If we change this and add that, it would increase profit in my department by 15%”
Gorgeous? How much uglier can a phone without buttons be? Those iPod colors: horrible. A baby blue Fiat 500 is cool, a BMW 7-series in the same color is a disaster. So is this phone.
The new Nokia with Mango (the more expensive version) is a very nice looking phone, but won’t be out until next year. Have not experienced Mango, but I agree with MDN, it’s hard to fault even MS when they’ve developed their own home brew OS and not simple ripped off iOS. Where and how it may be better remains to be seen.
Maybe Microsoft is starting to get it, and realize that the only way they can dig themselves out of the mobile space hole they are in is through innovation.
But hasn’t Microsoft said that current phones won’t be upgradable to Phone 8, meaning that current buyers are buying future bricks? Or am I confusing them with RIM?
If I hadda choose between TurdDroid and WinPhone, I’d definitely go with WinPhone. At least (shocking!) MS tried to be a little bit original.
If the iphone could take a dump I’m certain that’s what the MS phone would look like…
1 My vote for the best one-liner of the day.
And how big are the phones that this OS is installed in? Yeah, 4.3″. Adds to the gorgeousness factor for sure. I think I know where the next evolution of the iPhone will be. 3.5″->4″->4.5″. They’re holding back the iPhone 5 until they can get the 4″ screen just right.
I really hope you’re wrong. The form factor is great as it is. Those 4.3 screens look ridiculous in all but the biggest hands.
If they can do 4 with little change to the basic form factor, cool.
The 4″ screen size is actually detrimental to the phone’s appeal.
Current iPhone screen size makes it borderline too large. Outside of the minuscule geek crowd, who don’t mind talking into an awkward brick, mainstream audiences don’t want these uncool clunky devices. There is a reason why vast majority of phones are smaller than 4″.
Actually, after holding a friend’s iPhone 4 on my hand and staring at it for a long time (and using it, of course), I think the next iPhone will feature an edge-to-edge screen, but keep the 3.5″ screen size.
In other words, Apple wants the iPhone to get *smaller*, not *bigger*
For those of us who like to just carry the phone in our pocket, I hope the iPhone does not increase in physical size. Taking the screen as far to the edge of the physical window where possible would be a good option.
I can’t imagine stuffing an Android BRICK in my front pocket.
It even has Internet Explorer 9, a legitimate and respectable web browser. It’s still far from a perfect web browser and it’s not as good as Webkit. But Its idiosyncrasies are fairly negligible, it’s very close to modern web standards, and it’s actually not painful for a web developer to support it.
Please. IE9 makes me want to puke chunks.
MDN likes Windows Phone 7.5’s strategy. They like it a lot.
this will fail along with android, the iphone and ipad because none of these devices run a full version of windows.
This space is just a form factor and its all going nowhere without a full blown desktop OS.
I heard this from steve ballmer so it must be.true
What kind of fuckwit wants a full desktop OS on a mobile device? Oh, of course, dude McFarland does. Hello fuckwit. (waves).
Haha, great humor both of you!
No Google Search? Not even the option?!! That is major deal killer IMO. It’s one thing for MS to make Bing the default search, but Google or Yahoo must be selectable in the preferences. I actually like this (non-cloned) phone but would need some basic things to change before I could entertain recommending or using one.
I don’t know why you’re complaining. Bing is using Google results in it’s search finds.
Windows phone software is gorgeous, fast and coherent… and isn’t a shameless rip-off of iOS? This I gottan see! 😀
My only question… Why is there STILL no Nokia Windows Phone in general release? It’s not coming to the U.S. market until 2012?
Nokia and Microsoft make their partnership announcement, kill sales of existing Nokia smartphone products, put fear and apprehension into Microsoft’s existing Windows Phone partners, and more than one year later, there is STILL no Nokia Windows Phone in the world’s largest markets.
It looks like Microsoft got a pretty bad deal for their $1 BILLION bribe. And Nokia looks pretty incompetent, except for getting $1 BILLION to drag their feet. It doesn’t really matter if the OS is any good, if your potentially largest producer is not producing.
Just so you know ahead of time, I am not a MS fanboy— far from it.
I own both Apple and Windows computers and I have an iPad and a WP7 upgraded to 7.5. I used to have an iPhone 3G and then I lived abroad for a while and came back and decided to buy a WP7 out of intrigue. I promise I am up-to-date on my meds.
Without a doubt, iOS is definitely a superior product. I am simply lucky enough to have the financial resources to play with gadgets from all makers. The Windows Phone definitely is elegant and a great operating system in its own right. This platform is actually worthy of competing with the iOS because it is not simply a cheap rip-off.
We are not sure yet how bad things will get with fragmentation because everything may change in the coming years with Nokia’s deal. For all we know Microsoft might give the middle finger to a bunch of 3rd party makers and focus on a few cheap iPhone wannabees.
I’m not sure. All I know is that the WIndows Phone 7.5 is not a POS, but it is definitely inferior. My opinion is that there are not enough apps and, indeed, the giant tiles actually distract the user from the lack of useful apps.
I’m definitely upgrading to iPhone 5 when it comes out.
I’d give iOS a 9.5
WP 7.5 an 8
and Android a 6
That’s just my take.
And we all know Blackberry is a 1 ;-).
It’s quite shocking when Microsoft come out with a product that is actually worthy of some praise. WP7 is really starting to look like a contender.
Christ, I can’t believe I’m about to type this. Well done to the team at Redmond!!
*shudder*
So someone tell me what is Google? Don’t have the real DNA for great product design and innovation like Apple, don’t have the business savvy and guts to always fight back and stand on their ground, don’t have the ‘sweatshop’ diligent and like those Asian contenders. What is Google good for?
Someone tell me?
anyone remember the song “War”- by Edwin Starr..
“War..What is it good for?..Absolutely nothing!…”
“Goggle.. what is it good for?..absolutely nothing innovative..!”
Pogue either had a mental breakdown or has been replaced by his doppelgänger. Gorgeous? LMFAOTIF!
“Replaced…”
That’s it! You broke the code, Jubel.
When MS realized that they couldn’t make a decent product, they went for bribing the reporters. But that turned out tol be only a partial fix, as there were still thoske pesky ones that could not be bribed…
So instead of developing a better os/phone, etc… why not truly skate to where you WANT the puck to be; Replace all reporters by ms controlled doubles. “Invasion of the Bodysnatchers”
Then ALL MS products will be top of the line
… and instead of the gruesome task of actually thinking up new stuff, they can (finally) exhume MS-DOS and start offering everyone text based operating systems