Windows Phone 7 – First Look

Windows Phone 7 Devices

Microsoft controls the whole phone OS. Each vendor has to leave the WP7 OS alone and not make different versions.

There were two T-Mobile phones that they presented at the Briefing:

.

T-Mobile launches the HTC HD7

The T-Mobile HTC HD7 has these key features:

• 16GB of memory
• 720 HD video recorder
• Netflix support
• Slacker Radio
• Outlook and Office

Dell Launches the Venue Pro

The Dell Venue Pro has these key features:

• 4.1 touch screen
• QWERTY slide-out keyboard
• Gorilla glass
• Lightweight
• Slim form factor
• Only available from Dell directly, not T-Mobile stores

Windows Phone 7 Demo

Rajiv Thairani (sp?) started the demo, had his phone connected to the laptop and then projecting. Once he unlocked his phone (all Windows Phone 7 have password protection) we were ready to go. The phone seems nice. It scrolls up and down and left and right and is easy to navigate.

He showed us his contacts. WP7 merges the contact data from multiple sources like Windows Live, Facebook, Outlook, Exchange accts, Gmail, Twitter, Hotmail; up to 20 total sources. The new People hub ties them all together for you.

He did a Gizmodo site demo over 2G connections and the speed was pretty good in this low signal room. He had to use the cell signal since there is no Hot Spot coverage support at this time. Boo!

.

Zune, Netflix, Games and Bing Features

Rent movies and stream Zune Pass over the phone.

T-Mobile 3G and 4G will support HD video with Netflix. T-Mobile even provides a Netflix app for you!

XNA builds for Xbox Live on Windows Phone 7. Over 50% of Apple Apps downloaded are games. Games in development for WP7 only coming soon.

• 300,000 SDK downloads so far. 1,000 apps so far such as Yelp, FB etc. MS control quality.
• No side loading of applications.

It has Bing of course. Bing offers searches through its decision engine. Yup.

.

SharePoint – Workspace Mobile 2010

SharePoint is supported on Windows Phone 7.

• Visits through links
• View lists and libraries
• Sync documents offline

Business Usage

The reps said Exchange is ready for Windows Phone 7 (WP7) . WP7 is Exchange ActiveSync compliant, has auto-discovery and multiple business and personal email accounts. Other features include remote wipe and SSL encryption.

.

Business Round Table Panel and Q & A

The Q & A had a few questions about the third party apps and no laptop-telephone tethering at launch. There was also a company that was there as part of the round table selling BPOS.  The T-Mobile representatives were also a part of the panel. They gave a little sales pitch and then touted WP7.

The Microsoft partner, Limotta IT, talked about BPOS and WP7. They answered questions about the use case of how Google is free and BPOS is a fee ranging from $2-$10 per month per user. If you are interested in BPOS check out Limotta.

On a lighter note, the Dell Venue Pro Windows Phone 7 is light and thin. The sliding keyboard is nice too.

.

WP7 in a Tablet?

No tablets until possibly FY11. The WP7 OS is just for phones. You think they would hide the old kiosk. Seriously.

.

My Windows Phone 6

If you want to get one of the prior versions of Windows 6 Phones then you might want to call AT&T or Verizon soon. I know I plan on keeping my work phone for the six months or so.

For more information on Windows Phone 7, you can check out the Microsoft press release at:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2010/oct10/10-11WP7main.mspx

.

Conclusion

The new Windows Phone 7 has some great qualities, and should be a good phone eventually, but there are a few semi-serious drawbacks you need to be aware of that will not be fixed by release next week.

These issues are:

• Windows Phone does not support Flash at release. Working with Adobe to get it working.
• There is no Copy and Paste at release. Microsoft working it for 2011.
• No PC Tethering or Bluetooth support at release.
• Phone is locked to vendor. Cannot switch companies later with phone.
• UMA is not supported at release.
• No built-in Windows Media Center support. Boo!
• No front facing camera.
• Only EFIGS languages supported at release.

These issues may take a while to get fixed. I would suggest checking back with Microsoft to see how these issues are solved before purchasing Windows Phone 7.

For businesses or consumers that do not care about multi-media, or non-cell conenctions, the phone would be a purchase to consider at the release next week.

Tim