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Microsoft today unveiled Windows Phone 7 (formerly Windows Mobile 7) and while it is chockfull of new goodies to keep them in the race with Apple’s iPhone and Google Android, do not expect to see any phones using Windows Phone 7 until the holiday shopping season:
Today at Mobile World Congress 2010, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the next generation of Windows Phones, Windows Phone 7 Series. With this new platform, Microsoft offers a fresh approach to phone software, distinguished by smart design and truly integrated experiences that bring to the surface the content people care about from the Web and applications. For the first time ever, Microsoft will bring together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience on a mobile phone, exclusively on Windows Phone 7 Series. Partners have already started building phones; customers will be able to purchase the first phones in stores by holiday 2010.
Some of the new features:
Windows Phone 7 Series includes six hubs built on specific themes reflecting activities that matter most to people:
People. This hub delivers an engaging social experience by bringing together relevant content based on the person, including his or her live feeds from social networks and photos. It also provides a central place from which to post updates to Facebook and Windows Live in one step.
Pictures. This hub makes it easy to share pictures and video to a social network in one step. Windows Phone 7 Series also brings together a user’s photos by integrating with the Web and PC, making the phone the ideal place to view a person’s entire picture and video collection.
Games. This hub delivers the first and only official Xbox LIVE experience on a phone, including Xbox LIVE games, Spotlight feed and the ability to see a gamer’s avatar, Achievements and gamer profile. With more than 23 million active members around the world, Xbox LIVE unlocks a world of friends, games and entertainment on Xbox 360, and now also on Windows Phone 7 Series.
Music + Video. This hub creates an incredible media experience that brings the best of Zune, including content from a user’s PC, online music services and even a built-in FM radio into one simple place that is all about music and video. Users can turn their media experience into a social one with Zune Social on a PC and share their media recommendations with like-minded music lovers. The playback experience is rich and easy to navigate, and immerses the listener in the content.
Marketplace. This hub allows the user to easily discover and load the phone with certified applications and games.
Office. This hub brings the familiar experience of the world’s leading productivity software to the Windows Phone. With access to Office, OneNote and SharePoint Workspace all in one place, users can easily read, edit and share documents. With the additional power of Outlook Mobile, users stay productive and up to date while on the go.
And the vendors on board:
Partners from around the world have committed to include Windows Phone 7 Series in their portfolio plans. They include mobile operators AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, SFR, Sprint, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telstra, T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone, and manufacturers Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC Corp., HP, LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba and Qualcomm Inc. The first phones will be available by holiday 2010. Customers who would like to receive additional information about Windows Phone 7 Series and be notified when it is available can register at http://www.windowsphone7series.com.
So will it be enough to get Microsoft back in the smartphone game? That’s the rub and it is a bit hard to say since the only available demo devices are pre-production, development-only handsets. One key point is that "manufacturers will not be able to make massive modifications to Windows Phone" or to the fairly rigorous hardware specifications which sounds more than a bit like Windows with all its good and bad aspects for the end-user and the OEMs. At this point all I can say is that Windows Phone 7 seems quite ambitious, but it is certainly late.
Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and Robbie Bach delivered the keynote last night at the 2010 Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas and it was the usual mixture of self-congratulatory boosterism and product and technology demos. Here is my list of highlights:
Windows 7
After a report on how well Windows 7 is selling, there were the PC demos including a prototype Hewlett-Packard slate PC that the technical press was pining for.
It looks like a touch enabled netbook to me and while it may have a niche, I suspect I would be screaming for a keyboard (or at least a stylus) in under a minute of usage. Perhaps more interesting were the ultrathin Lenovo A300 laptop with a 21.5" screen and the Sony VAIO home entertainment notebook with a 24" screen. How big does a laptop have to get before it becomes a single element desktop?
Bing
HP is making Bing the default Web search engine and MSN the default home page on all their PCs in 42 countries.
Xbox
Ballmer put the usual lipstick on this pig and Robbie Bach appeared later to flog upcoming games (including another lucrative Halo version) and tout Project Natal, the motion sensing technology that will appear later this year to replace the standard controllers for some games.
Windows Mobile
Zzzzzz.
Mediaroom 2.0
Bach also announced Mediaroom 2.0, the latest version of Microsoft’s IPTV offering for service providers which now supports PCs and smartphoes as well as set top boxes and Xbox consoles for TV viewing.
Summary
Microsoft really did not have much of its own to show again this year. I am almost beginning to miss the goofy Bill Gates future technology skits.
Microsoft and storage appliance vendor NetApp to day announced a three year collaboration agreement:
Under the new agreement, the two companies will collaborate and deliver technology solutions that span virtualization, private cloud computing, and storage and data management, enabling customers to increase datacenter management efficiencies, reduce costs and improve business agility.
…
As part of the new strategic alliance agreement, NetApp and Microsoft will expand product collaboration and technical integration activities, including the following areas:
• Virtualized infrastructure solutions based on Windows Server 2008 R2, Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, Microsoft System Center and NetApp storage systems. These solutions can provide reliable data availability and streamlined data management, and can help maximize server and storage utilization by using 50 percent less storage compared to a baseline of traditional storage.
• Storage and data management solutions for Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft SQL Server that improve communications and collaboration, enable faster, better-informed decision-making, and greatly accelerate software development and testing.
• Efficient and flexible cloud computing and hosted services solutions that provide integrated data protection, “always on” data access, and a flexible, cost-effective infrastructure.
In addition, NetApp and Microsoft will enable customers to experience firsthand the value of joint solutions at the Microsoft Technology Centers around the world and at industry events. Both companies will participate in engagements with channel partners and industry-leading systems integrators, offering technology solutions that are comprehensive and easy to use.
It is a non-exclusive deal so both parties will have other irons in the fire, but it is a natural match since NetApp specializes in file system based storage appliances (as opposed to raw block disk storage) and who loves their own files systems better than Microsoft? The agreement undoubtedly helps NetApp compete with the raw storage providers like EMC and presumably Microsoft gets a boost competing with VMware.
Here’s an odd duck - Microsoft last week launched a music download and streaming service beta in the United Kingdom called MSN Music:
As first revealed by The Telegraph, in July 2009, the download service will go live tomorrow in beta. However, the streaming side of the service will only be available to “several thousand” people invited to test the product.
MSN Music had been scheduled to go live by the end of July. However, the product “took longer than they thought it would to get it to the high quality they wanted”, according to Peter Bale, executive producer of MSN.
Microsoft has signed deals with the four major music labels: EMI, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony BMG, securing around one million tracks for the launch ready to download. Comparatively iTunes has over 10 million tracks available and 7digital has over eight million tracks in its catalogue. The Telegraph understands independent record labels have yet to be signed.
…
The service will sit within the ‘Music’ section of MSN and be promoted across the portal. When asked why Microsoft was making a move into the highly competitive world of digital music services, Mr Bale replied: “This shouldn’t be seen as a major company-wide strategic move. We are replacing a service that used to be on MSN a year ago and the service is very much confined to MSN.
Easy for Mr. Bale to say. A more likely rationale is that MSN Music is a stopgap service until the Zune Marketplace finally gets beyond North America:
The download store will be run on the same technology Microsoft uses to power the Zune marketplace in the US. Zune is the company’s music player, which is only available in the US, and similar to Apple’s iTunes, it has its own music download online store. However, Mr Bale said the company’s decision to use the same technology for this service was a logical move and not “necessarily a pre-cursor to Zune launching in the UK”.
I guess they will have to leave the lights on waiting for the Zune to show up.
All of this is more or less understandable except for choosing the MSN Music name which conjures up unpleasant memories of the last MSN Music service which was killed by the Zune in 2006.
