Windows Phones 7 series – A “complete” overview !

It is about a week ago since Microsoft announced the Windows Phone 7 series at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

In this article I will try to aggregate the most important publically available information from different reliable websites, in order to provide a complete as possible overview.

Let’s start with a summarizing section of the Microsoft Press Release “Microsoft Unveils 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.”

 

Designed for Life in Motion

As the announcement video above already shows, Windows Phone 7 series are designed for life in motion. The design it self might also be a little in motion, or in other words dynamic like you can read in the section below from the Microsoft Press Release:

“With Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft takes a fundamentally different approach to phone software. Smart design begins with a new, holistic design system that informs every aspect of the phone, from its visually appealing layout and motion to its function and hardware integration. On the Start screen, dynamically updated “live tiles” show users real-time content directly, breaking the mold of static icons that serve as an intermediate step on the way to an application. Create a tile of a friend, and the user gains a readable, up-to-date view of a friend’s latest pictures and posts, just by glancing at Start.”

 

The most radical change is the complete new user interface on Windows Phone 7 series, and it really is disruptive compared to the current line of today screens (which are more or less small screen versions of the Windows UI).

However what really blows my mind is the dynamic and live updated parts, that seem to turn a Windows Phone 7 series device into a more functional solution the helps you on the go. Furthermore the high degree of personalization (order of the tiles, and number of the tiles) seem to provide the possibility to really configure a Windows Phones 7 series device to your personal needs.

 

“Every Windows Phone 7 Series phone will come with a dedicated hardware button for Bing, providing one-click access to search from anywhere on the phone, while a special implementation of Bing search provides intent-specific results, delivering the most relevant Web or local results, depending on the type of query.”

Microsoft Bing is described as a decision engine, and in the current mobile version there are quite a lot user driven functions like maps, directions, traffic, movies, gas prizes or weather. Unfotunately a few of those functions aren’t supported outside of the USA (at least here in the Netherlands), so I hope that Microsoft will address these aspects in the Windows Phone 7 series implementation. However I’m looking forward to hear more about the intent-specific results as described above and their accuracy !

 

In order to provide you with a complete design overview as possible, I would like to highly recommend two additional video’s:

1. An interview on Channel 9 with Joe Belfiore and Charlie Kindel which covers the new user experience, Integration with social networks like Facebook, Internet Explorer, Photos + videos and music, E-mail and texting, GPS and maps, Search integration and Hardware standards;
2. Albert Shum, Director of Mobile Experience Design at Microsoft, discusses the design inspiration for Windows Phone 7 Series.

Hubs on Windows Phone 7 series

Another really interesting concept shown at Mobile World Congress is the use of hubs in Windows Phone 7 series. In the Microsoft Press Release you can find the following description of “a hub”:

“Windows Phone 7 Series creates an unrivaled set of integrated experiences on a phone through Windows Phone hubs. Hubs bring together related content from the Web, applications and services into a single view to simplify common tasks. Windows Phone 7 Series includes six hubs built on specific themes reflecting activities that matter most to people:”

In other words hubs are somewhat information centers that aggregate information from different sources, which is somewhat in line with reasoning behind the dynamic live tiles on the today screen of the Windows Phone 7 series. I’m fortunate to own a Zune HD and especially the UI part of the hubs shows quite some influences of the clean, sleek and functional UIon the Zune HD.

Let’s have a short look at the most important hubs in Windows Phone 7 series.

People

The screenshot above shows a representation of the people hub, and you can clearly see that the emphasis is 110% on function. The interesting part is that live feeds from social networks are now included with a persons contact card. In concept it is a little in line with the people centric communication, which can be seen on the HTC HD2.

“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.”

At first sight it looks similar to the experience I have on the Zune HD, except the sharing part and interaction with the cloud is not applicable in the Zune HD scenario. However I’m really excited about the simplicity of the UI, combined with the connected scenario to the cloud on aa Windows Phone.

Games

Despite the fact that I rarely play games on a console, I’m really excited about the games hub that connects Xbox Live and Windows Phones. Microsoft is connecting two great brands and the underlying user-experiences in this hub.  

“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.”

I think that this can bring new opportunities for both developers and end-users. Would be really cool if you could play some games online against your friends from your Windows Phone 7 series device.

Music + Video

After connection the great brand Xbox Live and Windows Phone in the Games-hub, it is time for another great integration of two Microsoft brands:  Zune comes to Windows Phone 7 series !!

“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.”

As a very pleased user of the Zune HD  I can only say big applause for this move. I just hope that this is a start where the Zune service will become globally available. The current problem for people outside the USA is that first it is hard to get your hands on a Zune HD and second it is even harder to make use of Zune Pass and part of the service offering.  

If you are interested in the Zune HD UI and its capabilities, you might want to watch the Zune HD unboxing and first impressions video from Johan van Mierlo.

Marketplace

“This hub allows the user to easily discover and load the phone with certified applications and games.”

The marketplace hub isn’t discussed at the Microsoft keynote at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, nor were any screenshots officially released via Microsoft Press Pass.  However Eric Cook, Editor at  Windows Phone Thoughts wrote a newsitem that PocketNow did release some screenshots of Marketplace on Windows Phone 7 series, of which one is included above.

According to Steve Ballmer during the Microsoft keynote @ MWC 2010, you will hear more this part of the Windows Phone 7 series at the MIX 2010 conference a few weeks from now.

 

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.”

Not so long ago I was able to conduct a review of Office Mobile 2010 beta for Windows Mobile 6.x and luckily I can see the same building blocks in the Office-hub screenshot above. It looks like the the development process of the Microsoft Office 2010 versions much attention is spend on Microsoft OneNote, and it seems like this will also be the case for OneNote on Windows Phone 7 series.

Furthermore it looks like the Microsoft Office experience on a Windows PC and a Windows Phone are coming closer together, and when you add the Microsoft Office 2010 Web Apps you have the full-three-screen-strategy which is currently directing Microsoft.

I’m really curious to see more of Outlook Mobile, since this is the central place where I do my e-mail, sms messages , calendar and contact management while on te go ! This will be a really important part for the business users among us.

 

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

At first I hope that this article will provide a good overview of the currently available public information and backgrounds on Windows Phone 7 series (remark I used the Microsoft Press Release as the guideline).

While I’m really enthusiastic about the radical different approach that Microsoft has taken with Windows Mobile, both during and after the Microsoft keynote @ Mobile World Congress,  there are still a lot of questions to ask.

On the Windows Phone Expert forums there is a great article “Windows Phone 7 Series -- the hard questions answered” written by Dave Parker, Microsoft MVP. Furthermore there is an excellent article on Engadget “Windows Phone 7 series, everything you ever wanted to know”, written by Joshuah Toploski, Editor in Chief of Engadget. I think both articles are certainly recommended to read.

 

General availability

“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. “

During the TechNet_Live Event “Join the New Efficiency” in the Netherlands, I was able to hear Steve Ballmer elaborate on the Microsoft Ecosystem approach and the drivers for innovation. In the overview above you can clearly see that the whole ecosystem (mobile operators, manufactures and hopefully also developers next month) is commited to Windows Phone 7 series.

This is probably the best signal that Windows Phone 7 series will become a succes, if the ecosystem is able to combine great software, greate hardware and great services in an awesome experience for the end-user.

 

It is almost a week ago since Microsoft announced Windows Phone 7 series at Mobile World Congress, and I’m really curious to hear your thoughts about this radical different approach on Windows Phones (it is completely different than the current Windows Mobile 6.x versions around). Do you like it? Do you hate it? What would you like to see or ask Microsoft to add?