Six Reasons to Like Windows Phone 7
In early December, went to my first .NET user group meeting, while I am not a programmer and we certainly don’t use .NET at my day job, it was still an interesting experience. There are some instances where we do actually use .NET Framework but it’s rare. The topic for the night was being presented by Microsoft’s Developer Evangelist named Peter Laudati, the plan was to talk about Windows Phone 7 development. Which was a fairly exciting subject for me, since follow the mobile market closely, but yet I hadn’t read that much about the Windows Phone 7. Unfortunately, I learned about the meeting only hours before it started, and didn’t really have time to do any digging.
Peter Laudati arrived with with a brand new phone that he had recently
purchased and a Microsoft supplied developer phone. First he walked us
through the use of the phone… which I am actually glad that he did,
because talking about the User Interface of the phone really helped me
understand what was going to be later discussed for what can and can’t
be used be developers. Right now I really wished I had taken notes so I
could really nail down some of the correct terminology, but I have done
my best research.
Hardware Requirements
I am sure if you have done any reading about the phone, you will already know that the phone comes with hardware requirements! I personally, love this. Google hasn’t locked down requirements for Android as of yet, and it’s slightly irritating. So the Window 7 Mobile Phone has minimum hardware requirements for the screen size, processing power, memory, and hard buttons buttons etc.
Why End Users Want Hardware Requirements
Example: I downloaded an application that is suppose to work and Light Meter… great, since I happen to use old school cameras that don’t have a meter. Once I tried using the meter application, I discovered the the application is looking for the trackball to initialize the metering process. Ooooops, I have an HTC EVO, I don’t have a trackball. What am I suppose to do??? I tried all my hardware buttons, nothing works. Two things to note here:
- The application was marked as a beta.
- The developer really failed to design for all Android devices, besides an HTC Incredible.
The Application should have operated this way:
Upon the fist launch the application should have requested, that you select the initializer button, then stored it in the applications configuration file.
Microsoft’s Phone and Operating System Model
Microsoft has strategically nailed out a plan of attack against both Google and Apple by attack both makers weak areas. Like Apple, Microsoft is going to completely control the operating system, not the hardware maker or the carrier. This is also a fantastic move. Google isn’t using this model yet, and they are suffering because of this. It’s really pretty much a giant failure on Google’s behalf, because of the loss of quality for the End User.
Here is Why the End User Likes this Model:
When the carrier and the handset maker are in control of the operating system an update to the end user suffers a loss in potential User Experience. The handset maker and the carrier may chose not to update to the newest release because, they have already made all the profit they can off a device, and now they are going to cut you off, so you’re buy a new device or because releasing new software gain no new profits. If I am handset maker or carrier, this is exactly what I want, a defined Product Life Cycle that I control! Since I happen to be a End User, I like the Microsoft, and Apple models better.
The Overall Application Experience
First of all I was very impressed with Microsoft’s “Homepage” or main screen choice. I was expecting to have another, iPhone knock off, or even an Android styled homepage. Instead the main page, has the wonderful customizable “tiles.” If you have ever used an Android device, they look very similar to a widget, except smoother and more consistent throughout. Unlike, the iPhone, and Android devices, you scroll up and down on the main screen to access the different tiles. I am not sure if this is consistent with the old windows 6.5 phones (note: this is not a new version of 6.5), because I never used them.
So each of these tiles has a “theme.” So for example the Zune (Microsoft’s MP3 player) application is loaded on the phone. If you open Zune you are presented with a main column, which has a various options for playback etc, if you scroll to the right you are presented with a different set of options which all flow nicely together. So now lets get down the development portion (a new app)….
The Nity Grity of Application Experience:
Going along with the Zune tile, let’s say I really want to build an application that uses a cloud service to connect with my home networks NAS (Network Attached Storage) or my computer at home. When connected to my home network, the application then streams music directly off my devices, just like Pandora, but it’s my own ad-free selection. All good so far right… you could completely do this on a Android, iPhone or Blackberry but here is where Microsoft is beating these other guys out, in my opinion. My shiny new application can be integrated neatly into the Zune tile, so it’s just another column view, to the user. On an Android, iPhone or Blackberry device, I would launch a separate application, for this activity. Instead the End User gets a neatly integrated application. The nice part is for developers, is that they don’t have to worry about how does my application look, is it slick enough, is it pretty enough for my End Users? Are they really going to like this look? Wait, my end user has already been sold on the Windows Phone 7 look, and now I can play along with that as well. Some people might complain that you lose control, in this situation, yes you do…If you really want it to look differently, then go for it, you can building your own standalone application, but I am willing to bet the End User, is going to prefer the integrated version!
Of course you can build your own tile based application too! Again it’s going to follow the slick look of the Zune interface, in most cases. My greatest love for the Windows Phone 7 is the quality potential of the User Experience, as an Android user, my experience can just be all over the place, applications have their own look, there own operation, and buttons that do different things requiring a quick guessing game on the behalf of the user.
Creating New Applications
Let’s go a little deeper for the developers -or- the detail oriented readers. Unlike the Apple’s off the wall Objective C development language applications will be developed in the well know Silverlight and XNA languages. These are well known languages, throughout the .NET developer communities. Developers will have to stick with the traditional libraries that come with the Silverlight and XNA Software Development Kits. Developers can also take advantage of Microsoft’s free Push Service, as well. Actually it’s the only way to send Push Notifications to the phone, so this currently should save you some money. Right now, Microsoft isn’t allowing applications to go deeper into the C/C++ languages on the deeper end of the operating system. Also, a quick note the SDK from Microsoft is FREE!!! Also it’s only a fairly small flat fee around $100 plus a sell price fee from Microsoft for released applications, to the marketplace.
When do I get these Apps!?!?!
For the End Users, you can expect a time a shorter time period to the market because developers already know how to use the framework (well there are some special cases). This also should mean an overall better quality to be expected from developers. I believe that we are already seeing a rapid release of applications in the Windows market place. Users can also expect application developers to take advantage of Push Notifications (I LOVE Push) Since Silverlight and XNA are going to be the only development languages, End Users can expect fairly basic applications, I am not sure that you’re going to find something similar to Astro File Manager or Titanium Back-Up.
The Marketplace
The Windows 7 Phone marketplace operates slightly similar to the Apple marketplace, applications will have to submitted for review with Microsoft. Unlike Apple, if applications are rejected, you get a rationale of the rejection. Again the takes the best of Apple’s model and beats the Worst of Android’s Marketplace.
A Sandbox
As an End User you can expect applications that play in their sandbox and don’t venture out, which translates to less malicious applications. You can also expect to not see rants from angry developers about how their application was rejected.