Microsoft Releases Final Windows Phone 7 Dev Tools 170
cgriffin21 writes "Microsoft on Thursday released the final Windows Phone 7 developer tools to manufacturing, giving coders a couple of weeks' lead time to get their apps ready for the launch of the Windows Phone Marketplace in early October. Microsoft released the Windows Phone 7 OS to manufacturing on Sept. 1, and its OEM partners are in the process of testing it on handsets. The Windows Phone 7 developer tools are the final piece of the puzzle for Microsoft, which is now ready to march back into a mobile market where it has fallen alarmingly behind the leaders."
In related news, CNET reports that Windows Phone 7 will only be available for GSM networks at launch, with a CDMA version planned for the first half of next year. This rules out Sprint and Verizon for launch.
Honest (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm really hoping that Windows Phone 7 (both hardware and software offerings) bring something worthy to the table. Competition is a great thing, and if nothing else WP7 will at least light even more of a fire under the butt of RIM/Apple/Android devs to step up their game.
Re:Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, Windows Phone 7? (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually it's kind of too late for Microsoft already. They're entering the market so late, what can they possibly offer consumers (I'm ignoring business use cases here, since it isn't for business anyways, or so they stated) that they can't already get from current offerings, and better?
I had come to this conclusion as well.
The only solution I can see if MS means to seriously compete in this market is to make the hard decision to run at a loss to try to get some momentum going -- to lose money on each Windows phone in much the same way that video game console makers usually sell the first consoles at a loss.
Re:Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, Windows Phone 7? (Score:3, Insightful)
The old switcheroo (Score:4, Insightful)
They're entering the market so late, what can they possibly offer consumers
They can offer a wide range of phones all with a consistent UI. That's different from Apple (which has consistent UI but not a large range of phones) and from Android (which offers a wide range of phones now but with divergent UI).
Make no mistake, Android has taken over what Microsoft sees as ITS market (making phone OS'es for multiple vendors) and badly wants it back. And they still have a ton of money to make the attempt. And they have the same controls over application quality that has helped Apple in the application space.
Furthermore, and this really pisses me off, the phone can't even run Silverlight in the browser.
Microsoft does have some odd choices around technology support but I think these are only minor quibbles for what they are trying to do.
Re:Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, Windows Phone 7? (Score:2, Insightful)
They're entering the market so late, ...
I don't think so, not because MS have been making phone OS for a decade, but because iOS and Android are so young too. After all, Android is just two years old and iPhone has not finished its fourth year yet. Indeed, they've been doing great in these short years, but that doesn't mean they've guaranteed they're eternal success in the mobile industry.
Re:Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, Windows Phone 7? (Score:3, Insightful)
It will be exceedingly difficult for MSFT to gain a foothold in any market where it's 4th or 5th to the party, let alone this one.
What's their niche? In the desktop world they have business, but Blackberry owns business in the mobile world. Consumers will choose Apple or lower-cost Android devices more than likely.
It's hard to imagine a featureless and slow Windows Phone having anything very attractive to the average mobile customer strolling into an AT&T or T-Mobile store.
Re:Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, Windows Phone 7? (Score:3, Insightful)
They didn't need to battle each other for market share, both were simply carving up an emerging customer base.
Microsoft enters the market at a time when most people who are interested in smart phones already have one. Their market share will have to be established by taking customers away from other platforms (very expensive), not grabbing people new to the game (cheap).
Microsoft and Incompetence? A tale of two smartpho (Score:1, Insightful)
2. Windows Phone 7 Series.
October will bring the launch of Windows Phone 7 Series. Phones from the same company that brought you such fine products as Edlin, DOS 4, Windows ME, Internet Explorer 6, Zune, Vista and Bing. Phones with the kind of quality, stability, security and robustness you’ve come to expect from the Microsoft name. Yes, Windows Phone 7 Series is a new ballgame that abandons compatibility (and your investment) with Windows Mobile and literally dozens and dozens of developers who wrote apps for it. It is unconnected with the recent Microsoft Sidekick/Danger fiasco that made national news when it lost all data for millions of smartphone users worldwide. (Microsoft acquired the successful Sidekick/Danger and tried to “Microsoft” it.) After the Sidekick/Danger fiasco, don’t expect T-Mobile to be friends with Microsoft anytime soon. I’m sure the other carriers are also paying attention. Also don’t forget the recently launched, and recently discontinued Microsoft Kin phone! Microsoft spent over $85 Million in marketing for it, and managed to sell over 500 units! Microsoft announced that it wasn’t as bad as the press was suggesting – they only lost $120,000 per Kin phone that was sold. When asked about the Kin phone and the Zune music player, teenagers said: the what and the what? So be looking forward to Windows Phone 7 Series in October. (If at first you don’t succeed, use a shorter bungee.)
(I posted this elsewhere earlier today.)
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Their is no there they're. But only an idiot would begin or end a sentence with the word "but". And you'd have to be really daft to begin or end a sentence with "and". Your using you're words wrong. Two often too people get together two make to many smaller people.
Re:CDMA, seriously? (Score:5, Insightful)
There are two ways to go from CDMA to LTE, which is where everyone is going.
One is to obsolete your CDMA/EVDO network and deploy GSM/HSPA which has a direct upgrade path to LTE and provides inter-network mobility. This is what Telus and Bell did because they are running comparatively tiny networks.
The other is to move your CDMA/EVDO gear to CDMA/eHRPD and then deploy LTE with mobility between CDMA and LTE. This is what Sprint (modulo WiMAX as a step in there) and Verizon are doing, because their networks and number of deployed devices are an order of magnitude larger and deploying a GSM/UMTS network a year before switching to LTE is not viable.
I'm Canadian too, but it isn't like we have some sort of technical superiority or that Bell and Telus know something that Verizon and Sprint don't.
Re:Honest (Score:1, Insightful)
Microsoft very committed - in all directions (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm very surprised MS haven't been taking the mobile market more seriously
Microsoft has been taking the mobile market extremely seriously. Why else would have they have focused intently on WM 6, WM 6.5, the KIn, and WM7?
But that's the problem you see. These internal efforts, were all fighting one another. By focusing intently on several things, they were really focusing on none.
It looks like POSSIBLY with WM7 they may be finally choosing to focus on one system and push it forward. Time will tell how true that is.
Re:Android, iOS, Blackberry OS, Windows Phone 7? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd definitely agree here. After all, Microsoft wasn't 1st mover in any of the following markets:
GUI operating systems, Web Browsers, Web Servers, managed virtual machine languages, spreadsheet software, word processors, game consoles
As a result, Windows, IE, IIS, C#, Excel, Word, and Xbox are all minor competitors in a crowded marketplace.
Where is my sarcasm tag?