Lets begin this article with a little history of Microsoft operating systems. As some of you would remember, just a few years ago we had devices in Pakistan from manufacturers like Imate, O2 and Acer called PDAs. These devices were usually for niche audiences and a normal mobile user rarely came across someone using these. Mostly people in business environment or tech-savvy people would be seen with these. Almost all of these used Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system which according to its User Interface was somewhat like a stripped down version of Microsoft's Windows for desktop PCs. This OS wasn't that user friendly and navigating the menus and the applications was a pain, but since this was the only OS present at that time, there was nothing people could do and they just learned to accommodate. At this time Microsoft was an absolute leader in the mobile OS space. From the year 2000 till 2010, Microsoft enjoyed a monopoly with little competition for a solid 10 years.
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Fast forward to 2010 and you see that the Mobile OS space is all but crowded now. The Blackberry OS, Apple's iOS, Palm's WebOS and the strongest contender right now, Google's Android OS have all but obliterated Microsoft's dominance in this market. The creation of Capacitive displays for mobiles devices as well as the continued progress in processor power and storage has allowed much better optimization in operating systems now, than was even possible at the time windows mobiles came along.
Foreseeing a the large amount of competition slowly building up, Microsoft started development of a new Operating system from scratch with no backward compatibility with Windows Mobile, leaving previous owners out to dry. They had to do this to survive otherwise they have no chance to stay in the game.
Windows phone 7 was announced on the 15th of Feb, 2010 after much anticipation. The first 10 devices running this OS were launched last week with huge appreciation. Microsoft's venture into such a high stakes game has proven to be well thought out. They have brought out an OS with a strong fighting chance against the giants of today.
Windows phone 7 has a unique tiled 2D interface where the icons are in the form of tiles. Initial impressions with the devices have proven that it has a lightening fast User Interface as well as very good integration with Xbox Live as well has Zune Music player. Microsoft Office suite is also incorporated better than ever before. With such promising features we are forcibly reminded that this is just an infant OS. The biggest problem with the OS is the lack of multi-tasking for third party software. Meaning you can't do two tasks at once without closing the previous application. What more irritating is the fact that even after the screen lock is activated you have to start the application from scratch. Imagine how that would irritate you in the middle of a game or when you were writing at article and the screen got locked right in the middle! Another thing of note is the lack of copy paste feature which makes word editing a headache!
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. For the Pakistani market, I think people aren't really choosy on the OS, the device looks and the marketing will make sure these devices sell. So they will enjoy decent sales as much as can be in the higher price segment. The prices for these devices will be high, in the Rs. 45,000/- plus range as Microsoft has made a baseline hardware requirements for this OS which adds a lot to the price!
We will keep following this OS as it matures. We will review the devices that come with it.
If you have any thoughts or queries please don't hesitate to write in the comments!
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