>Microsoft might have done themselves some favors by giving it a whole new naming scheme away from the Windows brand.
Why on Earth do people consider the Windows brand to be tainted? I've really only heard this from Mac fanboys who seem to forget that Windows has a 90% market share. Tying Windows Phone 7 to Windows 7, a great OS by any definition as well as a very popular one is a stroke of genius. People will look at their smartphone and think, "this is a small computer", rather than, "this is a fancy phone". That gives Microsoft huge leeway to push their Windows integration line. It doesn't have to look or feel anything like Windows for the average consumer to realize that they can sync their emails, access their office documents, get on Internet Explorer, etc.
Really? All the reviews I've read / all the people I asked said "it's not that bad" which IMHO is the second most terrible thing customers can say about your product, unless you're a monopoly.
And it still features that idiotic UAC interface, among other things: like a totally remade Control Panel that looks nothing like the one in Windows XP (and just when I managed to teach my wife how to configure a network connection). And what bothers me the most about Windows 7 are the artificial restrictions. Did you know that in Win7 Starter you cannot change the desktop background? (or distribute an app that does that?) ... I actually had to explain to my wife that she has the cheap / sucky edition installed on her netbook, and that she needs to pay another $100 for the home basic upgrade.
It's shit like that which makes me cry every time I have to deal with Windows, but I still am dealing with it because that's what most people use: i.e. its popularity has nothing to do with technical achievements (unless you count not-sucking-so-badly).
And I'm only mentioning this because WinMo 7 was scheduled to be released in 2 editions, i.e. with a cheap version without Zune (at least). Competition with Android/iPhone probably prevented that (for now).
People will look at their smartphone and think,
"this is a small computer"
Except this marketing tactic has been done before with Pocket PC. Not working, because it's not like a computer.
What people will actually think: "this just like the iPhone/BlackBerry, only from Microsoft".
Every issue you just mentioned affects <5% of users. If you're a power user, Windows sucks, period. If you're an average user, it's great. I love being able to run linux apps in OSX, without having to deal with linux UI and driver issues. I hate trying to play games in it. Guess which group is bigger: those who play games, or those who like native linux app support?
Windows succeeds, despite the wailing of mac and linux fanboys, because it does what it needs to do and does so well. Mac will never have Windows market share when their cheapest laptop is $1000. Linux will never have Windows, or let alone Mac, market share. Period. Almost every business out there runs Windows. Almost every school library computer lab runs Windows. People who use computers for only the most basic things use Windows, and that's 90% of the computer-using population.
I have both a macbook pro and an older dell xps running Windows 7. I far prefer OSX, but that's because I like having a real shell. XCode is pretty good, too. OSX is a "nicer" OS, and it's certainly prettier, but is it worth paying twice as much for a computer? For the vast majority of people, the answer is no.
You seem to be arguing that Toyota is retarded because they make corollas, when BMW makes the clearly superior 5 series. I think the flaw in such reasoning is obvious.
Two weeks ago, I got the samsung focus to replace my iphone4. The phone is really really good. The author is right about the tiles approach. It is a nice change from the app model of the other phones. I can see all my contacts, feeds from facebook and linked in in one view. It's even better than desktop experiences.
People have complained that the hardware is plasticy and cheap, but after using the iphone4 over a 2 month period and seeing the glass screen smash. I prefer the light feel; plus most people covert their phones with a case and they all feel the same after that.
Complaints on the phone:
The browser isn't as good as the iphone; change between pages isn't as nice and the back & forward is a pain. Rendering is also not as good.
The zune navigation system was better than the windows mobile. In zune you could navigate up and down the system by clicking the title of the current screen to go back in Playlists click "Playlist" to go back to music, click "Music" to return to the main screen. This was super convient because navigation could be done with one hand. In the Mobile OS it would more on a backwards only system that requires using the phones "back" button which is at the bottom of the phone. I find it not as easy operate as the zune, but the same as the iphone.
I don't get the whole thing with a light phone being "cheap" feeling. I want my phone to feel like air, because in my hand it really doesn't make that much of a difference. But in my pocket (especially with sweats or PJs), even a moderately heavy smartphone begins to make things sag (especially when running).
As someone familiar with the Microsoft stack (C#, .NET, VS, etc), I found the going pretty straight forward. If you're familiar with the Microsoft development stack, you should probably have a fairly easy time getting used to the platform. If you're familiar with Silverlight (which I wasn't), you should find it very easy indeed.
From the article: "Browser Plus has gotten a few thousand downloads so far, he said." Price was 99c. Not sure how much whichever marketplace it was in charges.
Assume 2000 x 70c = $1,400
Not bad for a week/weekends work (honeymoon apparently, go figure?!? :D )
But a bit ... lacking ... when considered as a #1 hit. On the other hand, maybe it hasn't been out there too long. You could say okay the time he and his beta tester put in was worth maybe $20/hour, but that ignores how an app can be a revenue stream that keeps on generating income.
If he 'only' made $1000 per year from that app (as is) every year for the rest of his life that'd be a pretty good ROI for a weeks work.
So don't get too hung up on my estimate, the advantage of an entrepreneur compared to a work for hire salaryman is to keep getting paid long after the work is done.
This analysis is pretty accurate. That Techflash article was after the first week or so - it gives you a sense of how many app downloads I got per day back then. Another thing to factor in was that this was in the first 2 weeks of WP7 launching.
Unfortunately, the popularity took a dive after the first few weeks so my run rate is much lower now. Also, a big part of my app sales was driven by press which you only get when you do new versions, etc. My wife and I working together on a soon-to-be-launched app also meant that I haven't really gotten back to shipping new updates, etc.
Good writeup overall, I cant put a lot of stock into things because he admittedly did not spend lots of time in the development environment. Probably more aptly titled 'Windows Phone 7 usage and development from an iOS developer' as most of the article was about usage not coding.
> First things first. If you want to build Windows Phone 7 apps on your Mac, prepare to jump into Boot Camp. The emulator does not work in VMWare Fusion.
It works just fine on Windows 7 running on the latest version of VMware Fusion under Snow Leopard. It's just not very performant.
Very balanced writeup. The only thing I disagree with is the quality of some of the apps... although I do agree they're not as good as some of the iOS 1-3 person shop apps, I think the big difference is that most of the small shop iOS apps are small companies, whereas WP7 is still in the early Android-phase where it is hobbyst working in the evening.
But the quality of paid apps, which are almost all games, is on par with the iOS top paid apps already.
I think games will be where WP7 will shine, Microsoft has the best game and media development APIs out there for any platform, and there are many many developers who've been building high quality games for Xbox and PC who could move to the platform a lot more comfortably than to iOS which requres OpenGL or to Android which sounds like a mess to have to deal with divergent hardware.
You are overestimating XNA. Most (almost all) high quality games for Xbox and PC are written in C++. It is even more likely that they could be ported to iOS or Android more easily due the simple fact that they allow native code. XNA would be a competitor to the popular Unity game engine which at the moment has a more competitive platform to build for (webplayer, iOS, android) and also offers a superior IDE while offering the same language support as XNA. In addition to that, UDK and the ID engine are also being ported to support iOS and Android. Feel free to point me to a list of high quality in XNA produced titles.
Good game developers are able to create games regardless of the quality of the tools. Its part of the fun to create impressive games with limited resources and tools.
Other than marketing the fact that Microsoft also created a successful game console and xbox live, I don't think Microsoft has any advantage here. Xbox live could be a key differentiator but only after a significant market share has been gained. I don't think people will buy a WP7 phone for Xbox live. Currently iOS offers the best games.
That is exactly my point, why develop for WP7 if you can work with the technologies you want for other platforms which also have a higher userbase?
However I suspect that some of the titles from companies such as EA or Gameloft are still written in C++ even though it is not supported officially by Microsoft. It is highly likely that they have some kind of early access to native code compilation for the platform.
Well, Android and iOS both use OpenGL ES and have a majority of the market between them. This will make porting easier between them than to WP7. I would not overlook the impact of marketshare on time allocation decisions.
The Unreal Engine is looking very impressive on iOS (Infinity Blade is amazing). Many developers are experienced with the Unreal Engine's API, which is at a pretty important level - perhaps more so than the rest of the stack.
I think the fees are 500k-1m or so to license the same engine for PC or console games. Like the Source engine, it's not cheap. There are other 3d engines available for iOS, but not of the same quality - if your alternative is to get your developers up to speed with one of those or write your own, the pricing might seem reasonable.
If you want to use a GSM phone, there are two choices in the US; AT&T and T-Mobile. T-Mobile seems to be more reasonable than AT&T, but has far less coverage.
Reasons you might want a GSM phone: so you can travel to Europe (or many other places) and just stick in a prepaid SIM card. So you can switch between carriers without throwing out your phone (though at the moment this is more theoretical than practical, since AT&T and T-Mobile use different 3G frequencies, and most phones don't support both; you could switch, but would be back on EDGE instead of 3G). So you can buy unlocked phones that are not owned and controlled by your carrier, with no contracts, giving you more power to vote with your wallet if your carrier is unreasonable.
For these reasons, I decided to go with an unlocked GSM phone (Nexus One). AT&T has coverage where I live; T-Mobile does not. Thus, AT&T is pretty much the only reasonable choice.
Why on Earth do people consider the Windows brand to be tainted? I've really only heard this from Mac fanboys who seem to forget that Windows has a 90% market share. Tying Windows Phone 7 to Windows 7, a great OS by any definition as well as a very popular one is a stroke of genius. People will look at their smartphone and think, "this is a small computer", rather than, "this is a fancy phone". That gives Microsoft huge leeway to push their Windows integration line. It doesn't have to look or feel anything like Windows for the average consumer to realize that they can sync their emails, access their office documents, get on Internet Explorer, etc.