Windows Phone 7. My god, it's full of tiles!

Ghostly Clockwork

Hey, I saw there wasn't a Windows Phone 7 thread, figured I'd start a crappy one up till a proper one could be made. In any case, Seems to be pretty solid, some nice apps, but it'll be a rather tough slog to try to crack any of Apple's marketshare. Time will tell, but seems to be doing pretty well. Hope more apps come out though, heh, It seems like this gen of phone wars is more about the apps than that actual phones. Anywho, discuss or flame away!

Rigor Mortis

I was under the impression the iphone was third in market share?
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-20012627-94.html

It seems like Windows Phone 7 will need to crack Android and BlackberryOS and the Iphone.

Ayulin

Definitely going to get one of these since it has Zune Pass integration, although the storage is a little disappointing; the models launching over here only have 8GB on them

(Yeah, I know, Zune Pass itself alleviates that, but I'd like to have my whole library with me anyway.)

Automaticzen

Only one Sprint phone? No Verizon phones? Silly Microsoft.

Morskittar

Ayulin wrote: »

Definitely going to get one of these since it has Zune Pass integration, although the storage is a little disappointing; the models launching over here only have 8GB on them

(Yeah, I know, Zune Pass itself alleviates that, but I'd like to have my whole library with me anyway.)

It looks like carriers can expand storage - 8gb is built in, but there's been a few mentions of them scaling up to at least 16.

Djeet

In this article, Android has seized top position of market share amongst "recent buyers." Blackberry is still currently at the top and iPhone 2nd in total US market share. But if current smartphone buying trends continue then Android and iPhone should converge at the top in the 1st quarter of '11 before Android passes iPhone.

The UI/tile-stuff looks weird.

Here Gizmodo gives the poop on several of the handsets that will be available.

Ghostly Clockwork

Havn't had a chance to see the videos of the handsets in action yet, but apparently the speed of the OS is very very fast. We'll see how many apps are out at launch, some good games so far, Castlevaina is gonna be a nice one to have, if they keep to their list of to be released games.

It'll be a tough slog, people arn't going to want to switch to a new OS and have all their apps worthless. It's a lot harder to jump ship when you've got $50 or $100 in apps and more than that in music ready to be left behind as well.

Evander

I may buy one as a toy. Can't see using it as a phone.

It feels like it was designed to compete with iOS3 and Android 1.6

DOOMocrat

Microsoft is doing a good job with the implementations they have... just in the wrong order.

No Windows Live Messenger at launch? Kiss Canada goodbye. AT&T exclusive in the states? What the hell, guys?

It'll mature... but can it afford to?

Spudge

What is AT&T exclusive? T-Mobile seems to have grabbed the best WinPho7 launch phones

(Which I am very pleased with. Very pleased)

DOOMocrat

On the 21st, Windows Phone 7 is only coming out on AT&T. The sweet Magenta action comes later.

Spudge

Hoh. Can't find anything on that

Oh well, still gonna be enjoying my sweet sweet HD7 come November

nexuscrawler

does look like the OS is a full generation behind

it's going to be a big game of catchup for MS

El Guaco

I was going to make a thread, but this is good enough.

The Zune software update (4.7) seems to have entirely for the purpose of supporting Windows Phone 7 apps. The app store has a ton of new titles just for the phone (sorry Zune HD users!).

There are currently 86 apps listed, a few of which are labled "Xbox Live" (which I presume means they are tied to the Xbox version of the game somehow?). 22 are free!

El Guaco

Looks like one of the apps is "Govoice (google voice app)". Cheap long distance calls, free SMS, access to transcribed voicemail, etc. Only $2.99!

Spudge

I wonder if Google will be releasing a GV app themselves

I like the way it integrates with my G1 and would seriously be agitated if it doesn't work well. My GV number is now pretty much my primary number and I can't really afford to lose the connectivity

El Guaco

fucking dammit

Why only AT&T and T-Mobile for the US release in November? I can't comprehend as to why after getting the iPhone exclusive and royally fucking up their service, MS is willing to bet on them as well. They must have paid them huge piles of money to get that deal. And once again, Verizon is willing to lose market share over this. I was so looking forward to upgrading, and now I can't. Argh, I am so pissed right now.

Fairchild

Lots of bad blood between Microsoft and Verizon Wireless regarding the flop of the Kin, I suspect. Word is that Verizon will carry the Windows 7 phone early next year, coincidentally about the same time that the Iphone may become available. Oops.

Archsorcerer

The ASUS phone was not available.

El Guaco

Some of it may have had to do with the Kin, but I think there's a lot more to it than that. I guess I should have been researching this a lot sooner, because it seems like this has been known for a while now.

This was already known last month:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-16/verizon-won-t-sell-microsoft-windows-phone-7-at-start.html

Verizon's CEO basically predicts that WP7 is "not a leading edge product":
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20018844-266.html?tag=nl.e703

Way to crap on your business partner, buddy!

I've been a loyal Verizon customer since my first cell phone, gosh, maybe 15 years? I think it's time to finally jump ship. I'm tired of their elitist attitude, and crippling phone features to push more pay services. Yes, they have rock solid service and good customer service. But I'll be damned if I have to wait another year for WP7 because they can't be arsed to give their customers what they want.

deadonthestreet

El Guaco wrote: »

fucking dammit

Why only AT&T and T-Mobile for the US release in November? I can't comprehend as to why after getting the iPhone exclusive and royally fucking up their service, MS is willing to bet on them as well. They must have paid them huge piles of money to get that deal. And once again, Verizon is willing to lose market share over this. I was so looking forward to upgrading, and now I can't. Argh, I am so pissed right now.

GSM vs CDMA.

You build a GSM phone you can sell it all over Europe and Asia. You build a CDMA phone you can sell it to Verizon users.

Fairchild

But Microsoft seemed to be well on track towards releasing simultaneous GSM and CDMA versions of the Mobile7,until suddenly they were not.

El Guaco

From that interview, Verizon CEO basically gave the same excuses about not having the iPhone either. I don't think it's a GSM vs. CDMA issue, it's about them not being able to control the platform to squeeze the blood from the rock. Apple wouldn't initially give them that option, and Microsoft won't either. Every Verizon phone I've had has been tweaked to prevent or discourage 3rd party apps from being sold outside of Verizon's ability to take a slice of the pie. They even crippled my Blackberry so that 3rd party apps can't use the GPS features.

I feel like an abused spouse who is finally wising up to how badly they have treated me as a customer over the years. Customers want choices, not slavery.

Centipede Damascus

I really would like a WP7 Zune device from what I've seen. I like Android too much and I'm too bought into Google services at this point to switch from Android.

Evander

Centipede Damascus wrote: »

I really would like a WP7 Zune device from what I've seen. I like Android too much and I'm too bought into Google services at this point to switch from Android.

basically, yeah
i'm debating getting the Dell lighting outright, and then just puttng my sim card in it when I REALLY need mobile data

GalactusGo

So the xbox live integration might lure me into buying one of these. The deal braker though is whether or not games purchased on xbox live through my 360 will work on my phone and vise versa. I want to puzzle quest and worms, on my phone. I know I can do that on other phones, but I need an upgrade and if I dont have to buy games twice that would be awesome. Also the multimedia seems promising, my 3rd ipod has kicked the bucket.

Ayulin

Morskittar wrote: »

Ayulin wrote: »

Definitely going to get one of these since it has Zune Pass integration, although the storage is a little disappointing; the models launching over here only have 8GB on them

(Yeah, I know, Zune Pass itself alleviates that, but I'd like to have my whole library with me anyway.)

It looks like carriers can expand storage - 8gb is built in, but there's been a few mentions of them scaling up to at least 16.

True, but all the reports I've seen say the 16GB phones are launching in the US; my carrier in Singapore's getting the HTC HD7 and LG Optimus7, so at least the latter has 16GB... but I really want the HD7 :P

I did come across this thing, though, which seems to indicate certain devices support removable storage (if you consider "insert before using the phone and leave it there" removable). If the HD7 does, I'll be a very happy camper.

EDIT: Oh hey, we're getting the Omnia 7 too

LaCabra

Apparently WP7 has already been made to boot on the HD2 (although it's not fully functional or anything yet). If that pans out I'll be even more glad I bought this phone (on which I'm already tri-booting windows mobile, android and ubuntu). I think the new OS looks pretty badass.

Dixon

Oh god Omnia 7 lol. I used both the first and second Omnia. They weren't the most fun phones to use :P

I just picked up the iphone4 at launch as it was upgrade time, but I will switch with out hesitation when my next upgrade comes in a year if it does have a meaty app world with awesome 360 integration

floobie

Looks pretty good. You can't deny that they've made a very unique interface. Android and iOS look really similar compared to WP7. I'd be interested to actually try it out. While I dislike some of the lack of functionality (the exact same functionality the iPhone was missing years ago, and was rightly criticized for lacking), it does still look like a properly efficient, well optimized OS. The minimum hardware requirements seem pretty encouraging to me. Basically every WP7 phone is guaranteed to run really damn fast. But, the lack of storage is off-putting. None of the announced phones have card slots, so you're pretty much limited to what's in there. And, for my purposes, 8gb, 16gb, even 32gb isn't enough. I've held off on buying the iPhone for this reason. It's worth to me would hugely increase if it could actually replace my iPod.

Everything aside, though, I get the feeling that in order to have a WP7 phone, you really need to buy into Microsoft's ecosystem, to truly make it worth it. I'm guessing a lot of this syncs with Zune software (correct me if I'm wrong). So, considering my primary computer is a Mac, it's probably already ruled out for me. I've been using iTunes for years now, I'm very happy with it, and I doubt I'd use a Zune pass anyway (this strikes me as one of Zune's best features)... I usually buy CDs, and rarely download/buy mp3s. I also don't have an Xbox, and don't really want one. Overall, I'm not really prepared to ditch a desktop OS I love (OSX) for one I don't (Windows 7), all to be able to get a WP7 phone.

So, my next phone will probably be either an Gingerbread Android phone, the next iPhone, or a Nokia N9 if they ever release it. All of these seem more willing to accommodate what you already have, as opposed to the other way around. Though, Microsoft is obviously still catering to a huge chunk of the population with Windows computers, so I can't really fault them for excluding stupid Apple hipsters like me

Spudge

Some phones do have MicroSDHC slots

However they are used in conjunction with the internal storage, basically boosting the capacity of the primary partition. So if you have a 16GB card installed at the start, you can't upgrade unless you're willing to lose your data - or so the preliminary reports are stating

I'm sure someone will come up with a fancy backup program that will keep you from having to lose data, but that's still to be seen. I think the phone that has been spotted with an SDHC slot is the Samsung Focus; others may have a hidden slot as well.

nexuscrawler

My droid has a 16 gig Sd card in it but it is hidden next to the battery

Spudge

A lot of phones have hidden slots; my old Curve's slot was behind the battery

What screws the "expandable storage" situation with WinPho7 is how the SD card is utilized. It's not a partition or separate storage device - the OS recognizes the card at first boot and uses it just like installed physical storage

So if you pull that card, who knows what data you may/may not lose? The phone could decide to store anything from apps/music/data to system critical files on that card and from my understanding there's currently no way to know just what is actually on the card

Kyougu

Wow, thats a strange way of handling storage. On one hand it's nice that you can load apps to the SD card, but not having control is bad.

floobie

Spudge wrote: »

A lot of phones have hidden slots; my old Curve's slot was behind the battery

What screws the "expandable storage" situation with WinPho7 is how the SD card is utilized. It's not a partition or separate storage device - the OS recognizes the card at first boot and uses it just like installed physical storage

So if you pull that card, who knows what data you may/may not lose? The phone could decide to store anything from apps/music/data to system critical files on that card and from my understanding there's currently no way to know just what is actually on the card

I'm not sure if I like that. I dunno. I think you should have the option of how to handle the secondary storage.

Ghostly Clockwork

Good news everyone! Apparently they're gonna be released a version of Zune software that'll work on Macs. Not quite sure how many Mac users are part of the target demographic for WinMo7 phones, but eh, more options are always good. Hopefully it'll work better than iTunes on Windows! :-D

I do agree about storage woes though, I don't have a ton of music (3000 songs) but even that puts me at exactly 16 gigs. Include movies, and what not and I'm at 25. If they do really good streaming, by which I mean you can set up your Zune software to run like a base station, and stream your collection from anywhere (I think there's an app for that (tm) ) then that'd be fine. But then you run into the 10 gigs a month limit on data.

Also agree on the design, it's nice to see something besides field of app icons, and the "live" tiles is nice for quick glances. Seems MS wants you to, somewhat counterintutively, spend as little time as possible looking at the phone, which may be a good strategy. one glance and you get the info. I say again though, It's gonna be a really tough slog. They need some killer apps, and they need em coming out of the gate.

floobie

Dragon6860 wrote: »

Good news everyone! Apparently they're gonna be released a version of Zune software that'll work on Macs. Not quite sure how many Mac users are part of the target demographic for WinMo7 phones, but eh, more options are always good. Hopefully it'll work better than iTunes on Windows! :-D

I do agree about storage woes though, I don't have a ton of music (3000 songs) but even that puts me at exactly 16 gigs. Include movies, and what not and I'm at 25. If they do really good streaming, by which I mean you can set up your Zune software to run like a base station, and stream your collection from anywhere (I think there's an app for that (tm) ) then that'd be fine. But then you run into the 10 gigs a month limit on data.

Also agree on the design, it's nice to see something besides field of app icons, and the "live" tiles is nice for quick glances. Seems MS wants you to, somewhat counterintutively, spend as little time as possible looking at the phone, which may be a good strategy. one glance and you get the info. I say again though, It's gonna be a really tough slog. They need some killer apps, and they need em coming out of the gate.

That is good news! I might have to give it a whirl, though I'm sure I'll be too lazy to reconstruct the glorious empire I already have built in iTunes.

As for the storage thing: To be fair, basically everyone still fails at this, in my opinion. I don't know of a single phone out there that can net 64gb of capacity. That would be gloriously usable for me. That would hold my music library, a few videos (definitely not all of them), and any apps I want. Anything, less and I'd always be budgeting space. I could finally have one device for basically everything! You have no idea how much I'd love that. As fast as technology moves these days, it really needs to hurry the fuck up with this.

The homescreen on WP7 looks pretty damn good. Lots of glanceable information, and it looks like it was really optimized for one-handed use (sort of like the First Else). The other screens, though... The whole "panning a giant interface on a comparatively little screen" thing... I'm not convinced. I'd have to try it.

Kyougu

So there's no multi tasking? That's a deal breaker for me. Streaming or listening to my music while still being able to browse the internet/facebook/twitter is something I grown way too used too.

Evander

Zune for Mac is indeed good news!

edit: apparently not available, though, which is bad news

floobie

Evander wrote: »

Zune for Mac is indeed good news!

edit: apparently not available, though, which is bad news

And Engadget confirms it:

Click

Ayulin

Kyougu wrote: »

So there's no multi tasking? That's a deal breaker for me. Streaming or listening to my music while still being able to browse the internet/facebook/twitter is something I grown way too used too.

I think it's similar to how iPhone pre-multitasking did it: you can listen to stuff in the background from the Music Hub (i.e. Zune), but third party music apps don't get the same treatment.

EDIT: Yep. First party apps get to run in the background.