The VAR Guy Preview: Windows Phone 7.5 Mango
Turn the wayback machine to January 2011, and you’ll remember I reviewed the Samsung Focus with Windows Phone 7. You’ll also recall I was less than impressed. Fast forward to today, and Microsoft has released Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango.” Microsoft’s platform, marketplace and mobility mindshare have all matured considerably, so I’ve decided to give it another go, since Microsoft has once again loaned me a Windows Phone. This time around will the Mango be ripe?
Here’s what I’ll be looking for in Windows Phone 7.5:
- New Features: From multitasking, copy and paste to social integration, Microsoft has added a slew of new features into WP7.5. I’ll be stacking up that level of integration and ubiquitous information with my iPhone running iOS 5 and my previous experience with WP7.
- New Apps: The Windows Marketplace was anemic when I reviewed WP7 in December 2010 to January 2011. Just a cursory glance at the app store shows nearly all my iPhone apps have found their way over to WP7, including gems such as Spotify. Can I be as productive on WP7 as I am on my iPhone, if not more?
- Bing: Microsoft has supercharged Bing on WP7.5, allowing it to do everything from optical character recognition to voice search and even barcode scanning. I’ll see how well Bing integrates into my life and how much easier it helps me “get in and get out.”
- Mobile Browsing: I’ll do a few side-by-side comparisons with my iPhone and try out some HTML5 sites with IE 9 on WP7.5, which now supports a multitude of embedded HTML5 goodies.
- Usability: How does WP7.5 feel compared to the original WP7? Are interfaces more snappy? More intuitive? What little tweaks has Microsoft implemented to improve the bits and bytes that typically remain unseen or unthought of?
Microsoft has sent me a Samsung Focus again, so I won’t be have access to shiny new features like those Nokia phones have, but if WP7.5 can impress on a phone that’s nearly a year old, that’ll be incredibly good news. I have high hopes, and to be honest, the Windows Phone interface is growing on me. Check back soon for the full review.
The WP sales seems to be around 500-550.000 units pr month (Gardner/ComScore US), and it has apparently been so since february. It started off with abt 1 mill a month, and probably was down to about 350-400.000 after 6 months. It seems like it’s picked up a tad wrt units, but the market grows faster. Should be around 6-6,5 mill units out there by now.
But WP is between a rock and a hard place.
The OEM’s cannot replace models often because the series will become small. If they produce big volumes they risk stockpiling and losses due to spec/cost/price ratio.
They cannot push a lot of models because they will compete against themselves within the WP market and not in the smartmo market.
The OEMs cannot push hard wrt high spec with limited series as hardware and development costs will make the units go off the rails wrt price. They will loose a lot of money.
In the “webstore rankings” the highest climber was the HTC Titan. It comes with WP 7.5 and the spec is basicly ok. But this unit is already sinking in the rankings. It has peaked.
LG is running a campaign now – Buy a Optimus 7 and get an Xbox. Seems like a really good bargaign, but it is also a sign that WP 7 is REALLY hard to sell.
Tests of Nokia Lumia indicates that Nokia N9 beats Lumia and is a better purchase. That’s not a good sign bearing in mind that Nokia cannot put a huge number of new Lumias on the market. (because they will compete with small series against other WP oems).
For the holliday season iPhone 4S and a pile of new Androids will arrive.
I fail to see anything but a uphill battle for WP for the next 12 months.
Jack,
The VAR Guy thanks you for offering those perspectives. Do you see any scenarios where Windows Phone gains momentum?
-TVG
They have broad access to the businesses, and bundling of features related to Sharepoint ++ provides an Microsoft advantage. That would in theory be a winner.
Trouble is that Microsoft probably cannot afford to use the lock-in/lock-out mechanisms as employees now are accustomed to liberty in their choice of personal communicators. If they pull a stunt they will simply loose a lot of opportunities.
Another opportunity would be their W8 tablets provided they keep “old Windows apps” away from the tablets. As Microsoft controls the API’s and protocols tablets could be their ticket.
The tablet market is somewhat less mature than the smartmo market, and it would be easier to implement lock-in/lock-out. OOxml and propietary addons not covered by the ISO approval will probably play a role.
I seriously doubt that the OEM’s can push many WP phone models into the market because the WP still is a separate segment which is quite saturated.
That is not the case with tablets, thus they could make a serious push. But they have to move fast. It’s not to late, but in 12+ months Android could have a significant chunk of the (growing) market.
If they succeed with a tablet push, the smartmos will drag along to a certain extent.
I believe there is another point to make wrt the future. Both Android and iOS has quite a bit of leeway wrt changing and optimizing their UX. The metro concept is different. I don’t think they can change it much without changing the entire concept. Microsoft is somewhat boxed in so to speak.
Android and iOS will sell on new looks and changes every year. Microsoft will struggle in marketing WP 8 and WP9 as “new” as the Metro UX and looks are vital parts of the branding, thus if they change it they will also change the brand.
Jack,
The VAR Guy thanks you for those deeper insights. Our resident blogger will be watching to see if Windows 8 tablets create pull for Windows Phone, etc.
Please let The VAR Guy know if your views and perspectives change as Windows 8 reaches the market…
Best,
-TVG
Thank you for following up on comments – appreciate that. Will do.
Microsoft should probably not be concerned wrt my comments.
…but they should probably be concerned over the lack of contradictive replies… 😉
Jack,
You’ve got a potential point there.
-TVG