The mobile market has been rockin’ and rollin’ over the past year and a half.  From the rise and demise of Palm’s WebOS, to the almost weekly release of Android devices, the mobile OS drama was in full swing.  It’s funny to look back and see the comments written about Android’s failure due to a lack of hardware devices.  Now it seems to be the complete opposite.

Meanwhile, back at the bat-cave, Microsoft has remained relatively quiet about their next jump in that space.  That is, of course, until a few months ago when Windows Phone 7 was announced.  Some basic screen-shots were released, and a few select people were able to see the project first-hand, but there has still been a close to the vest approach to their release.

Dads On Tech was given amazing access to the newest version of the Windows Phone 7, last week.  And in addition to a walk-through of some of the newest features, we were given a device to test out over the upcoming weeks.

Our embargo was released on Monday morning, so I can now give a few comments about the mobile environment we have used for the past few days.

The Phone

The hardware was not the focus of the preview, mostly it was just the canvas for the OS platform to run on with some basic specs.  So don’t get too hung up on the appearance or capabilities of the phone, but rather the Windows Phone 7 interface.  Microsoft did mention, however, that there will be certain minimum requirements for their OEM companies to have on their equipment to be able to run WP7.  Specifically, a minimum of a 1Ghz processor, and at least 512MB RAM.  Also, each phone will have the same 3 button layout on the bottom, under the screen (Back, Windows Home, and Search).

Setup

The initial setup is easy.  It is similar to how Android phones set up their mail accounts, contacts, and calendar.  There are a few main services that you can sync with (Google, Windows Live, Facebook, Yahoo, Exchange, etc.) right away, and that allows the WP7OS to begin the back-end collection of data.

Walk-through and interface

You can see that Microsoft decided to depart almost entirely from their previous mobile environment, and for anyone who has used the WinMo platform will attest to, that was needed.  WP7OS takes a minimalist approach to the mobile market, by using very subtle color elements, but keeping the transitions and fonts modern.  If you are familiar with the Zune, this is very much a relative of that interface, and the music side of this OS is practically the same.

The entirety of what you would consider the ‘desktop’ or ‘Home’ are two main screens, an ‘Applications list’  and settings, and another ‘Tiles’ screen where you can place (Pin) animated informational icons (kind of like advanced shortcuts) of your calendar, phone, individual contacts, or links to applications.  There is a feeling of supreme efficiency in that design.  I would only assume that future applications would allow for their ‘Pinned’ widget to provide graphical weather maps, or dynamic content on the ‘Tiles screen’.  But the main reason for this is to have an action wall of information most important to you.  Animated contact icons display the person’s picture, name, and their latest social media status update.

As of this release, there are only two background color choices, white and black, plus 10 accent colors available on these screens.  Background images are only on the lock screen, mind you, and I do expect that to change once consumers get their hands on it.  The keyboard is really good, and has suggestive text as well and auto-correct.  IMHO, all manufacturers should just adopt Swype and get it over with.

Once you go into some of the native applications, you will see the Zune-like fonts at the top, tapering off to the sides to indicate there are more screens if you swipe to that side.  It takes a little getting used to this approach, because we are all so familiar with formal screens and menus.  While it does become more normal as you use it, perhaps the amount of space these font cues take up would better be utilized by the actual content of that application.

Mail

The mail application was the first thing to test on my list.  If you are like me, you get a lot of email every day, and you are about as attached to your email client as you are your nose.  A bullet-proof client is essential on any successful mobile platform, especially if you are going after the corporate Blackberry market, which is precisely what Microsoft is trying to do.

Sorting through all those messages needs to be efficient and simple.  The average consumer may get a few dozen messages a day, but business professionals need a client that best suits the suit, so to speak.  That said, the mail client left me a little disappointed, which surprised me.  As we all know, mobile platforms have to balance form and function due to a very small footprint on that screen.  The real estate is so small that you need to make use of every corner, nook, cranny, and even behind that as well.

Unfortunately, the design elements somewhat overpower the efficient layout of the information.  Titles are too big, folder names at the top eat up 20% of the screen, fonts are too thin, and there are no controls for how many preview lines of the email body you can see.  UI design in the email space is very difficult because it really is a personal preference, and sometimes the more artistic the worse your reading experience is.  You have to think of it like an e-reader.  Power users read a lot of email everyday, and eye strain is a big issue.  That is why some people have HUGE size Ariel fonts on their Blackberry, even though their eyesight is perfectly fine.  Of all applications on the OS, this should be the most configurable for UI elements.

Also, if you have multiple email accounts (exchange for work, gmail for personal, etc.) , you will have a separate mailbox for each account.  There is no universal inbox to organize all of your messages in one place, which is a bummer.  And multi-threading , like you see on some other mobile platforms, as well as Microsoft Outlook, is absent.

Color choices for background, fonts, or type size doesn’t seem to have made it in this release.  Speaking of which, the entire platform has no Accessibility options, from what I can tell.  If you have an issue with your eyesight, there doesn’t seem to be any way of increasing fonts throughout the environment.  Just like in Android and iOS, you can pinch-zoom inside of the actual email itself (which is not efficient either), but that doesn’t address the needs of a significant segment of the market.  This is a pre-release version, so I hope that is addressed.

Transitions

Transitions between objects or after pushing buttons are really beautiful and informative.  Many times the transition indicates you should do something, bouncing, or in many cases delaying the withdrawal of an icon to signify that it was the last thing you touched.  Windows Phone 7 is certainly a very animated Operating System, and designed for aesthetic beauty on every task.  Microsoft took a lot of pride in the crafting of each of these elements.  My fear is that there may be an over-use of menu transitions, in some cases.  For example, when flipping from one email message to the next, the buttons on the bottom will be exactly the same, but will animate each time.  This is totally unnecessary, and probably confusing for some.

Camera

The camera and video functions are fantastic.  The WP7 team got this right.  When you take a video, the recording time is shown on the screen very clearly.  You can send photos (not videos) to Facebook, Mail, SMS, or Microsoft SkyDrive very easily.

Social Media:

The real strength of this platform is how it weaves in content from social media outlets like Facebook and Google using the ‘Hub’.  The Pictures application, for example, shows photos added by any of your Facebook friends.  If you look up a contact inside of the People application, you can see an aggregation of all of their social media updates.  I would use this a lot.  I was surprised to see that Twitter and Linkedin were missing from the Services link.  No doubt they are in the works.  Plaxo and Digg would be a great addition too.

What was most impressive was the focus of Social Media as a core component of the WP7OS.  Apple’s iOS4 doesn’t address this at all, and Android only does it with the addition of a widget or custom App by the hardware manufacturer.  It is really good to see that Microsoft was taking this very seriously and decided to integrate it so intensively.

Applications:

Right now there are few applications available for Windows Phone 7, other than the built-in ones provided for this pre-release.  A WP7 Marketplace is available, and I do hope that they take some cues from Apple on this.  You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just improve what exists already.  Microsoft is also very interested in spurring development on their new platform.  There is a big game of catch-up, but I am sure they can use the strong development base to get going.  The 2 most important things that Microsoft needs to do are, a) make it simple to develop using the current Windows developer environments- like Visual Studio, and b) make it lucrative.  We’ll get more updates as we get closer to launch.

A bigger concern of mine is that the ‘Application List’ screen will have to be redesigned.  The window will become unruly when you install 30, 40, or 50 apps.  We may end up going to a multi-screen icon-like desktop in the end, with the Tiles as just one of those screens.

XBox live:

Microsoft is keeping this element close to their vest, but integration is afoot.  The XBox Live application will allow you to have a consistent experience between different platforms.  It’s going to be interesting to see how this works.

Office:

The Microsoft Office 2010 applications are a huge draw to this platform.  Business customers will absolutely love the capabilities of OneNote or SharePoint, for example.  The ability to create or edit Excel or Word documents, or view PowerPoint presentations, makes this a big win.  There are limitations though- you can’t cut and paste, or change fonts and colors.

Maps:

Maps is another pretty application.  Even though you cannot get street view, or directions using public transportation, the maps are presented really well, and tapping on each numbered step changes the map accordingly.  I am not really sure if the directions take traffic into account when giving directions, although there is an option for showing traffic on the map.  I would love to see turn-by-turn voice navigation on this app, similar to how Google did on Android.

Music, Movies, and Podcasts:

As far as media goes, the interface is very similar to the Zune.  You can sync up with the Zune software on your machine over USB, or though wi-fi.  My main gripe is with the Zune marketplace, which I find confusing and arbitrarily obtuse.

Web:

The built-in web browser is based on the IE7 platform overall, and doesn’t support Flash.  Pinch-zoom was very responsive, and the controls are nice.  Page loads are fast from what I can see, and the Opera-like floating tabs layout is helpful.  Not much else to say other than the browser seems like a win.

Summary:

Initially, I really didn’t know what to expect from Windows Phone 7.  I live on my iPhone, use the Blackberry for work, and test the Android OS on a regular basis, so I didn’t really see where WP7 was going to fit in.  After spending a few days with the product, I can say that it is really growing on me.  There are some dark corners of the environment I hope they fix, and some features I would love to see expanded, but overall this is a very fast, beautiful, socially connected Operating System.  Microsoft’s biggest mistake was not doing this sooner.

Preliminary Rating:

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