9 Reasons Windows Phone 7 may flop
The mobile smartphone race is on. Apple, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, LG, HTC and Blackberry are all on top of the game. However, Microsoft is a little late to the party. Windows Phone 7 has launched globally, but there's just a trickle of devices coming in to India.
These are ten factors to prove that Microsoft has a tough task ahead for its newest mobile operating system.
Competition from the existing app stores
Microsoft's existing app store is woefully inadequate compared to Apple's App Store or even the Android Market for that matter. No matter how great the hardware or how slick the operating system looks, it's finally the applications that drive the user towards a certain platform.
Apple is currently king of the app stores with over 5 billion downloads, over 300,000 apps and thousands of new additions each month. Android is fast catching up with over 1 billion downloads, 120,000 total apps and thousands of new additions each month.
Vendor support
Just like Windows for a PC, Microsoft is going to charge OEM manufacturers a license fee to be able to use Windows Phone 7 on their devices. Meanwhile, Android, Symbian 3, Bada and Meego are all open source operating systems. Furthermore, OEM manufacturers will not have access to the Windows Phone 7 code, which means they will not be able to make their own customisations to the software.
Currently, big players like HTC and Motorola rely heavily on OS customisation to differentiate their products.
Bad Press
Before Windows Phone 7 devices flood the market, it is getting really bad press. Research firm Gartner ranks Windows Phone behind Symbian, Android, iPhone, Blackberry and the Linux-based MeeGo in its 2014 OS ranking forecast. Reviews are calling it "inferior to Android, iPhone and even Samsung's Bada" (from CIO Magazine).
Infoworld.com published one of the more scathing reviews of Windows Phone 7. "Windows Phone 7 is a waste of time and money. It's a platform that no carrier, device maker, developer, or user should bother with. Microsoft should kill it before it ships and admit that it's out of the mobile game for good."
Dropped features
Microsoft seems to treating Windows Phone 7 as a completely new operating system, because features like tethering (using the phone's data connection on a PC) have been dropped. It does not do multitasking, there is no backwards support for apps and the copypaste function is limited. If it has to compete with iPhone and Android, it needs to go one-up, not two-down!
Xbox Live integration
Windows Phone 7 has Xbox Live integration. However, this doesn't mean that you can play Xbox games on it. Just that users' avatar and gamerscore will be available on the phone. Games still have to be made specifically for the smaller screen and particular hardware of a handheld device.
Microsoft's track record
Microsoft's track record with mobile phones has been less than stellar. Older devices powered by Windows Mobile 6 and 6.5 were often described as boring. More recently, the Microsoft KIN was announced to the world and just as quickly, was abandoned.
An outdated platform
Windows Phone 7 is still based on the old Windows CE platform and most devices have limited flash memory, with nonuser accessible memory card slots. Sure, there are a lot of new features and functionality built on top of the platform, but it still is Windows CE.
Slower on the uptake
In the same time it took Microsoft to go from Windows Mobile 6 to Windows Phone 7, Apple has released four different versions of the iPhone. Meanwhile, between Feb 2009 and now, Google has released four different versions of Android.
By the time Windows Phone 7 launches, iPhone 4 and Android 2.2 will already have a huge headstart. This is one place where all the money that Microsoft has just isn't going to help matters.
'Impractical' user interface
The Windows Phone 7 interface is ported over from the Zune media player. But it seems that Microsoft has not analysed why the Zune failed in the first place. Apart from trying to directly compete with the Apple iPod Touch (which shares the same App Store as the iPhone), the Zune interface may have had something to do with its low popularity.
The interface, while visually stunning, is not very practical since you have to scroll from side to side within each app to see more info.
