Windows Phone 7 Predictions (Spoiler: It Won’t Fail)

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The World Doesn’t Need Another Mobile Platform! Right?

It doesn’t really matter whether or not the world needs another mobile platform, because Microsoft and the wireless industry are bringing Windows Phone 7 to the market anyway. And you’ll recall that the Windows Mobile platform has existed for quite some time now. While Windows Mobile handsets won’t just vaporize right away, you can expect to see Windows Phone 7 wholeheartedly replace Windows Mobile in due time.

Microsoft’s official line right now may be that Windows Mobile 6.5 is made (and will remain) for the enterprise while Windows Phone 7 is for consumers, but watch as Windows Phone 7 slowly starts to add enterprise-level enhancements over time to eventually phase out Windows Mobile.

What the world may not need is another platform that’s identical to one of the existing popular platforms. Here’s how they shake out now.

Apple basically sells one device: the iPhone. Yes, there are a few versions floating around the market now and there’s the iPod Touch and the iPad but from a basic software standpoint, Apple’s mobile platform is the iPhone.

RIM sells several different BlackBerry handsets. Like Apple, RIM designs its own handsets. Unlike Apple, RIM makes several different form factors with several different hardware and input configurations to target several different income demographics.

Android (Google) doesn’t make any of its own devices, but lets anyone use its software for free. There are certain minimal restrictions in place for handsets to be able to display the Google logo and add Google-specific software applications such as the Android Market, Gmail, and YouTube. For the most part, though, it’s a free-for-all. You’ll find Android on tablets, laptops, and phones ranging from versions 1.5 to 2.2.

Windows Phone 7 will settle in nicely somewhere between RIM and Apple. You’ll have the various form factors and device options like you do with RIM, but they’ll be more differentiated from one another while sporting a more Apple-like baseline hardware configuration. You’ll notice that the handsets announced today all feature a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU and similar screen resolutions, which will make it much easier for app developers to make apps that work on any and all Windows Phone 7 handsets. Which brings us to…

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