The Nutshell
The Windows Phone 7 platform will most likely resemble Apple’s iPhone, believe it or not. It’ll be much more polished and structured than Android, though not as “open,” and it’ll be more slick and powerful than BlackBerry, though not as business-centric at first.
If Microsoft is smart, it won’t play the “who has the most apps?” game and will instead focus on quality over quantity. I’ll take 10,000 high-quality apps over Android’s 80,000+ or Apple’s 200,000+ apps. Microsoft has made it easy for developers to program apps for Windows Phone 7 and has the clout to line up big-name companies, as it’s already done with EA, for instance.
Smaller developers may feel squeezed out at first but if a particular app does well on other platforms, it’ll likely show up on Windows Phone 7 in short order. We won’t see fart apps, copycats, and soundboards, thankfully, since the barrier to entry is way too expensive.
As for the hardware, imagine handsets that are slick like the iPhone except you get to choose whether you want one with a slide-out keyboard, a huge screen, a nicer camera, or whatever interests you the most. When it’s time to upgrade, the next device you get will be just as easy to pick up and start using as it is for an iPhone 3GS user playing with an iPhone 4 for the first time since the interface can’t be tweaked by the hardware manufacturers.
Don’t expect Microsoft to inundate the market with handsets like Android has. Expect about as many, at any given time, as BlackBerry offers. Unlike BlackBerry, though, most of the phones will be higher-end devices with many selling at the $200 price point—there may be one for $150 here and there and maybe a few $250+ high-end ones, but don’t expect the penny phones any time soon like you see with the BlackBerry brand.
All in all, yes, Microsoft is late to the party. Very late. Embarrassingly late. But consumers have short memories and it probably won’t take more than an app store full of quality downloads and some pretty heavy marketing for Microsoft to get back into the running. With estimates ranging between $400 and $500 million for the initial marketing blitz, the seemingly nice balance of hardware options against a consistent user experience, and the ease at which apps can be developed, Windows Phone 7 can definitely hold its own.
More on Techland:
EA Mobile Onboard to Publish Windows Phone 7 Games
Complete List of Windows Phone 7 Devices Available at Launch