Windows Phone 7 Series

On Feb. 15th, Microsoft announced the launch of their new mobile phone platform - the Windows Phone 7 Series (going forward I will only refer to it as WP7S). And although that's quite a mouthful to say; there appears to be more to it than just a name.

The UI is decidedly anti-WinMo and is more than just a nod at Apple's simplicity centric design. At it's core it is the first smartphone since the iPhone to rethink how a phone should operate. Long gone are the gridlocked icons - a minuturization of a Windows 98 desktop - in their stead a rather pretty and eye catching 2D menu screen echoing the Zune HD's UI. Let's rewind just a bit; 'pretty' and 'eye catching' were not typos they were used to describe something coming from Microsoft!

Rather than taking Apple's approach of an App to Task system, WP7S reimagines how we will information on our phones. Say you wanted to send an email to a contact, rather than looking up your contacts email in a dedicated app then opening a dedicated app for email, WP7S categorizes these and other functions (like social media updates) under PEOPLE so you can just pull up the contact you need. Think of if as MotoBlur but a lot crisper and more functionality beyond twitter and facebook. Interestingly enough, Microsoft has confirmed that they will not allow the use of skins over the UI.

Though it seems like Microsoft has kind of shut out Apps from their device we've been promised that this will not be the case. According to Andy Lees, Sr. Vice President of Mobile Communications Business, the WP7S experience will be codependent on it's relationship with the development community. App developers will be essential for this (or any other) OS to be successful and although Apple has the 2 year head start, Microsoft has the patience and the money to demand attention from the dev community.

So what we basically have here is the teaser trailer of what can be a really good movie or an over-hyped bust. Time will definitely tell if Microsoft can steal the show but they've definitely been able to turn heads. If Microsoft has learned from their previous mistakes with the WinMo platform then we should expect to see a more focused experience and a clear marketing approach. In either case, Microsoft has teased with enough eye candy to make this Apple enthusiast take a second look.

Update: Check out a video of the OS in action.