Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore spoke of getting past “the PC metaphor of icons” on handsets. Microsoft’s novel smartphone software, Windows Phone 7 Series, turns a handset into something similar to an electronic butler that stabs to anticipate the user’s desires. It automatically taps into the carrier’s data network to pick up appointments, photos and messages from friends, and it offerings all this info in a glossy fashion that resembles a Zune music player more than a personal computer.
To build it requisite a chastening admission by Microsoft: its clunky Windows Mobile architecture had failed in the souk, and the company wanted to start over from graze if it had any hope of contending against Apple and its iPhone.
“To be entirely candid, the iPhone opened our eyes as to some things that needed to be done that were not in our plan,” Windows Phone engineering Vice-President Terry Myerson said, adding “Some execution had really gone astray.”
Whether Microsoft’s novel software actually dares Apple or ends up a scarcely noticed niche player, like the Zune to Apple’s iPod, remains to be seen. Windows Phone 7 is still in final development, and the first handsets running the software will not be in stores until late this year.
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