Penny Mobiles – Mobile phone news, reviews & information

Despite the general excitement and anticipation for the upcoming Windows Phone 7, there are several people who are not looking forward to the new OS. In fact, if Galen Gruman of InfoWorld has his way, Windows Phone 7 should be cancelled.

Of course, the big question here is why?

The points that Galen points out are strong, but not really all that convincing if you study the hard facts. First off, he points out that the tiles are too big. That is simply a matter of opinion. While it is possible to cram the size big enough to fill up a page with just four tiles, users can opt to have more space. And not everyone wants to have a page full of widgets as well –if you only read a couple of RSS feeds and need to check an organizer every now and then, then that will be all that a user would need.

The UI style was also being slammed. But for exactly what reason we cannot fathom. The UI is dynamic, intuitive and very easy to understand. If critics cannot grasp the concept of bleeding text layouts, then they need to understand the concepts of good UI design more.

What will certainly be new for users is the contacts based navigation. While users can obviously move from one menu to another, Microsoft is heavily focusing on the many functions that one can jump to from the contacts screen. While this is impressive, the fact is that the same function persists throughout the entire handset. There is only emphasis on the contacts list because Microsoft is reminding people that the new OS has been made for general users who love social networking.

In any case, Microsoft is going to push through with the launch (of the Windows Phone 7, not lumps of coal as Galen suggests). Expect to see the first WP7 devices this coming September.

With the Kin’s unexpected cancellation in Europe, it is hard to see how Microsoft is ever going to regain its foothold in the European mobile phone markets. However, the American electronics manufacturer seems determined to set things right. Learning from how the social networking centered duo fared in the US, they have instead decided to cut their losses and focus their efforts on the launch of the Windows Phone 7 platform.

Retailers are preparing early for the line of products sporting the new operating system, creating attractive shop displays. Some of the Windows Phone 7 ads are due to be posted even as early as within the month.

According to official Microsoft documents that were leaked to the public, the company confirms a third quarter launch date for the new operating system. People who estimate the arrival date of the Windows Phone 7 platform say that it is actually due to be released on September.

It seems the accelerated release date can be attributed to the Microsoft branded Kin’s lackluster appeal in the mobile market. It was, after all, pitted against heavy competition against Google, Apple as well as Nokia.

With all the promotional shop floor displays and awareness drives, Microsoft really does not want to leave too much to chance. All the publicity and marketing should leave an impression on the consumers, after all, Microsoft has quite a few unique wow factors up its sleeve.

There are plenty of things to look forward to in the Windows Phone 7 platform. The modern user interface, plenty of apps ported from the Xbox Live Arcade as well as a great, Flash capable web browser. Hopefully all of this is enough to boost the Microsoft platform’s 7 percent market share which is only a fraction when compared to the 44 percent that Nokia’s Symbian dominates.

According to recent reports, Microsoft has been offering cash incentives to developers and groups in order to encourage them to create new games for the upcoming Windows Phone 7 mobile platform. While some developers have declared that the cash offering is indeed substantial, it would still not cover the cost of developing for the complex platform that the new mobile platform uses.

Prior to this announcement, it has also been known that Microsoft has also been distributing WP7 handsets to developers in order to show programmers what the new OS is capable of.

In many ways, the strategy being employed by Microsoft is actually pretty smart, even Google was giving out Android handsets to developers at the I/O conference. This is because getting programmers to test and see the actual OS at work gives them an idea of what apps will be great for the device.

The fact that Microsoft is also bringing in the Xbox Live Games service to the platform makes the whole act seem a little more desperate. As it is, MS is luring its existing crowd of Xbox gamers to also make use of the Xbox services on the phone –the support for existing accounts and even inclusion of gamer points and in game achievements is meant to show players that the smart phone can also provide a similar gaming environment.

While some players are excited at the prospect, there are those who feel that the inclusion of gamer points and achievements for the many casual games that are played on smart phones should be separate from the achievements they have accomplished on the console.

In many ways, Microsoft is expecting game players to shell out plenty of money this year as the company will not only be launching a new smart phone operating system, they are also launching a second, smaller version of the Xbox 360 as well as the new Microsoft Kinect motion control system accessories as well.

Microsoft’s Window Phone 7 is going to be their biggest move in the mobile phone industry. For many years, they have stayed within the business market, creating their own niche for the Windows Mobile operating system. But as the number of smart phone users increased –and the type of users started to range from business users to the general market, Microsoft has seen the need to create an operating system that appeals to the larger crowd.

Looking at the preliminary versions of the Windows Phone 7 operating system, one cannot help but be impressive by how neat and stylized the interface is. The screens slide and sweep from side to side, panels (or tiles) swivel from the background to the foreground and buttons pop up in smooth fluid animations that create a sense of composition.

Accessing content could not be easier, with just a few taps of the screen; you can be instantly updating all your social networking accounts with a single status update. With a few more taps, you’re at the contact screen viewing all the latest updates online. And just a menu more and you can be instantly uploading new images and content to your favorite social networking site and adding tags to the photos –all using the WP7 interface.

It does not stop there. Zune integration means that you can instantly get access to a large library of media content online –no need to hook up with wires, the WiFi access is more than enough for this sort of task. Silverlight and the MSN player will also be included as well.

Microsoft’s Xbox Live service will also be present in the OS, which means that players now get to earn achievements for their hard work, and they can even connect to their exiting XBL accounts as well.