Windows Phone 7
Long before almost everyone had an iPhone or iPad I was, what you might call, an Apple Fanboy. Back in those days, having a Mac brought with it a fair amount of criticism and cheap jibes from a variety of people telling me; I was just buying a brand, paying over the odds for an under powered computer, limited in what software I could install and so forth. There was some truth to those, but ironically many of those people now have macs or iDevices of their own.
You could put it down to me being an elitist nerd, but I’ve kind of fallen off the bandwagon recently. Sure, I have a company iPad and still have my MacBook Pro (from 2008) and wouldn’t seriously consider any other type of computer but recently I’ve been disappointed with the latest OS, frustrated with the locked garden of iTunes/App store/iDevice and find it funny how almost everyone has the latest must have poser gadget – the iPhone, a heavy device with a tiny screen. Maybe the problem is that Apple stuff just isn’t as exclusive anymore, it’s not just for those in the know.
We’re building a couple of iOS apps at work for the iPhone and we’ve looked into Android (which I own) and other platforms. For the moment we’ve decided to prove the value on the iPhone first before investing in other devices. I’d written Windows Phone 7 off a while ago; it seemed like it was too late to the party when everyone has either an iPhone or Android, and would just die off like Blackberry’s which used to be the businessman’s badge of membership. Microsoft also don’t have the best reputation when it comes to breaking the mould, although their Xbox 360 is amazing albeit loss making, they have a lot of baggage and don’t want to upset their existing clients.
The thing is – I really like what Microsoft have done with Windows Phone 7. It’s daring, innovative, beautiful, fast and uncomplicated. It’s also unfinished and in catch-up mode with its competitors having quite a lead. Competition is good for the customer, and when Microsoft abused their dominance of the PC market they could force substandard technology (IE6 for example) down people’s throats. Now Microsoft is doing everything they can to gain market share and that’s great for everyone, it’s also strangely similar to the position Apple were in 10 years ago when they launched the first iPod.