Windows Phone 7 has now been on the market for several months and we thought it was time for us to share some thoughts on the product. We will not do a detailed review of all functionalities, as this has been covered in great many details by many blogs.
Key question: "Is WP7 a failure?". Difficult to say at this point. The silence of Microsoft and its OEM partners lead us to think that the results are significantly below their expectations. WP7 does not show anywhere in the market data released by the analysts. All signs point toward a disappointing start, although it is too early to call it a failure. Back in 2008, Android also had a very slow start before taking over the world in late 2010.
As far as the handsets and operating systems are concerned, I would say that it is as good as IPhone or Android. One can argue forever on the respective merits of the different systems but they are mostly equivalent. It took 3 years for Microsoft to wake up and deliver a good mobile operating system but WP7 is pretty good. The tile navigation is very smooth (disclaimer: I use a Samsung Omnia WP7) and very differentiating. The couple of features missing are not a big issue and more a check box issue for geeks. The clear weak point is the appstore. The content is much narrower and weaker than either IPhone or Android market place. I expect Microsoft to catch up in the future but as of now the gap is wide.
The reason WP7 is failing is actually much deeper and more serious than a couple of technical functionalities: it is the targeting. WP7 is clearly positioned as a pure consumer phone, integrating with Xbox, SkyDrive and other Microsoft consumer services. For professional usage, WP7 is significantly behind what windows mobile 6.5 could do. To give just one example: you cannot sort contacts per company! You cannot even search the company for a contact. These are extremely basic usage for a professional smartphone. On the other hand, you can connect to Xbox services and share your highest scores with your friends. By positioning WP7 as a pure consumer phone, Microsoft has cut itself from its core customer base and constituency: the enterprise and professional users. Microsoft is an enterprise company; more than 90% of its revenue (and 100% of its income) comes from enterprise and professionals. Another blatant example of lack of integration is the fact that you cannot connect WP7 to SharePoint 2007 that is still the version delivered in BPOS (the Saas productivity suite of Microsoft). Had WP7 being more focused on professionals, it would have had a chance of being unique on the market and leveraging the core strengths and channels of the core enterprise business. As a consumer solution, it has a very limited chance of out staging either IPhone or Android. IPhone is the cool high-end brand with the best appstore and the best music offering. Android offers a real ability to Mobile Operators to customize the user experience to their brand and services. It also allows producing the cheapest smartphones. WP7 is not the coolest product, not the best appstore, not the cheapest smartphone and not the most flexible for mobile operators: it will be tough to win the consumer war.
We'll see what the futures versions of WP7 bring. The alliance with Nokia could also change the game as Nokia will allow WP7 to, potentially, be running on cheap smartphones and leverage Nokia scale and scope. To be continued…
Frederic HALLEY
