Microsoft have finally launched an actual product powered by Microsoft Smartphone 2002. The launch is on one network in one country (Orange in the UK, though it looks like the Dane will be getting it too) with HTC built phones with an Orange logo one. To accompany the launch there's been the usual flurry of PR, something which perhaps the overly honest Symbian might think about for its next launch?
I know this is a Symbian site, but I think that something like this deserves coverage. My personal feelings aside (I've done some reading and can't say I'm that impressed by the phone) it is an important day / event in the Smartphone world. As The Register has declared the phoney war is over, and now we will see Symbian and Microsoft really slugging it out. You'll have a ring side seat from this website (and we'll do our best to take a balanced approach).
You can found out more about the phone at some of the websites listed below, some of these most definetely qualify for product massgaing award of the year and others take a much more balanced view.
http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/smartphone/hardware/default.asp - learn about the Orange SPV (sound / pictures / video) from Microsoft. Think of the Nokia 7650 pages and you get the idea about what it tells you - i.e. all of it good point, none of the bad.
http://www.orange.com/English/communicate/keepintouch.asp?bhcp=1 - the Orange equivalent.
http://www.handango.com/orange-cobrand/ - The software for the new phone as shown by the co-branded Handango software store.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2002/Oct02/10-22SmartphoneQA.asp - Juha Christensen - formerly of Symbain gets interviewed about the launch. Read it and say 'and we all know who's paying you now' (add 'you slimy traitor' if a devoted Symbian fan).
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2895473,00.html- The ZDNet review of the phone (barf bags recommended even for mild Symbian fans). Hear why David Coursey loves the new phone and how in his opinion it excedes the 7650 and anything else on the market (no really he does say it, but then a Symbian fan might ask if he even knows what blueooth and Java are - both missing from this wonder phone). There's also the interesting claims to end the review when he claims that Micrsoft have 'introduced new technology that has pushed cell phones a big step forward' and 'established order has now been changed to bring Microsoft in as a full player in the cellular business'. I'm wouldn't say there's anything innovative on the phone, certainly nothing that isn't already available. And I think one phone on one network hardly qualifies MS as a full player [e.g. Sendo have several phones on the UK market and they're really noticeable aren't they?]. Whoops apologies there for slipping into pro-Symbian mode. 😉
http://www.infosync.no/news/2002/n/2481.html - is an excellent review from infosync, they like the phone, but it does have it faults, the odd crash, the dreaded hour glass (something the reviwer says he wants nowhere near his phone). There's also a very interesting point about voice quality of the phone - they say its bad - surely this is the most important thing on a phone - however good a smartphone might be of the voice quality on phoecalls is duff no one will want it.
Note: Only read below here if you want some more of my opinion, which I admit maybe skewed to a pro-Symbian standpoint.
There's a few other details I've noted. The processor on the MS phone is 132 MHz - woah! That rather big and still the reports of it being slow and hour glassy (compare this to the ARM 9 at 52Mhz in the 7650). This is evidentally indicative of the poorer design of the MS Smartphone in terms of resource usage. It has important implications for battery life which are suprisingly low is the new phone. The digital camera is an extra addon, its not yet clear whether this is going to be optional extra or wil be supplied with all phone. If its optional then it rather negates the phone use vis a vis the 7650 in terms of picture messaging.
In my opinion the lack of Java and J2ME support might also be very damaging. Midlets look set to become one of the most popular types of addons for phones, and in leaving this out there's a sever reduction in the available program pool. Including midlets the Symbian application pool strecthes to around 1,000 for Series 60, whereas the Smartphone has around 20 at launch.
Also to be considered is the downloading over the air update technology, this has been prasied, but how good is it really. What happens when something goes wrong, what if you don't have the space on your phone or you swicth it off half way through (or runs out of battery), what if you're not on a network which supports this, who pas for the OTA connection? All things to be considered - all in all I'd be far happy getting it updated through my phone dealer / service centre.
All this PR is something that begs an interesting questions - could Symbian and its members improve their launches and the answer - almost certainly with a few strategic interviews and reviews on key websites - which is basicall what MS have done. Symbian have always been very honest and there's been relatively little press massaging from them (a notable example being statements such as there'll be x phones from x companies in x amount of time), but on the whole they don't use langauge which suggests they are the only ones making smartphones. Indeed the launch of the 7650 could have claimed to be truly innovative, but it didn't instead concentrating on substance because that is what is important. Worth considering at any rate.
Your comments?