Microsoft, Samsung Take on Apple With New Smartphone Announcements

[talkingnewmedia]

It's February now, Microsoft says we'll see this in the wild during the holiday season of 2010. The Apple iPad will be out there for three to six months before the first phone with this OS is sold. If you haven't noticed, the world moves awfully fast these days. This new OS will be very old news on the very day it is available to consumers.

Oh, and it doesn't sync to a Mac.

Google seems to be the one company that has juiced up its development to meet the times we live in. Microsoft is at the other extreme, with Apple somewhere in the middle.

 

[LagunaSol]

Please name one "Apple OS breakthrough" that Microsoft copied on Windows Mobile 7.

A mobile phone interface that didn't completely suck?

(Though the jury is still out on whether Microsoft has successfully copied this innovation in Windows Phone Series 7 (not Windows Mobile 7).

(LOL! What a name!)

 

[lex750]

Reviews on Windows Phone 7 Series are hitting the net. Wake up Apple!

"I'm sorry, Cupertino, but Microsoft has nailed it. Windows Phone 7 feels like an iPhone from the future. The UI has the simplicity and elegance of Apple's industrial design, while the iPhone's UI still feels like a colorized Palm Pilot."

"Microsoft's approach is completely different. Instead of becoming another me-too cellphone, like Android and the rest, the Windows Phone 7 team came up their own vision of what the cellphone should be. In the process, they have created a beautiful user interface in which the data is at the center of user interaction. Not the apps—specific functions—but the information itself. At some points, in fact, it feels like the information is the interface itself."

 

[*LTD*]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2359245,00.asp

"The phones will be owned by OEMs, and you'll see different form factors and choices," Woodman said.

Which by default nullifies any real advantage this device could have had.

 

[LagunaSol]

I'm sorry, but I've had it with people who claim the iPhone UI was nothing new to them. Sure, it was all 'old hat' to you. Then riddle me this: how come no one had ever done a decent touch UI on a mobile phone before Apple and how come most "enterprise touch screen folk" have so far only managed to come up with mediocre copies of said UI? It's been 3 years.

For some it seems time has clouded the breakthrough the iPhone really was. Apparently now (3 years later!) that we have WebOS, Android, and this Windows Phone Series 7 concept, it's easy to dismiss the iPhone as nothing special.

 

[rgarjr]

Phone looks like a Zune.

 

[csimmons]

Some people prefer different types of design. I personally like the approach their taking with the UI for this phone. To me, it's intuitive.

I like this phone, need to see more of it though, and I might just make this my next phone. I'm tired of no multitasking and no folders on the iPhone.

Umm, you know that the first Windows Phones will have NO FLASH and NO MULTITASKING, right? Please say that you knew that before you wrote what you wrote.

Then again, never mind...

 

[iRACK]

Reviews on Windows Phone 7 Series are hitting the net. Wake up Apple!

"I'm sorry, Cupertino, but Microsoft has nailed it. Windows Phone 7 feels like an iPhone from the future. The UI has the simplicity and elegance of Apple's industrial design, while the iPhone's UI still feels like a colorized Palm Pilot."

"Microsoft's approach is completely different. Instead of becoming another me-too cellphone, like Android and the rest, the Windows Phone 7 team came up their own vision of what the cellphone should be. In the process, they have created a beautiful user interface in which the data is at the center of user interaction. Not the apps—specific functions—but the information itself. At some points, in fact, it feels like the information is the interface itself."

So? Who cares about stupid statements like these ?

I have to say the Zune like interface is ANNOYING!
Go and watch the 22 minute interface walkthrough on gizmodo. After about 5 minutes you get sooo tired of the UI.

And i am sure average customers (like my Mom 61 years old iPhone owner; my Dad 63 years iphone owner) will never consider a WiMo7 Phone ever. This seems aimed at 14 year olds which will have no money for the Dataplan.

Would you imagine someone using this in a serious work environment. I would not.

 

[maplestar]

Well comments like this...



...just highlight why a lot of comments should be ignored. If the facts are wrong, the opinions are even more wrong!

First of all, please name another, so I can enlighten myself.

And second of all, facts need not be absolutely correct for opinions to be correct. If the iPhone is the first phone I know to have multitouch, it may just mean that it is the first widely known multitouch phone to the general public. Just because you, a tech follower, knows several obscure phones before the iPhone, doesn't mean the general public does.

I, as well as a tremendous population I know, believe the iPhone to be the first multitouch phone. Whether that is true is debatable, but if we believe so, Apple obviously did something right to make us believe so, since I can't think of another good one that came before it.

 

[csimmons]

Reviews on Windows Phone 7 Series are hitting the net. Wake up Apple!

"I'm sorry, Cupertino, but Microsoft has nailed it. Windows Phone 7 feels like an iPhone from the future. The UI has the simplicity and elegance of Apple's industrial design, while the iPhone's UI still feels like a colorized Palm Pilot."

"Microsoft's approach is completely different. Instead of becoming another me-too cellphone, like Android and the rest, the Windows Phone 7 team came up their own vision of what the cellphone should be. In the process, they have created a beautiful user interface in which the data is at the center of user interaction. Not the apps—specific functions—but the information itself. At some points, in fact, it feels like the information is the interface itself."

Please. Seriously.

Windows Phone 7 would be mildly impressive IF IT WERE SHIPPING BEFORE CHRISTMAS.

So they slap phone capabilities onto the Zune OS, take out Flash AND multitasking (aren't these the same things Apple haters rag on the iPad for?!?) create a UI only serious scroll-junkies could love, and Apple is supposed to be scared? Are you kidding me?

You do realize that by the time that Windows Mobile 7 ACTUALLY SHIPS, apple will have sold AT LEAST another 30 million+ iPhones, 20 million+ iPod touch and 5 - 10 million iPads.

I guess when you're on the bottom, the only way to go is up!

 

[Hurda]

Offtopic, but whatever:

In case other users decide to publicly embarrass themselves too: A light year is a measure for distance, not time.

The more you know! *woosh*

It depends; after all, a year is a measurement of time. Depends on your perspective. It is, as they say, relative. Know before you go.

Please tell me that you're trolling me. You cannot possible be serious about your statement.

 

[hundleton1]

rite for my 10 cense not thats its worth that, i am quite impressed with WP7, i like the integrated facebook ect, MS has finally got if its ass and done some real work, there is no question Apple change the game with Iphone os however they need to move on and fast, MS have clearly gone a step further by integrating facebook ect directly into the OS, having an App may no longer be enough, Apple's restrictive closed access to the OS means we will never have this sort of integration,receiving a push notification seems rather lame after seeing that TBH.

i still believe Apple's approach with there own HW/SW gives them more control over the end user experience however they must be less restrictive and allow better app integration with the core OS.

looking forward to what Iphone 4, i now have high hopes.

 

[e-coli]

Absolutely. I look forward to the day Microsoft creates a "buzz" group around the people I've called and the phones who have come within 5 feet of my phone's GPS, and a helpful world-visible page containing all the stores I've ever set foot in ...

Oh, that's right. Only Google would make that kind of gaffe. Microsoft never/i] messes up in its desire to monetize our personal information (<cough>Passport</cough>).

What is the DEAL with all the cynicism on this board lately? The world is an amazing place, and people are doing remarkable things enabled by these devices but all people can think to do is take backhanded jabs at each other and the prospects these devices bring. It's just befuddling.

I'm not specifically singling you out jettredmont. Sorry, nothing personal, but this is just an example.

There have been a lot of snipey comments and even more bitching and moaning on this board as of late. There used to be a lot of imaginative discussion here, but conversation has seriously devolved.

 

[NT1440]

I'm REALLY not a fan of menu navigation, and thats all this feels like, menu navigation dressed up in a new (IMO annoying) UI.

 

[*LTD*]

A light-year is a unit of length (distance), and nothing else.

There is no "perspective" at play, LOL.

 

[lex750]

So? Who cares about stupid statements like these ?

I have to say the Zune like interface is ANNOYING!
Go and watch the 22 minute interface walkthrough on gizmodo. After about 5 minutes you get sooo tired of the UI.

And i am sure average customers (like my Mom 61 years old iPhone owner; my Dad 63 years iphone owner) will never consider a WiMo7 Phone ever. This seems aimed at 14 year olds which will have no money for the Dataplan.

Would you imagine someone using this in a serious work environment. I would not.

You can stay with your "colorized Palm Piolt" UI. The rest of us are moving forward.

More Reviews.

"Windows Phone 7 Series is official, and Microsoft is playing to win."

"Windows Phone 7 Series: Everything Is Different Now."

"The Ravage, Windows Phone 7"

 

[notjustjay]

multitouch

Apple didn't invent multitouch, it was in research stages for decades before we saw it in the iPhone. Remember that Jeff Han video?

Microsoft's Surface project was announced within months of the iPhone launch, so unless you think that Microsoft managed to start from scratch and copy Apple within just a few months, it's pretty evident that the two companies were both working on incorporating multitouch into products at the same time. Apple simply beat Microsoft to the public by a few months.

 

[LagunaSol]

So? Who cares about stupid statements like these ?

Indeed. The tech press slathers praise on all things Microsoft at first glance. Why, I recall Vista being adored by the technorati before launch. I wonder how that worked out.

 

[Otaviano]

Reviews on Windows Phone 7 Series are hitting the net. Wake up Apple!

"I'm sorry, Cupertino, but Microsoft has nailed it. Windows Phone 7 feels like an iPhone from the future. The UI has the simplicity and elegance of Apple's industrial design, while the iPhone's UI still feels like a colorized Palm Pilot."

"Microsoft's approach is completely different. Instead of becoming another me-too cellphone, like Android and the rest, the Windows Phone 7 team came up their own vision of what the cellphone should be. In the process, they have created a beautiful user interface in which the data is at the center of user interaction. Not the apps—specific functions—but the information itself. At some points, in fact, it feels like the information is the interface itself."

What reviews, the thing isn't even out yet! What could they possibly review from the limited demo time?

 

[NT1440]

H.

i still believe Apple's approach with there own HW/SW gives them more control over the end user experience however they must be less restrictive and allow better app integration with the core OS.

I'd like to point out that this is the direction that MS has gone with this. Note the pretty stringent requirements on not only specs, but even going as far as dictating how man buttons the device must have.

 

[conradwt]

i LOVE how it doesn't support flash - everyone is making a huge deal about iPhone not using flash yet - this brand new phone which is supposed to re-think how we use a phone doesn't support flash right out of the box. because flash is horrible on a pc and even worse on a phone. thats why iPhone doesn't support it and why adobe is trying to come up with a mobile version of it.

It really doesn't matter if Adobe come up with a mobile version of Flash because Apple is sticking with web standards like HTML 5, Javascript, and CSS 3 on the iPhone.

 

[*LTD*]

Apple didn't invent multitouch, it was in research stages for decades before we saw it in the iPhone. Remember that Jeff Han video?

Microsoft's Surface project was announced within months of the iPhone launch, so unless you think that Microsoft managed to start from scratch and copy Apple within just a few months, it's pretty evident that the two companies were both working on incorporating multitouch into products at the same time. Apple simply beat Microsoft to the public by a few months.

Surface? You mean that $10,000+ Big-Ass Table(Tm)? LOL

Apple always beats MS to the public . . . on the order of years, not months. And by the time MS does get around to doing something, it's nothing really exciting. MS is "learning" on the consumer's dollar. Pretty sad.

What is the DEAL
There have been a lot of snipey comments and even more bitching and moaning on this board as of late. There used to be a lot of imaginative discussion here, but conversation has seriously devolved.

If only there were imaginative products (other than Apple products) that we could discuss.

This is an Apple fansite, and by the looks of it MS has come up with another snoozer. What do you expect, thunderous applause?

 

[HitchHykr]

Windows Phone 7 Series for Mobile Communications Devices

It has a bloggish look, like an over designed, utra-hipster web page. Apple's design is nice, simple and clean.

 

[LagunaSol]

I'd like to point out that this is the direction that MS has gone with this. Note the pretty stringent requirements on not only specs, but even going as far as dictating how man buttons the device must have.

"We won't make phone hardware. We'll let other manufacturers make and sell the hardware (to our exact specifications, of course) and slash each others' throats on pricing. We'll just sit back and profit from the software. You know, just like the PC business." - Microsoft

 

[e-coli]

This is an Apple fansite, and by the looks of it MS has come up with another snoozer. What do you expect, thunderous applause?

I mean across the board, not just this thread.

FWIW I think there are some things about WP7 that are pretty interesting, but I've already discussed them in previous posts.