The Windows Phone 7 Series announcement took place on Monday and it’s kinda taken the world by surprise. The world knew that Microsoft had to do something different, and they’ve done this. This is so far removed from the “Pocket PC” days and now Microsoft are taking a larger role in the user experience – from the top down.
Engadget have a great run-down into the nitty-gritty of Windows Phone 7 Series. We saw it operating on a generic test device on Monday, but we do know that it’ll at least need a high res camera, Wifi, aGPS, accelerometer, FM radio, capacitive multitouch, five specific hardware buttons, a large WVGA screen and certain CPU requirements. So.. where does that leave the recently announced Windows Mobile 6.5.3 devices? From what we can see, only a very small amount of the Windows Mobile devices on show at Mobile World Congress will be upgradeable to Windows Phone 7 Series.
This brings us to a point of concern. This year Windows Mobile buyers face a problem. Do they buy a HTC HD mini or Acer device knowing that’ll be impossible to upgrade to the new OS in a few months? Or should they switch to the new kid on the block – Android?
We should mention that both Windows Mobile 6.5.xx and Windows Phone 7 Series will co-exist for some time yet, and the excellent GUI improvements on WinMo 6.5.xx (like SPB Shell, HTC Sense etc) will continue to amaze, but we still feel that the next few months may be tough for Windows Mobile. However, if people do jump ship and if the details from engadget or the video from pda.pl is anything to go by, Windows Phone 7 Series could definitely attract some of the defectors back..
Link – engadget.com
Windows Phone 7 Series – It’s all right here
February 17, 2010