A basket full of food: Apple, BlackBerry, Mango or maybe Gingerbread or Honeycomb? The fight between mobile operating systems has begun long time ago. Without a doubt, we can say that the main competitors are iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7 and Blackberry. Which one will win the battle and reach the vast majority of the market? Probably none of them will. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Each system is different enough to find its potential buyers. I’m not going to write about the differences. Instead I would like to focus on the latest update of Windows Phone 7 and its potential influence on the mobile market.
A long walk to glory
Who would have thought about a year and a half ago, nobody heard of such a thing like Windows Phone. Unlike of Windows Mobile, so hated and loved at the same time. A tool so powerful, that it became too complicated for everyday use. It set the direction for mobile development, what we call today- smartphones.
Fortunately, Apple came out with its iPhone, which forever changed the smartphone market.
It took a lot of time for Microsoft, to shake off after a slap they received from the consumers, who turned away from its system. The quick release of Kin system was a total failure. It turned out, that the system focused entirely on social networks has too abstract target (even teens didn’t want to buy it). It was necessary to find the golden mean, the place, where the phenomenon of social networking meets the power of business applications combined with an original design and the feel of the latest technologies, Windows Phone 7.
Unfortunately, a year after the system was released, Steve Ballmer admitted that the system still sells poorly. Well, it shouldn’t be a surprise because Windows Phone 7 still has many gaps (such as multitasking). However, there is a new upgrade of the Microsoft’s platform approaching: Mango. Will it shake the market as expected? Analysts claim it will enable Microsoft to gain a significant market share by 2015.
Return of the King?
Once, the phone was used for making calls and communicating by text massages only.
Now we live in times, when a single update may introduce 500 of new features. One of the most important is definitely the support for multitasking (it turned out that tombstoning support is not enough for the users ;P). In addition, WP7 extends the trump functionality from its previous version- integration with social networks. Facebook will now have to share some space with build in Twitter and LinkedIn clients. Live Tiles, which are the hallmarks of the system, gained the opportunity to be programmed by developers locally. Now they can show more data, without the need for a dedicated webservice.
In the end live tiles will become really a dynamic source of information. You won’t need to run each application individually to get information. Quick slide on the ‘start screen’ and a glance at tiles will be all you need :). Friends can be pinned as a group to the start screen to ease the communication process. I shouldn’t forget to mention the ability to switch between text messages, chat on Facebook and IM (Windows Live Messenger) in the same conversation, regardless of the place you are at and the person you talk to.
Windows Phone 7 with Mango a powerful business tool
We know that contact is important, but what about business users? For them the most important novelty is the possibility of complete data synchronization – Office 365. Clearly, Microsoft’s strategy of focusing primarily on the cloud-based solutions is deployed in force. This is a very interesting feature, especially that Office 365 is a pretty new product. For the common user, synchronization with SkyDrive’s free 25GB space should be enough :). The influence on the mobile market will rise.
Will Mango be Microsoft’s winner?
As I mentioned, there is about 500 features added to this release of WP7 Update. I could mention many more, which are as important as the ones described (such as the mobile version of IE9 with HTML5 support), but the question remains: Will Mango improve the sales of the WP7 phones and make the platform a formidable player on the mobile OS market?
In my opinion- definitely yes!
Microsoft goes on with the needs of the market. They learned to listen to the customers. Social networks are an important element of everyday life, not only for individuals, but for businessmen and marketers as well. Self- promotion, personal branding and social media play an important role nowadays.
Additionally, do not forget about the video game players (Xbox Live Service) or users of the most popular desktop office suite – Microsoft Office.
Whether you want it or not- some of Microsoft’s solutions are still the most popular and convenient platforms in the world, and the new Windows Phone 7 with Mango update synchronizes this whole ecosystem into the device that fits your pocket.
Do you feel like having mango now? Enjoy the meal 😉 Share your opinion below and I will get back to you!