AllThingsD » copy and paste

With Update Delays, Can Windows Phone Gain Ground on Google, Apple?

Ina Fried — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 11:00:59 +0000

In the time since Microsoft released the first version of Windows Phone 7 last fall, Apple has managed to roll out a new version of the iPad as well as two updates to the operating system that powers the iPhone and iPad. Google has introduced both Gingerbread for Android phones and Honeycomb for Android tablets.

In that same time, Redmond has been struggling to get out just one rather modest feature update.

The update, originally planned for January, adds copy and paste features, along with improved marketplace search and various performance updates. After some delay, Microsoft has released the software for those that have phones not tied to a carrier and has started the process of offering it up to Windows Phones on some carriers.

Among the challenges for Microsoft was that it decided along the way that it needed to do a preliminary update to prepare devices for future updates. To complicate things further, that software update also ran into some problems, particularly with one Samsung configuration, forcing Microsoft to halt the update while it solved that issue.

It’s been a bumpy start for a company that is already playing catch-up in the smartphone race.

Despite the bumps, though, those close to the Windows Phone team say that the company is not only confident it can release a larger update later this year but might even deliver a surprise or two before that update.

For one thing, the team working to deliver the current set of updates is separate from those working on the broader update due later this year. Microsoft has said that update will include a version of the Internet Explorer 9 browsers, improved multitasking and integration of Twitter into the people hub. However, the company has also said that those are just a few of the planned updates.

Nonetheless, Microsoft’s list of promised features leaves some notable gaps between what is part of Windows Phone 7 and what is featured on Android and the iPhone, including things such as visual voice mail, video chat and the ability to act as a portable hot spot. Some or all of these features, of course, could be among those that Microsoft is working on but has yet to announce.

Microsoft hasn’t been more specific on timing, but the company clearly wants the software broadly delivered on new phones and as updates to existing models this year. Simply finalizing the code by the end of December is not what it has in mind and things remain on track, sources said.

And of course, Microsoft also managed to do something else this year–something far more important to the future of Windows Phone than copy or paste. It beat out Google’s Android to secure a spot as the future smartphone operating system at Nokia.

Reflecting that, IDC on Tuesday issued a smartphone forecast with a far rosier outlook for Windows Phone than it had a year earlier. The market researcher now forecasts that Windows Phone will command 20 percent of the smartphone market by 2015, more than either Research In Motion or Apple.

Microsoft senior product manager Greg Sullivan acknowledged the bumps, but said that the company has committed to creating a system in which it handles the updates, ensuring they are delievered to all devices–a claim the Android camp can’t make.

“Having a Windows Phone means you will have all of the capabilities,” Sullivan told Mobilized on Tuesday.

That said, Sullivan said Microsoft is well aware it is still playing catch-up and can’t afford to slow down. “We certainly understand that it is a fast-moving market and we will be able to accelerate the delivery of new capability and innovation on our platform.”

Microsoft's First Windows Phone 7 Update Encounters Several Glitches

Ina Fried — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 00:43:38 +0000

Microsoft said on Friday that it thinks that it has solved most of the issues related to its first Windows Phone update, but the process has clearly been far from smooth sailing.

Last week, the company had to suspend the update after it was found that the process rendered some Samsung phones inoperable. Then, after resuming updates to Samsung phones this week, some Windows Phones were still unable to install the update.

What’s more is that this update isn’t even the one that adds features like copy and paste, performance improvements and support for CDMA carriers like Sprint and Verizon. This update is just the one to prepare for that update, which is due later this month.

In a blog post late on Friday, Microsoft said that it believes only about 100 people globally were affected by the second issue and that now more than 90 percent of customers are able to update their phones successfully. Most of those that are having problems at this point are either encountering Internet connectivity issues or don’t have enough space on their computer’s hard drive. (The update is available only via a PC or Mac, not as a direct, over-the-air update to phones.)

For those that are still having problems getting the update to install, Microsoft has posted a workaround, though it is an involved process that requires users to delete music and videos and, in some cases apps, from their device and then reinstall them.

It’s not the most encouraging sign for a company that is counting on two important software updates this year to help close the gap between its software and that of its rivals such as Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone. Beyond the imminent copy-and-paste update, Microsoft has said it plans a more significant upgrade later this year that will add broader multitasking, improved Web browsing and integrated Twitter support, among other features.

Microsoft to Add Multitasking, Internet Explorer 9 to Windows Phone Later this Year

Ina Fried — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:00:42 +0000

Microsoft announced on Monday plans to fill in some of the key gaps from the initial Windows Phone 7 release with two updates due out this year.

The more interesting of the updates is the second one–a major release–due later this year. In a Mobile World Congress keynote, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer plans to demo only a couple of features of the release, including improved multitasking, simultaneous game play with an Xbox as well as the addition of the company’s Internet Explorer 9 browser.

An earlier update, now due out by March, brings the long-awaited copy-and-paste features to the operating system as well as some performance tweaks and support for CDMA networks.

Windows Phone unit President Andy Lees told Mobilized that the new release later this year should answer critics who worried that Microsoft wouldn’t be able to innovate fast enough to catch up or leapfrog over features available on rivals such as iPhone and Android.

[ See post to watch video ]

“Part of what we are doing is sharing technology across the company,” Lees said in an interview. In other examples, Microsoft is showing a demo of how a user on the phone might play a game throwing balls at someone playing with an Xbox or Kinect. Microsoft also plans to allow sharing of Office documents directly between phones, Windows PCs and the cloud-based Windows Live service.

Moving the full IE9 browser over to the phone will allow for hardware acceleration and other features that had not been possible on phones in the past, Lees said. For battery and other reasons, Lees said that the new release won’t support Adobe’s Flash, but Lees said it is not a religious issue for him, and that the company may add such support down the road.

“We’re not allergic to Flash,” Lees said. “It’s not in this update, but we’re not making some particular statement that it will never be there.”

Microsoft also plans to announce that it will integrate Twitter into the People hub in much the same way that the initial release brings in Facebook updates.

The update later this year will be the one adopted by Nokia in its first Windows Phone, Lees said. Nokia announced last week, of course, that it plans to make Windows Phone its primary smartphone operating system going forward.

As for early reaction to the Nokia move, Lees said the response has been positive, both from mobile operators as well as from phone makers, even those that now find themselves with a new competitor.

Lees said that basically all of the companies that make Windows Phone devices also make phones for Android and have plenty of competition there as well. Lees said that, if anything, Nokia’s move could spur some device makers that were on the fence about supporting Windows Phone 7.

“We have had other [phone makers] approach us who were talking to us and have now increased their, should I say, level of focus,” Lees said.

As for Nokia CEO Stephen Elop’s comments that the amount of money flowing to Nokia from Microsoft is measured in billions rather than in millions, Lees said that one must consider that the deal includes partnerships around search and services as well as the amount of marketing and other support being directly provided by Microsoft.

“We’re not talking about specifics,” Lees said. “But it’s a sizeable opportunity.”

Update: 4:00 pm Barcelona time: I finally made it in after being stuck in a massive crowd (see image). Ballmer’s keynote is slated to begin shortly and I’ll add live updates shortly.

4:06 pm: Ballmer has taken the stage, talking about rapid pace of change in industry and for Microsoft.

Talks about first update, the copy and paste one, which will come in first two weeks of March.

4:09 pm: Ballmer said most of smartphone competition the same–a “sea of icons” that lead to applications that lead to actions. Windows Phone is easier and simpler, he said. “With Windows Phone it’s easier to see information at a glance,” Ballmer said.

4:12 pm: On to new stuff, in the “near future in 2011, we will bring multitasking to Windows Phones” Ballmer said.

Ballmer is talking IE9. “We need to give people the full Web on their phone, like we do on the PC,” Ballmer said. (Wouldn’t that also include Flash, Mobilized wonders?)

4:15 pm: Apps are great, Ballmer said, but not enough. “It’s often too hard to find what you want when you want it,” he said. That, he said, is why Windows Phone also has task-specific hubs like People, Pictures, Office, Music and Video.

4:16 pm: Interesting note, Ballmer has again touted 93 percent customer satisfaction number, but no new sales figure.

4:19 pm: Windows Phone exec Joe Belfiore comes onstage to demo the new features coming to Windows Phone later this year.

4:26 pm: Both updates will be available for all Windows Phone 7 owners, Belfiore said.

4:30 pm: Belfiore showing an IE9 demo highlighting its hardware acceleration feature. In the demo, Belfiore shows IE9 for Windows Phone allowing 50 fish to rapidly swim around in an aquarium demo. He then shows the same demo on an iPhone 4 with the fish barely swimming.

4:32 pm: A few demoes fail. Streaming video doesn’t work because of connection issues. “This is preliminary not final code,” Belfiore said. “We’ll get all these kinks worked out.”

On to multitasking…

4:36 pm: Press-and-hold back button lets users access the new multitasking and see tiles for recently run apps.

Also shows Slacker playing with other tasks. Until now, only Microsoft’s own Zune could play in the background, not third-party apps.

4:39 pm: Last demo is the Xbox one showing Kinect game being played with the phone. Shows a “tech preview” of Windows Phone being used as a companion in Kinect’s dodgeball/breakout game.

4:42 pm: Ballmer back and talking about the ecosystems and Microsoft’s interaction with device makers and mobile operators as well as growth in the number of mobile apps for Windows Phone 7.

“We’re off to a strong start,” he said. “We know we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Ballmer said the company knows it needs both scale and variety.

4:44 pm: Now he’s talking Microsoft-Nokia deal.

4:47 pm: Ballmer invites out Nokia CEO Stephen Elop,

Elop calls the deal “a natural partnership,” in which Nokia will bring the global reach and scale that Microsoft needs, while giving Nokia a needed in back to the North American market, where it has struggled badly.

Elop repeats now well-worn point that Microsoft-Nokia will offer mobile operators a third viable choice to iPhone and Android.

4:51 pm: Ballmer makes the same point Lees made in our interview, arguing that the Nokia deal will even help other Windows Phone device makers by giving the ecosystem a needed level of scale.

“Today, customers are falling in love with Windows phones,” Ballmer said, adding that the company is investing to further popularize the phone, including new features.

Google Tweaks Search Results To Punish "Scrapers"

Peter Kafka — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:40:38 +0000

Google is going after “scraper” sites that copy and paste other people’s content, via a change in the search engine’s algorithm. Google engineer Matt Cutts made the announcement on his personal blog today, as a follow-up to a much-discussed post on Google’s official blog about sites with “shallow or low-quality content.” Many observers thought Google’s original note was about Demand Media, but Demand CEO Richard Rosenblatt says that’s not the case.

Microsoft: We've Sold 1.5 Million Windows Phones, if You Must Know

Ina Fried — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 16:20:38 +0000

Redmond decided to finally come clean on Windows Phone 7 sales, announcing on Tuesday that its partners have sold 1.5 million units since its new phones hit the market six weeks ago.

“We know we have tough competition, and this is a completely new product,” Vice President Achim Berg said in an article on the company’s press Web site. “We’re in the race–it’s not a sprint but we are certainly gaining momentum and we’re in it for the long run.”

Until now, Microsoft had said that it was “happy” with sales, but had refused to say how many devices had sold. AT&T and T-Mobile had also declined to say how many models had sold since U.S. sales started Nov. 8. Windows Phone 7 models went on sale in Europe in late October.

Berg repeated that the sales have met Microsoft’s expectations.

“Yes, and I think our expectations are realistic for a new platform,” he said, noting that the company is essentially starting over with Windows Phone 7. He also cautioned against comparing it to the competition. “It’s a bit of apples and oranges comparison; our numbers are similar to the performance of other first generation mobile platforms,” Berg said. “We introduced a new platform with Windows Phone 7, and when you do that it takes time to educate partners and consumers on what you’re delivering, and drive awareness and interest in your new offering. We’re comfortable with where we are, and we are here for the long run; Windows Phone 7 is just the beginning.”

Microsoft is expected to announce an update for Windows Phone 7 in January that will add a copy-and-paste function as well as support for CDMA carriers. That will allow Verizon and Sprint to offer Windows Phone 7 models. Both carriers have said they will, but Microsoft made the decision to delay CDMA support until next year in order to meet its goal of having the initial version out by this year’s holiday season.

Berg also noted it plans to have phones at a variety of price points next year. Nearly all of the models that went on sale in the U.S. were priced at $199, although there has been some significant discounting.

IDC analyst Al Hilwa said in a note that he is particularly impressed by the speed with which Windows Phone 7 applications have hit the market.

“The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace reaching 4,000 apps two months after launch has to be one of the most rapid ramp-ups in recent times,” he said in a note to reporters. “Of course with both iPhone and Android app stores being much bigger, Microsoft still has its work cut out for it. However, reaching this milestone faster than Android which took from Oct 2008 to March 2009 to reach about the same level, it is not bad!”

Hilwa also said that Microsoft hasn’t done bad in having 10 phones on the market in 30 countries.

“Windows Phone 7 has changed the conversation and I would not be surprised if Microsoft had the third largest app portfolio in the industry by the middle of next year,” he said, pointing to the company’s strong set of developer tools.

Update: It is worth noting that the 1.5 million units represent “sell in”–that is, the phones that device makers like Samsung and HTC have sold to carriers, not the number of phones actually purchased by consumers. We’ll have to wait a bit to hear about those “sell through” numbers.

Microsoft "Happy" With Windows Phone 7 Sales

Ina Fried — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 20:26:46 +0000

Windows Phone 7 has been on the market for a month now, but Microsoft has steadfastly refused to give out any concrete sales numbers.

Onstage at D: Dive Into Mobile on Tuesday, Microsoft Vice President Joe Belfiore told Walt Mossberg that it was just too soon to give the numbers. (Mind you, Microsoft hasn’t had a similar problem touting figures for its equally new Kinect product.) In a backstage interview, Belfiore again declined to give specifics, but did say that the company is pleased with the phone sales figures, even if it won’t quantify them.

“We’re very happy with the rate of sales given the fact we’ve taken such a significant reset from Windows Mobile to a brand-new Windows Phone,” Belfiore told Mobilized after his onstage appearance. “We need people to get reacquainted with what we’re offering.”

In the video portion of the backstage interview, embedded below, I tried to pin Belfiore down a little further, asking whether Steve Ballmer smiles or winces when he sees the numbers.

“I think we’re all feeling pretty good,” he replied.

Belfiore also confirmed that a software update early next year (the same one that will bring copy and paste) will pave the way for Sprint and Verizon to also start selling the phone. Microsoft had to make a bunch of trade-offs in order to get the product out this year–one of which was delaying support for CDMA networks. As a result, the phone is only available in the U.S. on AT&T and T-Mobile.

“Having Windows Phone on Verizon and Sprint will be a very important thing,” Belfiore said. “There are a large number of users on those networks that like the service they are getting from their carriers.”

[ See post to watch video ]

Live at Dive–Microsoft Talks Windows Phone 7

Ina Fried — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:45:33 +0000

So just how is Windows Phone 7 doing, and what is next in Microsoft’s effort to get back into the phone game?

In the hot seat next at D: Dive Into Mobile is Joe Belfiore, one of the Microsoft VPs in charge of the company’s phone effort. We’ll see what he has to say on these and other topics, including a planned January update that would bring copy and paste, among other things.

11:48 am: Joe Belfiore gives a quick résumé. Windows Media Center, Zune, etc.

11:49 am: Walt: Why so late?

Belfiore: We’ve certainly been doing phones for a long time. A lot changed in the industry with the iPhone. Belfiore says Windows Phone 7 tries to respond to what Apple has done with the iPhone and Google with Android.

11:50 am: Walt: What makes you think you are right up there when you don’t have a lot of things?

Belfiore: (Points to Andy Rubin’s comments that Android is really for tech enthusiasts.) Belfiore says he agrees and that Windows Phone is built more for everyday people, to do the key tasks average users do and do so in an elegant way. “There are certainly some functionality shortfalls, and we are going to work to address them,” he says.

Copy and paste coming in “early 2011,” he reiterates.

As for multitasking, he says some tasks are there, such as background fetch of email and Web pages. Music playing works (but only if you are using Zune).

Walt points out that is where iPhone was when it launched and it got away with it because it was so different from what was on the market.

11:53 am: Belfiore says that some of Windows Phone 7′s features are worth the tradeoffs. As an example, he cites a feature that takes a picture with one click even if the phone is locked.

“We’ve focused on valuable scenarios that are different,” he says. “Some set of users will choose the value of those scenarios.” Belfiore says that Microsoft still aspires to fill the gaps.

Walt: How many have you sold?

Belfiore: We’re not talking about numbers yet.

Walt: Other people do.

Belfiore: We’re four weeks in. At some point we’ll get to that. “It’s just too soon to talk about numbers.”

11:55 am: Talk shifts to Microsoft’s ad campaign that suggests Microsoft’s phone provides at-a-glance information so that people can go back to their “real” life.

“Being late to do this type of experience,” Belfiore says, allowed Microsoft to go back and see what was working and what wasn’t with existing software. “Can people accomplish the most common tasks more quickly?”

That, he says, is how the company was led to the dedicated camera button. Another good example, he says, is Live Tiles–icons that can update with notifications, photos or other data.

11:58 am: He’s talking more about the Live Tiles and the fact that you can have a tile for the people who are most important to you and then contact them in any way you want (text, photos, call, Facebook).

12:00 pm: Walt: How many apps do you have?

Belfiore: I think the marketplace now has between three and four thousand.

12:02 pm: Walt: (Google Android chief) Andy Rubin said that parts of Windows Phone 7 have been around a long time. Is it old or new?

Belfiore: It’s mostly new. It is true we have kernel code that has been around for a long time.

But that’s not a bad thing, he says. The code has been tested, the bugs have been fixed. It’s true on the desktop with Windows. It’s true of Linux as well.

It’s probably true of Android, since it is Linux-based, which is based on Unix.

But a lot is new, such as Silverlight and XNA, in which developers build their apps. “He implied we were encumbered by legacy…I don’t think that’s true.”

12:06 pm: Walt: Why not build your own phone?

Belfiore: Our view is that both Microsoft’s core capabilities and our ability to affect more people would be greater with third parties building diverse hardware.

But, Belfiore says, the company recognized the challenges that come when you don’t make both software and hardware. In the past, Windows Mobile was wide open. This time around, Belfiore says, the company aimed for “the right amount of specified variation in hardware and the right amount of specified sameness.”

12:08 pm: Over time we expect to increase the variation that you see. “We are trying to get the benefits of constraint,” such as better user interface and making things easy for developers while still giving choice to consumers.

12:09 pm: Walt: How long will it take you to again become one of the big players in terms of market share.

Belfiore: It will certainly take some time. He points out that current Windows Phone software runs on only about 10 phones, all high-end devices. Over time, they want to get to lower price points.

Walt: So, how long?

Belfiore: I don’t know how long it will take.

Walt: Months?

Belfiore: It will probably take longer than that.

Walt: A couple of years?

Belfiore: Yeah, maybe.

Walt: Who will be the leaders three years from now?

Belfiore: It’s certainly the case that there are a lot of people building good products. My personal feeling is things won’t change that dramatically that quickly.

I do assume we’ll be in it. The question has to start with whether you have a great product….I think we have that so far. We’ll see how this plays off. BlackBerry has done that in the past. Nokia has done that in the past. We’ll have to see about the future.

12:13 pm: Walt: What about tablets, an idea Microsoft has championed for a long time. But what is the strategy? Seems to be desktop Windows is not a variation of the Windows Phone.

Belfiore: Historically, Microsoft has tried to adapt Windows for other uses (e.g., Media Center, tablet).

So far we’ve continued down that path.

The work we have done on the phone has been focused on very small-screen devices.

Walt: Why not just scale up? Both Apple and Android are working from their phone OSs in doing their tablets.

Belfiore: We’re four weeks out of introducing this new thing. The state of the world today is Windows, is our broad operating system. Runs on same screen size as tablets.

12:15 pm: On to Q&A

Q: How can phone makers really differentiate beyond apps and things like a keyboard and a camera?

Belfiore says the company aims for elegant co-existence. Dictates certain screen sizes, three buttons, four-point capacitive multitouch. “We really want all users to get a great touch-typing experience.”

There’s no upper limit on what they can add in terms of hardware features. For example, a hardware maker could add near field xommunications or some other peripheral not already supported.

12:17 pm: Joshua Topolsky from Engadget asks about tablets again, says last answer a bit of a cop-out. “You can’t possibly be this blind” that Windows 7 isn’t going to work on tablets in the way you want it. Is that really the strategy?

Belfiore hints that the announced strategy focuses on Windows for tablets, but says the company will evaluate that going forward.

Topolsky: Courier?

Belfiore; I wouldn’t count on that.

Last question, from a mobile video calling app. As of today, no native access for developers that need things like native access to the camera.

Belfiore: Individual software makers don’t, but phone makers and operators do, so software makers could work with them. He reiterates the platform is new and the goal is to open things up.

Goal is that all of these creative things can be built. “We’re going to move as fast as possible.”

12:21 pm: Walt: One last question on carrier craplets. There’s a limited number of tiles on Windows Phone 7. On the two phones I saw, some of the space I saw was taken up by carriers.

Belfiore: I really like our approach. I think it is really well considered. When AT&T sells a phone it is AT&T selling the phone. Makes sense for them or hardware makers to be able to showcase their differentiation. Both phone makers and carriers can create tiles, but the user can choose to remove the tile or even uninstall the app.

Windows Phone 7 Update Is No iPhone Killer

Ina Fried — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:09:42 +0000

Since it is bubble-bursting Wednesday here at Mobilized, let me assure you that the forthcoming update to Windows Phone 7 is neither “massive” nor an iPhone killer, despite some reports to the contrary.

On the other hand, the software update, which could come as early as January, will add two things that are very important for Microsoft. First and foremost, the update will pave the way for Windows Phone 7 devices that work on Sprint and Verizon’s networks. That’s important because Microsoft is already fighting an uphill battle and doesn’t need to lose potential customers just because its phones don’t work on their carrier of choice.

The second key feature is copy and paste. While not the biggest deal for many customers, it is an omission in Windows Phone 7 that early adopters and reporters have given Microsoft plenty of grief about. Adding this feature should end that and put another tick in the feature check box for those comparing Windows Phone 7 side by side with iPhone and Android. (Now it just needs full multitasking, visual voicemail and a couple of other things.)

Officially, Microsoft is saying only that the update is due “in early 2011″ and will be the first of many regular updates to the operating system.

So how is Windows Phone 7 selling? It’s a little early to say definitively. There have been a couple of reports suggesting slow sales, but they are also based on very small data sets. For example, British phone retailer Mobilesplease says it is seeing Windows Phone 7 being outsold 15 to 1 by Android and 3 to 1 by Symbian-based devices. However, those numbers are based on sales data covering just a couple thousand phone sales.

Enthusiast site WMPoweruser tried to suss things out a bit by measuring how many Facebook activations there have been for Windows Phone 7 and came up with a figure of around 135,000. (Facebook support is built in to the operating system, but not all users choose to link their Facebook account to the phone). There’s also the fact that both T-Mobile and AT&T are offering “buy one, get one free” promotions on Windows Phone 7 devices. That could be a bad sign, but this is the holidays and carriers tend to like getting two users in a household and are willing to put some marketing money behind those efforts.

An AT&T spokesman, meanwhile, told Mobilized that the company has been pleased with Windows Phone 7 sales thus far, though neither he nor Microsoft would go into any specifics.

So what does all this mean? It’s hard to say. It’s clearly not a home run, with the phones selling so fast that stores can’t keep them in stock. At the same time, it is probably not the Kin-scale flop that some predicted either. (I know that doesn’t narrow things down too much. If anyone out there has more data, I’m all ears.)

Also of note, as of Wednesday there is one more Windows Phone 7 device to consider during these holidays, though you will have to go online or to one of a handful of Microsoft retail stores to find one. Dell is ready with its previously shown Venue Pro device. The rugged phone, which runs on T-Mobile’s network and features a vertical slide-out keyboard, will come in 8GB and 16GB versions.

The Venue Pro (seen above) is getting the most aggressive pricing of the early Windows Phones, starting at just $99 for the 8GB version when bought along with a new two-year contract. Those upgrading will have to pay $199, while it will sell for $449 without a contract at all. The 16GB version is priced $50 higher in all cases.

Microsoft's New Windows Phone 7: Novel But Lacking

Walter S. Mossberg — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 00:03:42 +0000

Nearly four years after Apple unveiled the iPhone, and more than two years after Google introduced its first Android smartphone, Microsoft is launching its effort to catch up. On Nov. 8, AT&T and T-Mobile will begin selling the first phones powered by the software maker’s new Windows Phone 7 operating system.

I’ve been testing two of these initial Windows Phone 7 phones, the Samsung Focus from AT&T and the HTC HD7 from T-Mobile; each will cost $200. Both are slender phones with large screens and virtual keyboards, though the Samsung is thinner and lighter than the HTC.

[ See post to watch video ]

Microsoft has imposed tight requirements on the new Windows Phone 7 phones—including fast processors, decent screens and adequate memory. However, in my testing this time, I didn’t focus on the hardware. Instead, I bored in on the new Microsoft operating system, set to show up on nine phones this year, including some with physical keyboards.

My conclusion is that Microsoft has used its years in the smartphone wilderness to come up with a user interface that is novel and attractive, that stands out from the Apple and Google approaches, and that works pretty well. Instead of multiple screens filled with small app icons, or the occasional widget, Windows phones use large, dynamic tiles that can give you certain information, like your next appointment, at a glance. And it has special “hubs” for things like contacts and entertainment that use bold, attractive interfaces and offer personalized, updating information.

The Samsung Focus’s large touch tiles

However, despite having all that time to study its rivals, Microsoft has inexplicably omitted from Windows Phone 7 key features now common, or becoming so, on competitive phones. These missing features include copy and paste, visual voicemail, multitasking of third-party apps, and the ability to do video calling and to use the phone to connect other devices to the Internet. The Android phones and the iPhone handle all these things today.

Plus, because it has waited so long to enter the super-smartphone market, Microsoft is starting way behind in the all-important category of available third-party apps. At launch next month, the company hopes to have about 1,000 apps available for the Windows Phone 7 platform, compared with nearly 100,000 for Android phones and around 300,000 for the iPhone. That means Windows phones will, by definition, be less versatile than their main competitors, at least at launch.

In addition, Microsoft, unlike Apple, has ceded prominent home-screen real estate to the phone makers and carriers so they can push their own apps, like subscription-based TV and navigation services.

To be sure, Windows Phone 7 has a few advantages. These include built-in mobile versions of Microsoft Office (present for years on earlier Microsoft-powered phones) and of its popular Xbox Live gaming service, which also interacts with Xbox game consoles. There is a nice feature that allows the camera to be used quickly, even if the phone is locked. And search works particularly well, including a mode that allows you to enter search commands by voice from any screen. Phone calling also worked just fine, with few failed calls, good voice quality and easy connection to a Bluetooth device I tried.

But I couldn’t find a killer innovation that would be likely to make iPhone or Android users envious, except possibly for dedicated Xbox users. Even the built-in Office can be replicated with third-party Office-compatible apps on competing platforms; and the iPhone and Android phones also can interoperate with Microsoft’s corporate Exchange email, calendar and contact system.

So for now, I see Windows Phone 7 as mostly getting Microsoft into the game, and replacing the stale, complicated Windows Mobile system that preceded it. It will get better. The company is already working on a copy and paste system, and said it is coming early next year. But, today, I see Windows Phone 7 as inferior to iPhone and Android for most average users. It’s simply not fully baked yet.

The main feature of Windows Phone 7 is the Start screen, which takes the form of a long vertical list of tiles that can represent either an app or a hub. The phones lack multiple home screens or traditional folders for grouping apps. These tiles are dynamic: They can show things like rotating photos of friends, or how many unread emails you have.

Microsoft doesn’t intend for you to place every app or feature on the Start screen. Instead, some apps, like games, go automatically into one of the special tile hubs, which combine related functions. And all other apps pre-installed or added to your phone go into another long master list you can see by flicking aside the tile view or tapping an arrow.

It’s a clean, simple, different approach. But there is a downside. As you “pin” your favorite apps, contacts, photos or Web sites to the Start screen, the list of tiles grows longer, and you have to scroll further and further to reach some. There is no shortcut for getting back to the top of such a list, as there is on the iPhone.

The hubs have a level of social and functional integration seen on some Android phones and on Palm’s webOS operating system, now owned by Hewlett-Packard. For instance, in the People hub, you not only see your local contacts, but those synced from Facebook or Microsoft’s own Windows Live service. This hub, like the others, borrows the elegant interface from Microsoft’s failed Zune music player, so you can flick left and right to see just recent contacts or to see your friends’ status updates. But the People hub doesn’t have Twitter.

Microsoft sees this combination of tiles and hubs as a “glance and go” interface for quickly seeing important information without opening apps, as on the iPhone. But I was disappointed that more information wasn’t presented on the tiles. For instance, unlike in some Android apps and widgets I’ve used, a stock market tile and a weather tile I downloaded didn’t show on their surfaces the latest information.

The calendar, which syncs with Exchange, Windows Live, or Google, can’t sync with Yahoo or MobileMe, and lacks a week view. The email program syncs with a variety of services, but lacks a unified inbox, so you have to clutter your Start screen with separate tiles for each account.

Another downside for some users: The phones can be used in horizontal view for photos and Web pages, or for typing email, but some screens, like the Start screen and hubs, are fixed in vertical mode.

Microsoft has done a good job with the Web browser, which I found generally comparable in speed and features to the iPhone and Android browsers. But unlike on some new Android phones, it doesn’t support Adobe Flash content.

The People hub borrows the elegant interface from Microsoft’s failed Zune music player, so you can flick left and right to see just recent contacts or to see your friends’ status updates.

The built-in Office suite is very nice. It can link to Microsoft’s SharePoint corporate online document system. One of its apps, OneNote, also synced in my tests with Microsoft’s consumer-focused SkyDrive Web file-storage system. It has a nice feature that makes it easy to jump to sections of long documents, allows for making comments on files, and lets you see presentations broadcast over the Internet.

However, this new mobile Office failed to open a simple Word document I tried. Microsoft says this plain document had some hidden corruption, but it opened on an iPhone and Android, and was editable in their Quickoffice app. Microsoft says it is working on a fix.

Music, video and photos all worked well, and you can use a Zune subscription on the phone. I was easily able to sync media files with a Windows PC using a new version of the Zune software, and I also tried a pre-release version of the new Macintosh Zune software, which is more limited, but also worked properly.

The Microsoft app store, called Marketplace, worked fine, and has a nice try-before-you-buy feature for some apps.

Last but not least is the Xbox Live hub, the center for gaming. It contains games from Microsoft and other developers, and includes your avatar from the Xbox Live service. You can socialize with, and play against, others on the service. For Xbox Live fans, this is mobile heaven.

Overall, I can’t recommend Windows Phone 7 as being on a par with iPhone or Android—at least not yet. Unless you’re an Xbox Live user, or rely on Microsoft’s SharePoint corporate Web-based document system, it isn’t as good or as versatile as its rivals.

Find all of Walt’s columns and videos at walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at walt.mossberg@wsj.com

Google Android Phone: 3G, $179, Amazon MP3, App Store, 1GB, Copy and Paste

John Paczkowski — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 15:24:43 +0000

The first handset to be powered by Google’s Android OS debuted this morning at a T-Mobile launch event in New York. Manufactured by HTC, the G1 is largely as anticipated. Peter Chou, CEO of HTC describes it as “iconic,” but that’s being a bit generous, I think (“The G1 won’t win any beauty contests with its Apple rival,” writes Walt Mossberg. “It’s stubby and chunky, nearly 30 percent thicker and almost 20 percent heavier than the iPhone.”)

In design, the device seems to borrow quite a bit from T-Mobile’s Sidekick, and its touchscreen GUI owes a thing or two to Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone. Which makes perfect sense, since that’s the device it’s clearly intended to compete with. The G1 will run on both 3G and Wi-Fi and be tethered to the T-Mobile (DT) network. It will come preloaded with a version of Amazon’s MP3 store and Android Market, an application store similar to Apple’s App Store. And it will support and sync with the broad spectrum of Google (GOOG) apps–Google Talk, Google Calendar, etc. Its browser is something the dev team refers to as Chrome-Lite, a mobile version of Google’s new Webkit-based Chrome browser.

Oddly, the G1 has no built-in video player. Odder still, it has just 1GB of memory. T-Mobile has helpfully outfitted it with a 1GB/month bandwidth cap, though.

The G1 supports PDFs and Microsoft Office documents as well. Email will be handled through Gmail; there is no Exchange support, though presumably, engineers developing for Android Market will fill that void in short order.

Oh, the device offers copy-and-paste functionality. Hear that Apple?

It will arrive at market Oct. 22. Price: a highly-subsidized $179.