Windows Phone 7 Series Even More Impressive Than Previously Thought
Microsoft added a bit more to its Windows Phone 7 Series story at its MIX10 event this morning, revealing some of the mobile operating system’s features and detailing how developers can write software for it. While it’s obviously far too early to make any big declarations about it, the OS certainly seems competitive–and compelling. Consider this feature list:
- accelerometer support
- a Microsoft Location Service for the phones
- Microsoft Notification Service, known to other smartphone users as push notifications
- hardware-accelerated video playback with digital rights management
- internet information services smooth streaming for live video
- multitouch support
- camera and microphone support
Table stakes at this point, I suppose, but a robust feature list just the same. Announced along with it: A free suite of application development tools and a solid list of launch partners that includes the Associated Press, EA Mobile, Namco, Pandora and Sling Media, among others. One of the OS’s showcase apps: Netflix with “Watch It Now” 3G video streaming.
Impressive, no? Could this be the beginning of another application development gold rush? Microsoft (MSFT) clearly hopes so.
“More than half a million Silverlight and tens of thousands of XNA Framework developers are now Windows Phone developers,” Windows Phone 7 boss Charlie Kindel wrote in a post to The Windows Phone Developers Blog.
“Developers and designers can now build their code once and optimize it to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the phone, Web, PC or Xbox 360,” Kindel added. “Due to common shared libraries, controls and runtimes across these many screens and the cloud, developers now have the opportunity to reach over 1 billion customers.”
Still, it’s far too early to say what’s to come. It seems clear, however, that with Windows Phone 7, Microsoft could make the jump from mobile OS also-ran to contender fairly quickly–assuming the market’s willing, of course.
