While everybody else is making their own scenes and carving their niche on the ever growing smartphone market, Microsoft seem to have been lagging behind. Even Palm made some minor marks recently with their latest WebOS and smartphone kits. Fortunately for Microsoft, their time is now. And at their annual developers conference dubbed Mixx 10, Microsoft sure has some great  plans ahead in sparking up their mobile business.
A Feature-Rich Windows Phone 7 Platform
At the heart of Microsoft’s strategy to regain what was once occupied by Windows Mobile platform in the smartphone market is the new Windows Phone 7 Series Platform. This new platform combines Microsoft Silverligh features to develop rich applications and XNA Framework for games. Â It aims to empower developers and designers to develop visually stunning and immersive apps and games – something at the level of most iPhone games and apps perhaps?
Anyway, the new Windows Phone 7 Platform offers the following features:
- accelerometer and intuitive control
- Microsoft Location Service
- Microsoft Notification Service
- Hardware-accelerated video with DRM
- Internet Information Services Smooth Streaming
- Multitouch
- Camer and microphone support
To push this objective, Microsoft is pushing out its free tools for developers and designers including – Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone, Windows Phone 7 Series add-in, XNA Game Studio 4.0, Windows Phone 7 Series Emulator and Expression Blend for Windows Phone Community Technology Preview.
Windows Phone Marketplace
Simply put, Microsoft realize that it needs a better avenue to market all these visually compelling games and apps, just like the iTunes Apps Store, the BlackBerry App World and the Android Market. So, for its part – the Windows Phone Marketplace. This shall be a panoramic and active merchandising place which will increases discoverability of games and apps, supports one-time credit card purchase, mobile operator billing and advertising-funded apps. Now, here’s the best part, the Windows Phone Marketplace will allow customers to try apps before actually purchasing them. Sounds fun, eh?
So, are you getting a Windows Mobile Phone 7 device once manufacturers start releasing them? Can Microsoft catch up with rivals – Apple, Google, RIM and Palm?
Originally posted on March 15, 2010 @ 5:15 pm