Microsoft’s poor reputation was driven home for me most recently at CTIA, when I was getting a briefing on the new Ford Sync product, which uses Microsoft technology.
The huge irony is that Ford with Sync actually does have the best integrated media experience in the market, but most people will use it with an iPod, because Microsoft’s competing offering just isn’t much of a player in this market. This means that some new Ford products have the hot new second-gen Sync II product, but most are still shipping with the aging original Sync.Ford’s flagship car, the Taurus SHO, unfortunately uses the old Sync, which would knock it off my short list despite being one hell of a car for the money. Ford needs to fix this.
We saw phones for people that wanted mostly to listen to music with built-in Yamaha speakers, phones that were best for video with bigger screens, and phones for business use with keyboards.
The Windows Phone 7 launch took Microsoft out of the “bad joke” category with regard to phones, and gave the company some much-needed respect in the space.Microsoft still needs to respond to the tablet threat represented by the iPad, but at least for now, the Windows Phone 7 product takes it out of the category of companies that can’t execute here, and into the group of contenders.
Rovio Mobile, the Helsinki, Finland-based company behind the hit iPhone game, Angry Birds has no immediate plans to launch a Windows phone7 version of the game anytime soon, the company tweeted this morning.
Microsoft put the Angry Birds icon on their site without our permission.”
So far, Angry Birds Lite is available for Android and Symbian OS
. Microsoft used NotifyMe icon without our permission on their Windows Phone 7 site
Carolina Milanesi, a researcher with Gartner, said the upcoming Windows Phone 7 platform is an improvement over Microsoft’s previous mobile offerings and that it is a “good effort.” She also said that is will need a lower average selling price (ASP) to truly make a dent in Android of the iPhone.
Look for the T-Mobile Windows Phone 7 devices (the Venue Pro and HD7) to clock in at around the same price.
That seems pretty reasonable to me, as the $200 price point is essentially the standard for high-end smartphones.
Should Windows Phone 7 be aiming for this segment of the market?