I’ve had several conversations with people (friends, ex-colleagues) about Windows Phone, and have argued about them being dismissive of the phone’s chances against Android and iOS. Sure, Windows Phone is going to have to catch up from a long way back – that I recognise – but what annoys me is people who are willing to dimiss the phone without actually having seen it or touched it. Those who do get to tinker with the phone often like the experience. Personally, the more I use it the more I appreciate the way it’s designed, especially now that so many apps boast live tiles.
I hope that yesterday’s announcements from Nokia and the forthcoming awareness campaigns will bring Windows Phone to a wider audience, but in the meantime it’s pleasing to see articles such as this one from The New York Times saying (mostly) positive things about the phone. Yes, they do mention some shortcomings, but the article chooses to focus on the things that Microsoft have done a good job on (most notably the Bing searching and the social network integration into the people hub).
Windows Phone 7.5 is gorgeous, classy, satisfying, fast and coherent. The design is intelligent, clean and uncluttered.
Most impressively, Windows Phone is not a feeble-minded copycat.
Now, if this phone had arrived before the iPhone, people would have been sacrificing small animals to it.
I’ve been using WP7 (Samsung Omnia 7) since Dec 2010 and I couldn’t agree more with those excellently put quotes from the NYT. Of course there are some minor annoyances (while the architecture of the application model is great, I have a problem with the lack of standardised data management), but it’s a real pleasure to use. I would hate to have to move to iOS or Android, with what seem to me to be their clutter and lack of a consistent user experience.