Phone Arena interviewed Nokia president and head of North American operations who said Windows Phone 7 to make iOS and Android look outdated. Bold words for a mobile operating system with a less than 2% market share, but Mr. Weber is correct. Apple's iOS and Google's Android look like a computer desktop operating system designer designed their interface. One is an a launcher, the other is an app launcher with widgets. Pressing Menu on your Android is like pressing the Windows key on your PC.
Microsoft to its credit, came up with something different. The interface looks like a website, where you basically pan around with visual queues telling you which way you should go. Back in February, when I was looking for a new smartphone, I dismissed iOS for lack of an informative home screen. It is not essential to a phone, but coming from Windows Mobile and Symbian it is something I am used to an like. Android widgets allowed me to build the home screen I wanted. Windows Phone 7, well it was something I never imagined but after a few minutes of using it, all I could say was WOW. Powerful, with a good control on how much information to display to the user at a given time.
In the end I went the way of Android. I felt it was too early to jump to the Windows Phone 7 bandwagon. Now with over 25,000 apps (I mean how many do you really need, I use about 50 of the 250,000+ that Android has). Also, from a hardware standpoint, the cheapest Windows Phone 7 option available to me at the time was the 3.7-inch HTC 7 Mozart, which was priced at about the same as the 4.3-inch HTC Desire HD. If I was buying one today, with the Mozart being priced 15% lower the the Desire HD, I might opt for the Mozart. Than there is Gmail. I like Android Gmail app, more than using MS Exchange.
Unless Windows Phone 7 dies, there is a better than even chance, my next phone will be a HTC Windows Phone 7 device. Windows Phone 7 is far from the leaders, but if you are buying a smartphone give it a good look.
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