Windows Phone 7: Why It's a Disaster for Microsoft

[andrewbares]

full article

The article has incorrect information

You CAN select multiple lines of text in Word. Tap on a word, then drag to the left, and you can select a number of words, an entire paragraph, or even highlight the whole document. As proof, here's my video review of Office, which shows that feature:

You can also highlight a number of cells in Excel.

[WindowsFanatic]

And like Internet Explorer is being destroyed by Chrome and Firefox now?

Lol, Windows Internet Explorer has about 59.65% market share, while Firefox has 22.96% and Chrome only 7.98%. If that's destruction, I wanna get destroyed like that mama.

[DrCheese]

Of course Paul Thurrots extensive review is wrong and your 6 word reply is correct cos you of course have tested and reviewed the same devices as Paul.

Grow up boy.

oh come on, taking a Paul Thurrot review of any Microsoft product as gospel is stupid, almost as stupid as taking a Walt Mosberg review of any Apple product as gospel is. Both are unashamed openly admitted fanboys of either respective company.

Whist I like what I've seen of Windows phone 7 (Not actually used a device yet tho..) it needs to play catchup at almost breakneck speed to really compete with the iPhone and Android. Anyone who says that the iPhone in "2007" was able to launch with a ton of features missing is quite frankly missing the point. The iPhone was able to get away with it because it was a new device that was leagues ahead of other devices on the market at the time, i.e most may have had a lot of features but suffered from incredibly bad UI design or horrible slow hardware. As such, it took competitors a while to catch up, Windows phone 7 does not have this luxury of time.

[Woelfel]

Well, I'm typing this from my Samsung focus and I have no problems with the browser at all. I guess since I use the desktop version when browsing it doesn't hurt. I definitely feel that wp7 has alot more good than bad. The article itself is a fail since it pointed out features that Microsoft CLEARLY said they weren't focusing on, aka business power stuff.

[jakem1]

I think the biggest problem with WP7 at this point is the browser. I mean... they're shipping IE7's engine on it, right?

It would be one thing to have such a browser on the desktop, where web applications are already largely held back by IE7 anyway. But Microsoft is entering a market where WebKit is king, and mobile web developers have been using that to their advantage. Just take the mobile version of Neowin as an example: we developed that with a focus on the majority of the mobile devices out there. It works beautifully on BB OS 6, WebOS, Android, iOS, and Nokia phones. It does not work (yet) on the newest mobile OS, WP7, because the browser engine is from 2006 - and in 2006, most web developers were shocked at how bad it was.

I mean... that's unacceptable. Simple as that. No one has designed mobile web applications for IE in the past few years, because the lowest common denominator for the majority of phones was WebKit.

If Microsoft doesn't port the IE9 engine over to WP7 once it's finished, I don't know how they're going to survive on the web app front.

Multitasking, copy and paste... we know all of that is coming. But on my phone, I spend most of my time calling, sending texts, and browsing. This phone can only really do two of those things well.

IE in WP7 is based on a mixture of IE7 and IE8 code plus optimisations for mobile browsing. Without exception, every review of the new OS has been extremely positive about the performance and rendering quality of the browser and the only criticisms I have seen are that it is currently limited because it doesn't support Flash, Silverlight or HTML5 video.

If you guys have optimised Neowin for WebKit then it sounds like your fault if it doesn't render properly in IE mobile. Maybe you need to work out what you've done wrong ;)

[Minimoose]

oh come on, taking a Paul Thurrot review of any Microsoft product as gospel is stupid, almost as stupid as taking a Walt Mosberg review of any Apple product as gospel is. Both are unashamed openly admitted fanboys of either respective company.

Whist I like what I've seen of Windows phone 7 (Not actually used a device yet tho..) it needs to play catchup at almost breakneck speed to really compete with the iPhone and Android. Anyone who says that the iPhone in "2007" was able to launch with a ton of features missing is quite frankly missing the point. The iPhone was able to get away with it because it was a new device that was leagues ahead of other devices on the market at the time, i.e most may have had a lot of features but suffered from incredibly bad UI design or horrible slow hardware. As such, it took competitors a while to Windows phone 7 does not have this luxury of time.

Along with the fact that Apple have consistently good marketing, Microsoft really need to get their arse in gear especially with the browser. I would love a WP7 phone mainly because of the excellent UI, but there are certain things missing which make me want to wait it out to see what's fixed/added in the next big update. If the problems persist I'll end up with an android phone.

[spudtrooper]

Maybe, the point you are missing is that Android actually had more features than it's initial competitor, iOS when it launched. It already had C+P it already had MMS support, and it already had multitasking. If you look at how Android has evolved over the last 3 years, and compare it with what Microsoft have came up with after 3 years it's easier to understand why WP7 is such a lame duck.

How is WP7 a lame duck? You mention this without any supporting evidence or experience thereof. WP7 is great to develop for, great to use, feature rich and not lacking anything that will keep it from competing in the market. The very limited cherry picking of features will even be addressed shortly. The only place for the platform to move is up.

At least WP7 devices will get updates :) I lost track of how many people gave up on android phones after being burned with promised upgrades and features that never came to fruition because the carrier is in charge of the OS install vs the platform itself.

[andrewbares]

Along with the fact that Apple have consistently good marketing, Microsoft really need to get their arse in gear especially with the browser. I would love a WP7 phone mainly because of the excellent UI, but there are certain things missing which make me want to wait it out to see what's fixed/added in the next big update. If the problems persist I'll end up with an android phone.

What's wrong with the browser other than being extremely quick, snappy, and powerful?

[Subject Delta]

Lol, Windows Internet Explorer has about 59.65% market share, while Firefox has 22.96% and Chrome only 7.98%. If that's destruction, I wanna get destroyed like that mama.

Seeing as it was up in the 90's about 3 years ago, i'd call it a pretty fast fall.

[Mr aldo]

That article is the biggest piece of crap ever.

Windows Phone 7 is insecure? Way to twist your words!

He makes it seem as though Windows Phone 7 is insecure, which it isn't (well, we don't know for sure yet), when in reality he means Windows Phone 7 lacks certain security features. That doesn't make it insecure in a sense, just it can't be as secure as it could. That title tries to make it seem as though Microsoft put no sort of security into the OS at all.

It's just linkbait, the guy used to work at MacWorld too.

Kinda funny though, 14 recommend the article, while 152 don't xD

[Calum Veteran]

I think the biggest problem with WP7 at this point is the browser. I mean... they're shipping IE7's engine on it, right?

It would be one thing to have such a browser on the desktop, where web applications are already largely held back by IE7 anyway. But Microsoft is entering a market where WebKit is king, and mobile web developers have been using that to their advantage. Just take the mobile version of Neowin as an example: we developed that with a focus on the majority of the mobile devices out there. It works beautifully on BB OS 6, WebOS, Android, iOS, and Nokia phones. It does not work (yet) on the newest mobile OS, WP7, because the browser engine is from 2006 - and in 2006, most web developers were shocked at how bad it was.

I mean... that's unacceptable. Simple as that. No one has designed mobile web applications for IE in the past few years, because the lowest common denominator for the majority of phones was WebKit.

If Microsoft doesn't port the IE9 engine over to WP7 once it's finished, I don't know how they're going to survive on the web app front.

Multitasking, copy and paste... we know all of that is coming. But on my phone, I spend most of my time calling, sending texts, and browsing. This phone can only really do two of those things well.

I completely agree with everything in this post. I was disappointed when I found out IE 7's engine was included in Windows Phone 7. I'm also hoping they port IE 9's engine over when it's finished.

[Dashel]

Galen is a ****ing retard.

[~Johnny]

I completely agree with everything in this post. I was disappointed when I found out IE 7's engine was included in Windows Phone 7. I'm also hoping they port IE 9's engine over when it's finished.

On my part, after using the browser I disagree with it mostly :p. It might render the same way, but it's usability and speed rival that of the iPhone 4. It's smooth scrolling, smooth zooming and high fidelity, and it doesn't slow down at all. I've not come across a single website that render improperly - the only sites that have notable quirks or anomalies are probably the neowin mobile site and facebook touch site from what I've seen so far. But I'd imagine its very easy to make Neowin's mobile page render properly in WP7's browser at any rate.. But it manages to browse normal webpages perfectly fine - there is nothing at all that screams "IE 7" about it.

Most other mobile site's I've tried are fine. But can't ever say no to IE9, though considering it's rendering engine relies on DirectWrite & Direct2D as a baseline now, I'd imagine that they'd probably not be able to do a port quite the same way as they've done here.

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[kaffra]

Of course Paul Thurrots extensive review is wrong and your 6 word reply is correct cos you of course have tested and reviewed the same devices as Paul.

Grow up boy.

what a stupid comment, paul has always his opinions and so do many other tech sites. currently there is nothing to suggest wp7 is the os to beat, if anything they are comparing it to ios and android.

[Mr aldo]

I completely agree with everything in this post. I was disappointed when I found out IE 7's engine was included in Windows Phone 7. I'm also hoping they port IE 9's engine over when it's finished.

The rendering engine is is a mix between IE7 and IE8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP7#Web_browser

[Ci7]

I completely agree with everything in this post. I was disappointed when I found out IE 7's engine was included in Windows Phone 7. I'm also hoping they port IE 9's engine over when it's finished.

well, i bet they well

as an engine update at least

actually more like IE9.1 or somethin

[Omen1393]

Here are my concerns with WP7.

What it lacks:

• Multitasking
• Copy and Paste
• Direct access to Microphone and Camera for developers (lack of augmented reality apps)
• Socket support
• HTML5
• No phones with a front facing camera

Why I am still going to get a WP7 phone

• I currently have an iPhone 3G, it has gotten significantly slower after every update. I don't want to go through that experience again.
• Android has a lot more features than WP7 right now but Android's upgrade system is very reliant on the Phone Manufacturer, updates don't come until 6 months after the update is already released for many phones.
• All of the updates above are planned to be released in a software update (except for the front facing camera). Microsoft has already promised that the updates will come to all WP7 phones at the same time, not months later like Android.
• The UI is awesome for the phone, it is also much, much faster than my iPhone 3G. I already use most of Microsoft's services.

[+Neowin User 007 Subscriber²]

This article is completely biased...as an editor you need to be able to let YOUR emotions go during an article. A lot of this is pure opinion and speculation. I see no FACTS for him to come to his conclusions.

[resol612]

I'm gonna give the iphone to my dad and get a wp7.

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Thread Cleaned

Off-topic posts will not be tolerated.

[George P Global Moderator]

Don't let the older IE7.5 engine throw you off, sure it doesn't have any HTML5 support BUT they really did work on it's speed and performance, lots of comparison videos out there but it's on par with the iPhone and Android even. I dunno when we'll get an update to IE in it but we should is the thing, the only hope now is that it's sooner rather than later.

[Owen W Veteran]

All I heard: "Blah blah blah opinion about WP7 blah blah blah I own an iPhone and it's better blah blah it'll do better of course."

I suggest those who are complaining actually try using a device in their hand and see for themselves why people like it, otherwise just keep your opinions to yourself.

Here are my concerns with WP7.

What it lacks:

• Multitasking Coming
• Copy and Paste Coming
• Direct access to Microphone and Camera for developers (lack of augmented reality apps) Already added
• Socket support Coming
• HTML5 Coming, but who gives a damn
• No phones with a front facing camera Coming

[Prince Charming]

Windows Phone 7 is a disaster for Microsoft? By what measurement, bahaha.

[Chicane-UK Veteran]

I have been quite vocal about my dislike for the older Windows mobile phones in the last few years but I'm really keen to see what these ones are all about and what they're like. I think the UI is refreshingly different, I think they've got potential, and Microsoft certainly can't accuse vendors of not giving them some great launch handsets. Lets wait and see what happens - it's still very early days.

[hdood]

All I heard: "Blah blah blah opinion about WP7 blah blah blah I own an iPhone and it's better blah blah it'll do better of course."

I suggest those who are complaining actually try using a device in their hand and see for themselves why people like it, otherwise just keep your opinions to yourself.

Source?