The Microsoft Windows operating system is the hands-down leader in both desktop and laptop computers. There’s no questioning that. But will Microsoft’s adventure into the mobile phone game be nearly as successful? If they do it right, it will be.
The end-user experience is obviously important to Microsoft as they have implemented rules regulating the hardware that can be used with the Windows Phone 7 OS. Any phone running the new OS will have a mandatory 3 button setup, with a home, back, and enter key. This is contradictory to google’s approach, which allows just about any phone to run the Android OS. With any phone running the new Windows operating system, users will find the same basic buttons, and all the same features. All versions of the OS will be the same, so you never have to worry about having or not-having a certain function on your phone, no matter the brand.
One of the big negatives to the new Windows Phone 7 operating system is the Microsoft App Store. Although the app store could eventually have the same, or similar, apps as all of the other app stores, it will never be big enough to compete with Apple’s App Store. Why? The reason Apple’s App Store is so successful is because application designers can make money off of the millions of apple customers. Google now has an app store accessible through it’s Android operating system, and again it works well because of the shear quantity of people downloading apps. By locking a huge percentage of phones out of the Windows Phone 7 operating system, Microsoft is in turn locking a large number of customers our of their app store. And with fewer customers, there will be fewer people making apps. It’s a slippery slope that will not prove to be as profitable as Microsoft might think.
