Josh OngMajor media outlets and blogs began posting on Wednesday mostly mixed reviews of Microsoft's new mobile operating system, which is set to launch in the U.S. on Nov. 8.
Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal called the interface "novel and attractive," but noted that it was missing several key features, including copy and paste, visual voicemail, third-party app multitasking and video calling. Mossberg points out that Apple and Google, with a several year head start on Microsoft, have had plenty of time to incrementally add features to their mobile operating systems. Microsoft has said that a copy and paste add-on is in the works, but, for now, Mossberg isn't ready to recommend Windows Phone 7 as "on par" with iPhone or Android.
Microsoft is experiencing similar version 1.0 issues as Apple did when it first released the iPhone in 2007. The original iPhone lacked copy and paste and multitasking until the Cupertino, Calif., company added the features in later versions of its iOS software. Video calling was added to the iPhone this summer through the FaceTime standard on the iPhone 4.
Mossberg isn't the only journalist to express doubt about the new Windows handsets. Associated Press technology writer Rachel Metz found Windows Phone 7 "pleasantly easy to use" because of its tight consumer focus, calling it good but not phenomenal. Metz doubts that Microsoft's innovations will be enough to sway consumers, who have been exposed to ads for iPhone and Android for years.
In their reviews, both Metz and Mossberg expressed concern over the dearth of apps in Microsoft's app store, dubbed Marketplace. At the time of review, Marketplace had "just a few hundred apps" listed. Microsoft promises to add "hundreds" of apps every week before the end of the year, but the Redmond, Wash., software giant will be hard-pressed to catch up to Apple's App Store, which boasts over 300,000 apps.
Several blogs were hesitant to recommend Windows Phone 7 because of the features it is missing. In its review, Engadget felt that there were "holes" in the OS and that the OS was "a good year behind market leaders right now." Author Joshua Topolsky noted having trouble with third-party apps, especially news readers, crashing. Windows Phone 7 doesn't exactly have the "fit and finish of a fully realized product," wrote Topolsky.
MobileCrunch was also unable to recommend the Windows Phone 7 in its current state, saying the "a pretty face" is the only thing that WP7 offers over its competition. The reviewer notes a number of positive aspects of Microsoft's new mobile OS, saying "what it does, it does pretty dang well." However, in the end, author Greg Kumparak can't get past the fact that people have been complaining about these missing features on the iPhone and Android for years.
Analysts have characterized the Windows Phone 7 release as a "last-ditch attempt" to regain its footing in the mobile space. Microsoft's Chief Software Architect resigned earlier this week, just a week after the company's unveiling of its Windows Phone 7 lineup was met with a lukewarm response.
Malcolm Owen
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Charles Martin
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139 Comments
BREAKING NEWS: A brand new platform is not quite yet as good as the far more matured Android and iOS platforms.
Guess what? iOS 1.x wasn't much to write home about, either. But it got better over time. The same with Android. And the same will be true of Windows Phone 7.
This is a new venture for Microsoft and they lack the expertise in this category to immediately come on board with a home run. APPLE, RIMM all had the same problem.
I'm surprised that basics like Visual Voicemail, Cut-Copy-Paste features are not in their smartphone.
Windows 3.1 wasn't as good as Mac either, but eventually Windows '95 came out. And Lord knows Microsoft have enough money to just keep on going as long as they have to.
Not a good start for Microsoft
BREAKING NEWS: A brand new platform is not quite yet as good as the far more matured Android and iOS platforms.
Guess what? iOS 1.x wasn't much to write home about, either.
Yeah, but this isn't 2007 any more. The iPhone and Android have been on the scene for years now.
You can't come out to where your competitors were years ago, you have to come out ahead of them. That MS could release a phone without copy and paste in 2010 (late 2010 at that!) just boggles...
Not surprisingly, the article puts a slant on the reviews which is not entirely accurate. The reviews have generally been positive, with Mossberg's being the most negative (big surprise there), while noticing the absence of some features in the current release.
For example, the Appleinsider article implies that Engadget did not particularly like WP7, and would not recommend it.
Here is the summary of the Engadget review, which paints a very different picture.
In our original preview, we said that Windows Phone 7 didn't quite feel like a complete smartphone OS yet. We'd like to come back and report that it finally has the fit and finish of a fully realized product, but that isn't exactly the case. Don't get us wrong: there's a lot to like or even love in WP7. Microsoft has done an outstanding job with lots of aspects of this UI, particularly when it comes to navigation and ease of use -- but there are holes here as well. It still feels like the company is a good year behind market leaders right now, and though it's clear the folks in Redmond are doing everything they can to get this platform up to snuff, it's also clear that they're not there yet.
But that isn't -- and shouldn't be -- a deterrent to taking a close look at the handsets being offered. Microsoft isn't walking away from Windows Phone 7 anytime soon, and the company has created an incredibly promising base set of features to build off of. With terrific Zune and Xbox Live integration, a fast and smart method of getting around the OS, great Office and email experiences, and a genuinely beautiful and useful user interface, Microsoft has definitely laid the foundation for the next several years of its mobile play. Now it's time to get the upper floors finished.