Should you even bother looking at Windows Phone 7?

Microsoft's latest stab at the smartphone market should appeal to Windows shops

Windows Phone 7 is shaping up as the most innovative mobile UI since, well, since the iPhone introduction three years ago.

In July, Microsoft released for developers the "Technical Preview" version of WP7, along with the first prototype handsets. The early reviews, from a user viewpoint, corroborate many positive things that developers have been discovering since they got their hands on the initial developer release in March. The first handsets, from LG, Samsung, Asus and others, are expected to be unveiled sometime this fall, along with carrier service plans.

Windows Phone 7 is not a copy of the early iPhone OS. Microsoft set out to re-create the UI around the users, for a device that's a "phone, not a PC" in the company's new mantra. The company seems to have done that successfully.

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Windows Phone 7 is shaping up as the most innovative mobile UI since, well, since the iPhone introduction three years ago.

In July, Microsoft released for developers the "Technical Preview" version of WP7, along with the first prototype handsets. The early reviews, from a user viewpoint, corroborate many positive things that developers have been discovering since they got their hands on the initial developer release in March. The first handsets, from LG, Samsung, Asus and others, are expected to be unveiled sometime this fall, along with carrier service plans.

Windows Phone 7 is not a copy of the early iPhone OS. Microsoft set out to re-create the UI around the users, for a device that's a "phone, not a PC" in the company's new mantra. The company seems to have done that successfully.

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The key element in Microsoft's approach is the creation of a UI that's both intelligible and intelligent: the result is what Microsoft calls "integrated experiences" where tasks are combined smoothly and smartly to help you do what you want easily.

For the enterprise, this will be especially apparent in one of these integrated locations: the Office Hub, which features a suite of mobilized versions of Microsoft Office applications like Word; tight integration with Microsoft Exchange e-mail, calendar and contacts; and a native application (instead of a Web interface), called SharePoint WorkGroup Client, to support SharePoint documents offline and sync with the server.

"If Microsoft Office and Exchange [and SharePoint] are principal products in use in your organization, there's an excellent chance of maximal interactivity between the two [with Windows Phone 7]," says Tom Henderson, managing director, ExtremeLabs and a member of Network World's Test Alliance.

"Given all their integration points, with other Microsoft platforms like Office, SharePoint, Exchange, Azure, I would not discount the potential of what Microsoft can offer a corporate environment," says Philippe Winthrop, managing director of The Enterprise Mobility Foundation.  

But does WP7 offer enough for users and companies not fully committed to the Microsoft infrastructure? "It's not at all clear that WP7 will have any features that compel the non-core audience to consider the platform as an alternative to Linux, BlackBerry and iPhone," says Craig Mathias, principal with Farpoint Group, a wireless consulting firm, and a Test Alliance member. "Windows mobile (using the term generically here) is way, way behind and has significant cost disadvantages for handset OEMs."

Mobility consultant Jack Gold says the existing crop of third-party and homegrown enterprise applications for the older Windows Mobile OS will have to be re-architected and to some degree rewritten. It might make more sense to do that work for Android or iPhone, the market leaders, he says. But neither of them yet has robust security (iPhone in fact largely relies on Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to piggyback on Exchange protections); and Microsoft hasn't yet fully disclosed its security model.