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Windows Phone 7: More Fragmentation for the Mobile Industry

October 13th, 2010

Application Development, Technology, User Experience Design

If you’ve read some of my past posts, you’ll know that I’m a little interested in mobile technology…just a little.  Recently some colleagues asked me about my impression of Windows Phone 7, and the theory that Microsoft can make it work because of the power they have in the marketplace. Here are my thoughts:

I disagree with the assertion that cash = power in the mobile space. Microsoft tried and failed for many years to be a real player in the mobile space…they partnered with quality carriers and matched their offerings with robust hardware (for the time), but ultimately they were put out of their misery by companies that cared more about what the masses wanted and the design of the UI and of the hardware.  People wanted an easy-to-use phone that delivered a satisfying and successful experience, and Microsoft just couldn’t deliver.

Consider Palm, a company that was more in-tune with how people wanted to use PDAs, and more importantly for this post, smartphones…their (well, Handspring’s) Treo was the first successful smartphone, a real phone with genuine data (email, web) capabilities. Even the Pre, from a user experience standpoint, is a useful and satisfying device. They may not have Microsoft’s cash, but they have a more usable phone than any previous Windows-powered phone. Keep in mind that the Pre has been available for years, and that Windows Phone 7 is not yet publicly available.

What is now clear is that mobile isn’t just about the phone anymore -it’s not just about the OS.  Like any successful service, the key to mobile success is to make every customer touchpoint a pleasure for the user:

• the hardware
• the OS
• the software that developers create for the OS
• the accessories
• the software storefront
• the marketing

You have to get all of these things right to be a player in this space. The simplicity and cohesiveness of the service is what leads to widespread adoption.

Fragmentation has always been bad for this industry because it takes momentum away from any single platform. Take Android, for example…sure, it’s more open than iOS…but what about the entire service? There are so many devices that it’s tough to choose, there will be two, perhaps three (if Best Buy gets their way) app marketplaces, and the accessories are all over the place. The variety of Android and Blackberry devices can be a benefit to some, but the variation in capabilities, and the number of choices, can be too much for many customers.

Look at the Kin…same “powerful” company behind the product. The product flopped, the company pulled the plug, and that was that.

In the 5 years prior to the iPhone there was little to get excited about in the mobile space…lots of talk, mediocre devices, poor business models and lackluster support from carriers. There has been more innovation in the past three years than in the 5-7 before the iPhone, and that’s because of a company (Apple) who doesn’t need competition to innovate.

Sadly, the only reason why Windows Mobile was ever a great platform was not because of anything MS did, but rather because of the vast developer community that spent countless hours dissecting new OS releases and building tools around them that put the power to design the experience back in the hands of individual (albeit power) users.