Windows Phone 7: Microsoft's Entrant to the Smartphone Wars

8/8/2019 Windows Phone 7: Microsoft's Entrant to the Smartphone Wars

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or visit www.pointabout.com for more information.

BACKGROUND

Windows Phone 7 is the mobileoperating system developed byMicrosoft and released in Novem-ber 2010. The WP7 OS is Micro-soft’s answer to Apple’s iOS and

Google’s Android OS; it boasts aredesigned touchscreen UI, whichuses multi-touch technology andis based on Microsoft’s Metrodesign language.

DESIGN

The Metro design language in-corporates five principles valued

by Microsoft: Clean, Light, Open,Fast; Celebrate Typography; Alivein Motion; Content, Not Chrome;and Authentically Digital. Seehere for more on the Metro de-sign language and how it is usedin Windows Phone 7.

From a user experience stand-point, customizable tiles makeup the WP7 Start screen. Tiles

are linked to important features,applications, and individual itemssuch as phone, music and videos,contacts, web pages and MS Of-fice products. Tiles are dynamic

and update in real-time. Forinstance, the tile for an email ac-count will automatically updateto display the currentnumber of unreadmessages; users havethe ability to add, de-lete, and rearrange tiles

on the Start screen.

These tiles combine both lo-cal and online content via in-tegration with social networkslike Facebook and WindowsLive. The Pictures hub, for exam-ple, shows photos taken from thedevice’s camera roll and the user ’sFacebook photo albums, and the

People hub shows contacts ag-gregated from integration withZune, Xbox Live (Games hub),Bing, Microsoft Office, and Win-dows Phone Marketplace.

APPLICATION

DEVELOPMENT FOR

WINDOWS PHONE 7

The Windows Phone 7 develop-ment framework is built so that de-velopers and designers can workhand-in-hand. This frameworkallows a true agile development

methodol-ogy to bef o l l o w e d

rather thanthe waterfallmethodologythat’s preferablewhen developingfor iOS and An-

WINDOWS PHONE 7:Microsoft’sEntranttotheSmartphoneWars





droid.

Application development envi-ronments for Windows Phone7 include Silverlight, the .NETCompact Framework, and XNA.Silverlight is powered by the .NET

framework and is compatiblewith multiple browsers, operatingsystems, and devices.

Silverlight and .NET are two of themost well-known languages bydevelopers, which will eventuallydrive down the cost of develop-ing apps for WP7. There havebeen over 500,000 downloads of the WP7 software developmentkit already.

Expression Blend 4 and VisualStudio 2010 are the primarydesign tools for creating WP7 ap-plications. Expression Blend is anadvanced user interface designtool that allows designers to as-semble rich user interfaces, andempower them with Silverlight.

Designers using Expression Blendwork comfortably alongside de-velopers working in Visual Studio.

Visual Studio is an integrateddeveloper environment that tiesin to Expression Blend and allowsdevelopers to tackle tasks rang-ing from design to testing.

DEVELOPMENT COSTS

AND TIMEFRAME

Developing native apps for Win-dows Phone 7 costs roughly the

same as developing native appsfor iOS and Android. Develop-ment costs can be expected todecrease as Microsoft perfectsthe development environment.

One reason development costs

will decrease is the ease with whichdevelopers can deliver testablebuilds to clients. XAP files can besent throughout the developmentprocess, which makes changingthe application mid-stream mucheasier than when developing forthe iPhone, iPad, or Android.

Another reason developmentcosts will decrease is the numberof developers already familiarwith Silverlight and .NET.

MONETIZING APPS

Microsoft’s Advertising Exchangeallows publishers to serve tar-geted ads to consumers based ondemographic, carrier, and locationtargeting. Ads can be displayed in

text or image form, and advertis-ers have the opportunity to insert

Click to Call and Click to Websitead features.

Leading ad networks like InMobiMobClix, and Millennial Mediaare among the networks thatare serving ads on the Windows

Phone 7 platform.

Reporting features include in-appad analytics, ad inventory, clicksCPM, and sell-thru rate. As withother popular platforms, apppublishers also have the opportu-nity to charge users for their apps

USER UPTAKE

While it’s impossible to say howquickly users will migrate to theWP7 platform, some clues can begleaned from Android’s relativelyrapid ascendance in the smart-phone marketplace.

In the first quarter of 2010, ac-cording to research firm NPDAndroid accounted for 28% o

all unit sales, trailing RIM (36%and ahead of Apple (21%). In thesecond quarter of 2010, phonesrunning Android leapfroggedRIM to reach 33% of all unit salescompared to 28% for RIM and22% for Apple.

These upticks in sales led to An-droid making significant in-roads

in the percentage of all cell phonesubscribers tied to Androidphones. The figure rose from 4%in the fourth quarter of 2009 to9% in the first quarter of 2010to 13% in the second quarter o

ANDROID OS

MARKET SHARE

FOR RECENT

AQUIRERS ROSE

FROM 6% IN Q4

2009 TO 17% IN Q1

2010 TO 27% IN

Q2 2010.





2010, according to Nielsen.

WHAT’S INSIDE?

Every Windows Phone 7 comesequipped with a Qualcomm 1GHzSnapdragon application proces-sor. The Snapdragon processorincludes 3D graphics functions,support for high-megapixel cam-eras, power optimization, and richmultimedia features, includingHD video recording and playbackabilities.

The Snapdragon processor wascreated to power a new genera-

tion of smartphones and tablets.

DEVICES AND CARRIERS

AT&T and T-Mobile are the exclu-sive carriers of Windows Phone 7to date. Verizon will reportedly beadded as a service provider earlyin 2011.

A variety of handsets - nine tobe precise - have been availablesince launch, from Samsung, LG,HTC, and Dell. Each has its owndistinctive feature(s), ranging fromslide-out vertical and horizontalkeyboards to a built-in kickstandfor hands-free use to a 4.3-inchdisplay.

WINDOWS PHONE

MARKETPLACE

Windows Phone 7 apps are dis-tributed through a central mar-

ketplace akin to the iTunes AppStore or the Android Marketplace.

Like the iTunes App Store, purvey-ors of apps in the Windows PhoneMarketplace keep 70% of profitsmade from app sales. Payouts todevelopers for downloaded ap-plications will begin in February2011. The Windows Marketplaceincludes reporting tools that let

publishers and developers knowhow well their apps are perform-ing.

THE HUFFINGTON POST

FOR WINDOWS PHONE 7

PointAbout had the opportunityto develop the Windows Phone 7app for the Huffington Post, one

of the world’s leading providersof up-to-the-minute commentaryand coverage.

“Working with PointAbout hasbeen a terrific experience,” saidPaul Berry, Chief Technology Of-ficer of The Huffington Post. “Asa company that prides itself oninnovative content delivery witha unique voice, HuffPost seeks

partners that have both strategicvision and technical abilities -both of which PointAbout offers.”

The Huffington Post’s app was oneof the very first to be approved byMicrosoft for consumption on theWP7 platform.

PointAbout’s VP of ProfessionaServices, Pete Johnson, said, “Weare thrilled to be one of the firsmobile application developers togain expertise in developing foWindows Phone. Windows Phone7 is showing a lot of promise as astrong platform for the enterpriseand we are prepared to guidecompanies in the strategy anddevelopment necessary for large-scale mobile implementations.”

EACH WINDOWS

PHONE HANDSET

WILL CARRY (AT

LEAST) A 1GHZ

SNAPDRAGON

PROCESSOR,

SPECIFICALLY

DESIGNED FOR A

NEW BREED OF

SMARTPHONES.

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Windows Phone 7: Microsoft's Entrant to the Smartphone Wars