Windows Phone 7 – Competition For BlackBerry-iPhone-Android?

From the first Pocket PC 2000 to the last Windows Mobile 6.5.5., Windows Mobile lacked functionality from no multi-touch functionality, and users’ inability to upgrade their version of Windows Mobile, to name a few. This led to dissatisfaction amongst customers with the OS scoring only 66 out of a possible 100 in a survey, as compared to 73, 77 and 83 scored by BlackBerry, Google Android, and iPhone respectively. All this added up and in 2009, Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer admitted that the company had “screwed up” with Windows Mobile. But in a recent interview, Microsoft CIO, Tony Scott is more than optimistic about the newest version of the OS, the Windows Mobile 7, and believes it will be big in the smartphone industry.

Why is Tony Scott optimistic?

Mr. Scott believes that Windows Mobile 7, though will be launched late,  is good enough to penetrate the market. According to him, the smart phone market is bound to gain popularity and increase its percentage of the market and this is where a new OS like the Windows Phone 7 can cash in despite of other operating systems already dominating the smart phone market. He firmly believes that iPhone OS is up for stiff challenge from the new version of the Microsoft mobile OS.

Will it really be competition for BlackBerry-iPhone-Android?

As much as we admire the Microsoft CIO’s enthusiasm and optimism about Windows Mobile 7, we are a bit skeptical about the success of the OS, and if it will ever challenge the market for BlackBerry, iPhone, and Android. Here are some reasons why:

1. To being with, how many people love change? In the PC market, though Apple came up with the Mac, Windows still continues to dominate the OS market in PCs purely on the basis of Windows being well-established and users being accustomed to the Microsoft OS.
2. Mr. Scott might like to counter the above point by saying the Windows is way more user friendly than the Mac OS. Even if we agree on that, when it comes to phone operating systems, most of the operating systems are user friendly. The iPhone OS is one of the most user friendly operating systems in the market. If Microsoft plan to one-up Apple in user friendliness, they would need one amazing OS.
3. It is Windows after all. Most of us, from our PC experience with Microsoft, know how Windows can crash at any point. Of course, Windows has come a long way but only time will tell if the phone OS promises to not give up on the user out of the blue.

Now, one can only wait for the Windows Mobile 7 OS to launch to figure out if Tony Scott will be right, or if our skepticism will be justified. Just like us, do you have doubts about the success of Windows Mobile 7?