Microsoft has launched Windows Phone 7 Smartphone

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Windows Phone 7, Microsoft’s attempt to claw its way back into the lucrative smartphone arena, was released a year ago to respectful but hardly adulatory reviews. When it comes to smartphones, Windows Phone 7 should arguably be the de facto platform for business professionals, but Microsoft may be delivering too little, too late.
Many businesses use Microsoft Exchange as their messaging platform, Windows as the desktop operating system, and Microsoft Office for office productivity applications.The software began going out to existing users as a free upgrade last week; new handsets from manufacturers including HTC and Samsung will begin showing up shortly.

Microsoft isn't just involved in these areas--for most of these technologies Microsoft. It holds a preeminent role in all areas of business technology, except customers; Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility may lead competing manufacturers to think twice about their dependence on Android; Hewlett-Packard pulled the plug on its competing WebOS platform. smartphones.


From an IT administrator perspective, though, Microsoft should be a natural choice for smartphone platform. Active Directory provides a powerful framework capable of meeting that objective, but Microsoft let RIM take the lead with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) mobile platform.

Suggesting Apps
One of the cleverest features in the new version of the operating system is the way it integrates the search function with the ability to discover and incorporate new apps.
The software not only gave me the usual reviews and directions, but also suggested I might want to download the OpenTable app for booking reservations online.

Speech has also been integrated into the operating system. You can dictate messages that are then read back to you and, once you approve, dispatched as texts.
It’s not as potent as Siri, the personal-assistant feature that Apple is launching with its iPhone 4S, but I found it more useful and enjoyable than the voice features built into the current version of Android.

Apple revolutionized the smartphone with the iPhone. Apple and Google are aggressively competing with each other to define the mobility experience, while RIM and Microsoft are playing catch up.

Vetting the Marketplace
Microsoft's Ashley Highfield shows Rory Cellan-Jones the mobile operating system's features.

Microsoft has launched Windows Phone 7, its latest attempt to break into the lucrative smartphone market. Windows Phone 7 looks impressive from what has been revealed thus far. If this were two years ago, Windows Phone 7 might even be a cutting edge innovation that could set the smartphone world on fire.

Until now the company has failed to provide a credible challenge to rival operating systems from Apple, Google, Research in Motion and Nokia.

Mobile phone operators predict smartphones will have a 70% market share in just three years. Andy Lees, the man in charge of Microsoft's mobile phone division, called the system "a new beginning", with his team building a new operating system and user interface in just 18 months.

Taking a dig at rivals like Apple and Google's Android, he told the BBC that Windows Phone 7 was neither a "closed system" nor an anything goes system, with the operating system providing a structure and coherent user interface for partners to build on.