Win Phone 7 is Here. Now What?

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Microsoft had its big Windows Phone 7 coming out party today. It wasn't exactly a big surprise as we all knew what it was going to look like.

In fact, Microsoft had a display recently at Web 2.0 Expo and I took a few minutes to check it out and talk to the Microsoft marketing person staffing the table.

Her big selling point off the bat was a defensive one. She told me, and I'm not kidding you, that it works.

This goes back to the last version of Windows Mobile, which didn't.

Then there was the whole Kin incident. For those of you unfamiliar with the Kin it was a short-lived phone marketed to young people as a social phone. I wrote that it wasn't such a great idea--actually I called it Microsoft's stupidest move yet--and Microsoft proved me right when it pulled the plug a few months after its release.

Now we have the much hyped Win Phone 7. I will say that the interface is much nicer, but does it really matter what Microsoft does at this point?

When I wrote this on Twitter this evening, two people jumped to Microsoft's defense immediately. One, Christina Warren, aka @filmgirl on Twitter, wrote:

@ron_miller I think it's far too early in the grand scheme of things to write off any company, let alone Microsoft.

I'm not writing off Microsoft by any means. They have pockets far too deep to do that and they still have some power and influence. There are plenty of Microsoft shops still out there.

But I really wonder if it matters what Microsoft does at this point in the mobile market. They are at least two years behind the pack and they have a serious perception problem. It's hard to take Microsoft seriously at this point. 

There have been way too many false starts. Way too many issues and they really do seem to be a company that's in disarray right now.

Microsoft needs a winner, that's for sure, especially in mobile, but whether this OS will push them into the game, only time will tell.

Right now, I feel like it's going to be a battle and I'm wondering if Microsoft has the chops to make it work.

Comments

[Art]

Just another crappy thing from MSFT