Differentiators
But Microsoft is trying to create a user experience that is halfway between completely controlled platforms like iOS and Android - which anyone can stick onto a phone if they feel like it.
There are several hardware parameters that have been pre-defined by Microsoft before an OEM can develop a WP7 phone. For a start, the SoC must be made by Qualcomm and all phones must have the same three hard buttons.
This dramatically reduces the number of variables the OS has to account for and, in theory, allows it to reach the market in a more optimised state than any Android phone, with the possible exception of the Nexus One, which Google commissioned from HTC to provide exactly this type of optimisation.
The UI looks quite different - tile-based as opposed to the ‘wall of icons' you get on iOS and Android, and Microsoft has clearly heard the frustrations of earlier Windows Mobile users who tired of pecking at their phones with a stylus like some kind of ravenous chicken. It's designed to be navigated by a single digit and to be intuitive.
But the other big USP, apart from the semi-optimised platform, promises to be the cloud integration with Microsoft's many software and services products. If, as Microsoft it promising, we have the productivity experience of a PC, the gaming experience of an X-Box, the media experience of a Zune and the cloud experience of a Kin, all in one phone, then it WP7 phones should compare well with their Android contemporaries.
