Bnpositive Communication

I’m one of those weird people who really don’t expect or need my phone to do much else than make phone calls. That was until I ditched my PDA (a Sony Clie at the time) and went with a PPC-6700 SmartPhone running Windows Mobile.

I quickly discovered that having a completely mobile device with full Internet connectivity, ability to natively open and use Microsoft documents, and to synch between my main laptop computer without much second thought was a valuable place to be working.

The problem of late though has been not seeing much improvement with my Windows Mobile experience. Sure, I could enjoy the new features of Windows Mobile 6 if a upgraded my phone to the latest model, but is there anything really major that’s new there? Plus, similar to my earlier thoughts about cell phones, I’m not one that needs to invest in the cost of upgrading or changing mine very regularly. I’ve been using my PPC-6700 now for over three years.

How do I compare all the new features and status icon components that are now all the rage with the iPhone 3G and the Google Android phone? Is Microsoft doing anything to compete?

It looks like they could be:

• Windows Mobile development is going nowhere when Apple’s iPhone OS and Google’s Android are going everywhere. Smartphones are the future of computing. Either Microsoft really is in a sorry state, or there’s a super-secret project that will supersede Windows Mobile.
• Months ago, I heard rumors that Zune poster boy J Allard had moved on to some secret project. Right away, I thought Microsoft phone. Sometime later, his title got an upgrade to chief experience officer and chief technology officer of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices division. Zune and Xbox 360 user experiences are great following upgrades, by the way. Could J be scheming with Danger and Tellme folks about a Microsoft phone? Sure.
• Microsoft already is working on an applications store code-named Skymarket, which would rival similar operations from Apple, Google and Research In Motion. That’s a dish best served up by one chef, Microsoft, rather than restaurant franchises. End-to-end software plus hardware plus services would be the way to go, like Xbox Live and the game console.
• Recent Zune device price cuts and music store freebees could be preparation for a Microsoft phone. The device operating system should draw lineage from Danger and Zune rather than Windows Mobile. A Microsoft go-to-market strategy would first target existing Microsoft customers—and Zune users would be good ones, particularly if their purchased and subscribed content were transferable.

That’s the information that’s in front of us regarding the potential for a new Microsoft phone. Will it be more than just Microsoft powered? Could it be new functionality that’s going to be part of their Azure mesh network? I’d say it has to be, otherwise we probably would have heard even more about it for now.