Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Windows phone: Mango

Perhaps an overreaction, but did you watch what I did last night: The Mango public announcement.

This was performed by two guys in a cramped space continually handing over the same phone and what it appears to be rushing through the presentation. To me a cramped space means this is not really that important. Further, the rushing means, I have work to be done that is not complete and I really hope you like what has been done so far. Not really all that inspiring for the first time the media see the “new direction” of windows phone and a chance to sway people into buying a phone before the mango release.

This pales in comparison to the ipad 2 announcement, this was a product (in defence, was largely completed) but: This was Steve Jobs and friends hanging out together, sitting in chairs, showing a product and the lifestyle, calm, relaxed, that the ipad 2 will bring to you. This was also performed in a large space with people joining the floor from multiple entry points, creating an expectation of “what’s going to happen next”

At the end of the ipad2 presentation was: I want one. At the end of the windows phone presentation: Oh well, let’s see what happens in September.

Why did I tell you this? Well, this just leaded to my post. I wanted to see what my company thought of Mango (I was hoping for inspiration that was missing from last night) and the first reply was:

“I don’t see anything that exciting about Mango. Am I missing something? It just looks like they’ve finally delivered on the features that should’ve been in v1.”

This echoes the same feelings that I have about the platform. Well played Microsoft, well played.

Finally in saying that, I believe Microsoft is on the correct path with Windows phone. The phone is a personal device that knows where you are, and who you are. This will lead to compelling augmented reality experiences and we saw some of this last night. I just hope they don’t kill the platform that should deliver these experiences.

PS: I have no qualification for talking about body language and psychology, it’s an observation only.

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