the Informer

I’ll be honest, I’m an Apple devotee. It will be hard to tear me away from my iPhone with another device, even when its network is a bag of hurt, its third-software development process is hampered by bureaucracy.

But entrants into the field (Android, Palm’s WebOS) have created compelling alternatives to the iPhone. With Windows Phone 7 Series being announced this week, I see another compelling alternative to the iPhone.

Whereas iPhone, in its three mobile operating system iterations, the home screen has largely remained static. Interactivity started late in the first version’s cycle, when the iPhone allowed users to put “Web clips” on the home screen. Then came apps. But the home screen is, well, boring.

Whereas Android introduced movable backgrounds in its first iteration (not interactive, but the background slides with the swiping of home screens), iPhone just has boring old icons on a black background.

Windows Mobile’s latest iteration takes that experience and throws it out. Instead, it appears that the Windows Mobile team saw what the Xbox UI development team was doing and said “Hey! We want that kind of fun on our phone’s software!” and took some of their designers.

It truly is a rethought, beautifully designed experience that appears to require virtually no learning on the user’s part to understand the so-called interface “metaphors.” True, it works for all modern phone devices, as Android, Apple and Palm have all embraced rethinking how we use phones.

While Microsoft’s innovation is a huge improvement from the failings in earlier iterations of Windows Mobile, it remains to be seen if it inspires any big leaps of faith from any of the other phone companies.

It was big enough from a company like Microsoft, which is usually set in its ways of developing software, to take a leap of faith.

Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle’s Tech Blog tweeted to me that “smartphones are a growth market” and that Microsoft is playing a game of catch-up.

Competition is such a healthy thing for a market that is burgeoning in the technology industry.

With this week’s special announcement, Microsoft is stepping up their game and is determined to take back a portion of the hotly contested phone market.