Geekonomics

The new Windows Phone

Oct 9, 2009 15:01

This geek managed to check out the launch of Windows Phone this week and played with a couple of the devices, especially the Acer neoTouch F1 which will likely be the first device in the market to be launched with Windows Mobile 6.5, now known as the Windows Phone.

 Picture of the Acer F1 by this geek on Twitpic

What this geek considers as one of the forefathers of PDA phones, Microsoft has decided to reinvent its smart phone strategy and rebrand its Windows Mobile to a new name called "Windows Phone".



So, users of Windows Mobile 6.1 may be wondering what's new with Windows 6.5. Besides the new user interface and experience, there are also new services and applications like the My Phone service. This is a free service which helps you manage and back up the information on your phone and has an easy restore option in the event of a lost or damaged phone. You can also go online and map the last known location of your phone from when it was last synchronized.



 

More advanced "lost phone" features are offered as a premium package that you need to activate, though. The premium package allows you to remotely lock a phone and post an "if found" message to its screen; loudly ring the phone even if it is set to vibrate or silent mode; and ultimately, if needed, completely erase the phone to protect your personal data from falling into the wrong hands. The premium package is now free of charge until November 30, 2009. After that date, a seven-day access to the premium package will be available for purchase.

There's also the Windows Marketplace for Mobile, which is Microsoft's latest mobile app store. Developers should rejoice with a new app store in the market as I've written about how app distribution models have changed with the rise of app stores before.







Microsoft, being the big brother in software and apps, plans to differentiate its app store with more quality apps. At launch this week, it had 246 mobile apps for both business and pleasure, and more than 753 independent software vendors worldwide onboard. All purchased apps will be certified by Microsoft to run on Windows Phones and come with a simple return policy. This geek hears that apps are localized, which means Vietnam, for example, will see a very different set of apps from, say, the Singapore store.

In a bid to maintain quality, it seems Microsoft is also charging an annual fee of US$99 to developers, which is not too pricey but helps to sift out the bottom-feeding developers, I guess.

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