I’ve said before that the number one innovation in Windows Phone is that Microsoft, in rethinking the smart phone, has adopted a new user experience model that is not app-oriented as is the iPhone (and, for that matter, Android). That is, on the iPhone, when the user wants to do something, they need to remember which app it is that will get that thing done. So if you want to see what your friends are up to, on the iPhone, you can manually visit different apps from Facebook, MySpace, or whatever. You install them. You remember them. You use them. Oh, and you update them. Manually.
The Windows Phone approach is different. Yes, there will be discrete apps. But Microsoft has engineered the OS to include a new super-app called a hub (or “panoramic experience”) that can aggregate content from multiple sources. So when you want to keep up with the people who are important to you, you just visit the People hub, which aggregates updates from Facebook, MySpace, Windows Live, whatever … all in a single location. Photos works the same way. So do other hubs.
Microsoft was only able to make this conceptual leap by starting over, and it was only willing to start over because it has failed so badly in the mobile market. In fact, one could make the argument that had Microsoft not been so thoroughly battered by RIM in the business market and by the iPhone in the consumer market that it would have simply shipped a me-too Windows Mobile 7 release that, like Android, offers only minor functional improvements over iPhone. (Android has other differences that matter, of course, including a multi-vendor device strategy and an open source development model. But I’m referring here to a very specific thing.)
Apple, meanwhile, has established a thriving ecosystem for its “i” products via the iTunes Store, which now features music, movies, TV shows, apps (for iPhone, iPod, and iPad), podcasts, audiobooks, iTunes U educational offerings, and more. (Arguably, the “iBooks” stuff is part of this same ecosystem.) This ecosystem is now inarguably the number one reason to own any of these Apple products, since the competition is catching up functionally but will never match the strength of these offerings. Never.
But Apple is in a weird place too. It’s success comes with a dark side. Apple, like any other company, can’t easily innovate when it’s so successful. So we’re not going to see a wildly innovative iPhone OS 4 software update, we’re going to see features that its competitors have already implemented. When you’re a leader, you protect your position. You consolidate. You shore up your lead, and you fill in tiny holes, not make big leaps. (This partially explains the iPad, as well. It’s not a new kind of device but is rather a merging of the iPhone OS with a PC-sized form factor.)
This place is so weird, in fact, that Apple now highlights it’s apps-based approach as a benefit. This is odd to me because the in-out-in-out app experience on the iPhone is arguably now the weakest part of this system, and the most old-fashioned. (It’s like MS-DOS. Think about it.) And though the multitasking functionality that Apple is adding in OS 4 will somewhat mitigate the need to constantly jump back out to the home screen to re-find an app you were just using, it doesn’t actually change the usage model that much at all. It’s evolution, not revolution.
Here’s how Steve Jobs makes lemonade out of this problem. In this past week’s iPhone OS 4 announcement, he said…
When you look at a mobile device–a phone–it’s not like the desktop. On the desktop, search is where it’s at [with regards to advertising]. That’s where the money is. But on a mobile device, search hasn’t happened. Search is not where it’s at. People aren’t searching on a mobile device like they do on the desktop. What’s happening is that they’re spending all their time in apps. When people want to find a place to go out to dinner, they’re not searching. They’re going into Yelp. They’re using apps to get to data on the Internet.
Now, this was obviously a dig at Google, since it came during his explanation about why iAd was needed on the iPhone. But what it really is, is a tacit admission that the iPhone’s app-based approach has hooked users, yes, but also trapped them in their tunnel-visioned, single-function worlds. On the iPhone, you can’t search for a restaurant. (Unless you want to use a web browser, you frickin’ Luddite.) You must think about which app you have for that–Yelp–and then use that. You’re doing the work, not the phone.
Folks, that’s not a strength, it’s a limitation, especially if what you care about is users (i.e. “us”). And while there is no “Restaurant” hub coming on Windows Phone, anyone could make one, and instead of being specific to just one service, it could aggregate content from many services. So you wouldn’t think, OK, which app helps me find restaurants? (And can’t I search for such an app? How do I know to use Yelp? What if something better comes along??)
(And yes, any developer could make a restaurant search iPhone. Which would still be an app. The beauty of hubs is how they appear in the user experience and expose information without requiring you to dive in.)
On Windows Phone, as it turns out, you’ll just search for a good restaurant. Using Bing. Which is an app, sort of, but a special app (integrated experience?) that’s tied to a hardware button and deeply integrated into the system. (And ruining Jobs’ argument about people not searching on phones.) But, again, on Windows Phone, restaurant search could be a hub. If you wanted such a thing.
When Apple was starting from scratch and doing its own take on new-to-them markets like MP3 players (iPod) and the smart phone (iPhone), it could be revolutionary. It had to be revolutionary. But now it is Microsoft being revolutionary, and for the same reason: They’re starting over. Sometimes, just dumping the past can lead to big, important steps. But when you’re just protecting a business … you get what Apple is doing right now.
These circumstances don’t diminish Apple’s accomplishments. In fact, they were inevitable. Apple got to where they are now for a reason. But if you’re wondering why I’m so excited by Windows Phone … This is part of it. Big bets–especially ones that benefit users–are exciting. Small bets that benefit a gigantic corporation and protect a dominant product? Not so interesting.
Side conversation: There’s a side-effect to starting over like this, and you can see this in many products, including the iPod, the iPhone, and even the Zune PC software: The first versions of these things are very simple (good) but are missing functionality (bad). Over time, the company making the product in question improves it by listening to feedback and adding features. And over time, the product gets more and more convoluted and complex as a result. Watching this past week’s iPhone announcement, I was thinking about how nice and even semi-obvious it was to tap the home button twice to bring up a list of the running apps. But come on: That’s only because I’ve gone through three generations of updates and understand how the iPhone works now. To a new user, that isn’t obvious at all. In fact, they’d only see that task switching screen by mistake at first. Eventually, products get so complex you have to work at overtly simplifying them (Windows 7) or exposing old features in new ways so that users will think they’re new (Office 2007/2010). And then eventually, you have to just start over. It’s like fresh skin beneath a scab. Scary but wonderful.
Side conversation #2: The Metro UI in Windows Phone is, I think, wonderfully applicable to a wide range of devices, from PCs to tablets to TV sets. Unlike, say, the iPhone OS, which was clearly designed for a tiny screen only. Just a thought.
Interesting points. I had written off Windows Phone 7 as a bad move into the iPhone’s “strong vertical control” business model, but hadn’t thought about the social hub stuff. Consumers definitely value UIs that integrate their various Internet services, which is why they like things like HTC Sense so much.
I don’t think the hub will be enough to differentiate Windows Phone 7 and keep it alive, though. There is a lot of growth happening in phones that specialize in one specific feature now, but it’s a race to satisfy small niches. To me this says that Microsoft is ceding the enterprise market and trying to go it as a small player instead of trying to go head to head with iPhone OS and Android.
I agree that’s not enough. But of course, there’s more. In some ways, the three part Windows Phone: Key Themes series I’m writing on the SuperSite is an attempt to explain how Microsoft intends to differentiate Windows Phone from other smart phone platforms.
I don’t think MS will give up on business and enterprise support/market with WP7 though. The initial 7.0 release later this year could very well be lacking some things (I don’t think it’ll be much), but I expect quick and freaquent updates throughout 2011.
MS has to otherwise Android and iPhone will just keep adding new stuff as well. Seeing as how MS is taking direct control over system updates now, and not leaving it up to OEMs and carriers is a sign that they know they have to move way quicker and will do so from now on.
I don’t think I could agree with you more. Apple’s iPhone is more like an entertainment device than a phone (which makes me sad, because soon I’ll have to be going “Nintendo or Apple, hmm…) where as Windows Phone 7 really seems to beef the phone back up to what we expected cell phones to be as time progressed – digital assistants. You want your phone to have your calendar and information so you know who to call, and when. You further extend this with the internet capabilities of search and etc. Apps and Fun come second on a phone, they’ve always been included on the side (Java Games and Apps on older phones, for example).
The app model for cellular devices is very counter-intuitive for what we need and use phones for.
So, in that sense, I personally think that the hub system and Windows Phone 7 in general is definitely the advancement of phones itself…
I think I kind of lost my point while writing this.. I’m sure you understand, though.
“Apps and Fun come second on a phone” That depends who you talk to. I totally disagree.
The fact that smartphones are selling to non-business types now is all about the “Apps and Fun”. Windows Mobile and RIM did all you could do with smartphones when it came to “digital assistants”.
Step outside the corporate world and smartphone users see their smartphone as a phone and all of those apps they live it. Just go to a movie theater and watch people before the movie as then text, surf, play a game….everything but talk on their phone.
Paul is correct the Hub thing is better. Apple is only going to release minor updates that will probably copy what others do in some cases to keep their lead. Their echo system and apps store is king and if WP7 or Android want to catch the iPhone they will need to replicate that, not just pile on features on a phone that can be added to the iPhone.
Doesn’t this app vs search centric debate ultimately come down to the quality of the experience after selecting a search result?
In the browser dominated desktop world, searching works great because the experience of jumping from search result to content within the browser is fast and the content is easy to consume. In contrast searching on a mobile device is annoying because half the time the “best” result is a non-mobile device friendly web page (or worse, Flash).
It would seem like the best approach is a hybrid of the two. It would be ideal if I could perform my Bing/Google search, but then have the results link to the applications/hubs on my device instead of the web page. The equivalent on the desktop would be MIME handlers, but instead of associating an application with a file type, we (or the app vendor) could associate URLs in a search result with applications or hubs.
I’m not a fan of the app model, but I prefer it over the frustration I often feel when trying to view the results from a search on a mobile device.
I completely agree with everything you said, Paul. Microsoft was well-aware their mobile OS platform was badly lacking against the competition, so they had top people like Joe Belfiore and Albert Shum come in and change everything.
I still can’t believe it when people say WP7 will never “catch up”. Its as if they think the smartphones wars will be over next year, the dust will settle and there will be a clear winner. Microsoft is not a company like Palm who is in a financial disaster right now. Microsoft has all the money and patience in the world. People who say stuff like this are not thinking realistically at all.
On a side note, Paul, I was wondering if you are using the WP7 emulator that was leaked and has the actual build with all the features. Gizmodo has an article on how to install and use it right now.
I don’t agree with all that “WP7 is doomed” talk either. I don’t even buy any of that “it’s not for the enterprise” talk as well. I really really doubt MS will just drop business and enterprise features in WP7. Maybe this first release later this year might not have much but I expect very quick updates to come throughout 2011.
Even the version we’ll get first, I expect, won’t be lacking much when it comes to business and enterprise support (look at sharepoint support in the Office hub).
I expect some good surprises are still left and we’ve only been shown the basic WP7 OS so far.
I’ve installed the hacked build, based upon the Gizmodo article, and it’s nice to see some of the features this has. However, I can’t seem to get my debugger to run against it any longer. I’ll have to investigate further.
Paul,
Do you know if the ‘Bing Button’ on Windows Phone 7 is going to be hard-coded to Bing, or are they going to allow Search Providers? (ala Internet Explorer)
Keep up the good work – really enjoying the format of this new blog/website.
Cheers,
Guy
Thanks … It will be hard coded for Bing.
I’ve seen several articles mention what WP7 would be like on a tablet. This excites me and I’d love for that to happen, but doesn’t it seem that it would next to impossible to make a tablet that fit the bill for WP7? MS has some pretty tight restrictions on it right now. If you have some knowledge of if this will be possible or not I’d love to hear it.
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Paul, I completely agree with your assessment of the difference in philosphy between WP7 and the IPhone. I spent yesterday watching all the WP7 and Silverlight videos from Mix10 and I have come to similar conclusions.
I think Microsoft has come up with something that is very compelling. I haven’t seen so much excitement by Windows developers about a Microsoft platform since the release of the .net framework.
And for those who suggest Microsoft is leaving the enterprise behind with WP7, they need only to watch the Joe Beliore presentation from Mix10 to see how wrong that statement is. Not only do they have Office and Sharepoint integration. I can see companies creating their own hubs to provide all kinds of information and functionality to their employees.
By the way, Paul I found your conversation with Leo on Windows Weekly interest. I love Leo (as a fan), but I think his insistence that the IPad is a game changer, is an example of how the so called tech press has lost all perspective on Apple. Your opinion that the IPad is a modern incarnation of a device which has existed for years is the reasonable one. I think the IPad is a good device but it’s not the holy grail that fanboys make it out to be. I think of it as being more evolutionary than revolutionary.
I agree, Tablets/slates or w/e name you want to use, even the iPad are just a knew spin on something else.
What I mean is this, the iPad is a bigger iPhone, I think everyone can agree on this. HPs Slate is a tablet, smaller version of a notebook (more or less, it’s hardware is like a netbooks without the keyboard).
So, and this has really always been the case, tablets are either a bigger version of a smartphone, or a smaller version of a notebook/netbook without the KB. Not revolutionary, just another evolution/respin of something else.
Exactly right.
I listened to WW as well and the exchange is good. Leo and Paul disagree about the definition of the term. I agree in part with both of them.
To say the iPhone is not now a game change is foolish. Android, Palm and MS are all trying to achieve its status and ditching what they had in the past to do so. Game changer…they are changing to reflect the consumer demand….Game changer. However we did not know this when the iPhone first shipped.
Give it three years and if lots of consumers are still buying iPad’s, and that is possibly, in place of netbooks, kindles and maybe laptops, and all of the competitors are trying to mimic the iPad, then it will be a game changer.
The “change” will be apparent. That does not matter if a tablet was here before from someone else or if its just a bigger iPhone Touch, what matters is that the change has occurred and because of a particular device.
That’s what I thought about WP7 first, and was greatly excited about it until MIX.
The sad reality is that most of the things you’re talking about just won’t work, so severely sandboxed applications are and so lacking APIs are. No, you cannot make a Restaurant hub. I.e. you can, but it won’t aggregate information from several apps, it will be just an interface for Yelp (or whatever comes for WP7, but it will still be a separate app, just like on the iPhone). And no, it’s not “Facebook, Myspace and whatever”. It’s just what’s built in. There’s no access to contacts for third parties either.
So while I love the concept, the implementation is just not there yet. And it’s very far from being there.
This is untrue.
You can create hubs that aggregate content from multiple sources. And third parties can be added to existing hubs. They can do this themselves, or others can do it.
That’s what they said initially, parts of this functionality is there, but there are no APIs to do that for the People hub. And no, you can’t make a hub that will pull content from multiple applications unless you do it via a specially crafted web service (which has to be supported by all those applications). There is no way in WP7 for applications to communicate between each other currently, and according to what was said at MIX, there are no plans to add this for the release.
Here Charlie Kindel says “extending” hubs will not be possible
The most basic way that online services are added to the People hub is via the Windows Live What’s New feed. So it’s not just limited to whatever is built in (Facebook, Windows Live), it’s extensible.
I will ask for clarification on this, however. My understanding is that what Charlie is saying there is incorrect.
Looking at it again, what’s he’s saying is that it’s coming (like real multitasking). This is apparently a case of ship quick and fix later (i.e. what Apple does). Arguably, they are under a lot of pressure to deliver the new OS quickly. I’d just point out that extending hubs has been discussed numerous times as a key feature of this functionality. He’s saying that 1.0 won’t be “feature complete.” That’s more honest than what Apple does. But I still don’t like it.
Anyway, will ask for clarification.
It terms of multitasking, I don’t think it’s a technical issue – the core already supports it – I would think it’s more along the lines of “how do we integrate this, so it makes sense to the user”.
That’s what I think is the case, same with C&P. You can just tack those on and call it a day but how would multitask (true multitasking) work/flow in the metro UI?
I suppose if you hold the back button maybe you could get a list of tiles for apps that are running? Or hold the start button, either works imo.
I think MS is looking at different ways of getting it done but isn’t ready to show it off or talk about it. They’re more hush hush about things these days.
The problem is more complex than just the UI. If you want to extend the People hub, you need to give programs access to the PIM data (they need to read the contact database, write changes etc.). Obviously, SL as a web technology doesn’t have anything of the sort built in. The severe sandboxing and lack of methods to interact with native code is another example of SL’s web heritage. Gone with the legacy windowing system are all methods for applications to interact with each other (which again isn’t needed in most cases for web). Therefore you simply can’t make a hub that will aggregate data from different applications, and thus you have to do everything via the cloud (which is fine to a certain extent, but there’s stuff like international roaming charges that makes it much less attractive). Another web-ish thing – it doesn’t make any sense to run a service on a server that will activate or somehow modify a UI application. Therefore the whole SNAPI (System Notifications API) is gone, and we can’t even make an alternative alarm clock on WP7. Or take C&P – on the web the clipboard is taken care of by the client, so there’s no C&P support in Silverlight. And so on. Apparently, SL 4.0 is focusing on out-of-browser experience now, but it’s only starting to do so, and it’ll take a while for new features to be ported.
I find this all somewhat disturbing. I still see a lot of promise in WP7 but I also see the long way it will have to go to become a mature and fully functional OS. And, what’s worse, many of the hurdles are not technical but political (i.e. different departments at MS will have to work towards the same goal to make it work).
What’s New may work, but not, say, pulling information from LinkedIn and updating your contact (or adding one) accordingly.
Yep. But again, that’s what I’ve been told, and is apparently still the plan. But I want clarification on this backpedaling so we can see what will be there at launch and what’s coming later. Thanks!
I think that’s still the plan, just not right off the bat. I think the hubs and the tiles as well are very workable at some point. I mean it only makes sense, why talk up hubs and make them the core of the UI and experience and then just make them this locked down thing that 3rd parties can’t work with?
So I think you’re pretty right Paul, it’s just that MS is probably fighting with how much they can get in before they have to sign off on this first release later this year.
I don’t doubt things will be added, the question is when. I suspect that most limitations are there simply due to the fact that they are the limitations of Silverlight. This is a cross-platform technology primarily aimed at web, so there’s obviously nothing there to support multitasking or native code or interaction between applications or what not – I don’t think that the current SL version even has clipboard support. Microsoft chose between what was available, and the choices were GDI and SL. The latter won because the former wasn’t built for compelling user interfaces; yet together with attractiveness we got a very limited version of an already limited .Net CF. So yes, it’s of course possible to make APIs richer, what worries me is that SL development isn’t controlled by the mobile team. They could make their own APIs for SL, but then you’d have the issue of compatibility with future non-mobile versions on desktop, web or wherever SL is used.
The SL team and the mobile/WP7 team are working together. It’s been said that WP7 uses silverlight, as is, not silverlight lite or silverlight mobile. Any changes made to the desktop silverlight version will also find it’s way into Windows Phone.
The thing is, at the moment, that most of WP7 uses Silverlight 3 with some stuff from Silverlight 4 backported. You’re right in thinking that SL3 doesn’t have clipboard support, BUT SL4 does. So this just shows that C&P is coming, it also helps that SL4 is going final soon as well. Then they can go in and update/add things to WP7 as well.
There’s no need to make their own phone specific APIs or w/e, all MS has to do, and what it will probably do, is keep adding things to SL, like with v4 that adds in direct access to webcams, mics, printers etc. If SL can access hardware directly why would a dev have the need for any native code to do the same task? Sure right now things are limited (in the race to get a new OS out that’s been in dev for around 18 months, things aren’t all going to make it in), but they’re coming.
Look at the competition, Android didn’t get worth it till around 1.6, many would say v2.0 and up is the only version worth going with. Likewise with the iPhone, it only took off in the market with v3.0 as far as I remember.
MS knows they have to move quick, and being based on SL they will, SL is one of the projects at MS that has been moving very quick, so it’s a smart move, not only for good UIs, but for overall development. MS is forced to move quick by Apple and Android, so they’ll be silly not to. I expect, if the first phones come out in Sept, that we could get updates as quick as Dec or Jan.
If devs can’t initially make their own hubs or tie into one yet they will be able to at a later point with a update.
Many things aren’t finished, and at MiX lots of things got a reply of “wait till June”. So if the first release of the OS later this year doesn’t have that option, it will come quick.
I expect someone like HTC is in on this ability, and think that since they can’t replace the UI with their own Sense, that we’ll just get a HTC Sense hub. And that all the stuff we get (or most of it) now through sense on WM6.5 could be in there.
Paul – First off, thanks for a great blog, with some really interesting and informed articles. Having moderated comments also makes for a much better experience than Supersite. It’s unfortunate, but the regular appearance of trolls there made me stop reading the comments a long time ago – too depressing.
Secondly, I agree that there’s a really interesting idea of a ‘slate’-like device running the Metro interface. The possibilities that such a platform might offer make it seem (potentially) much more compelling than the iPad in my opinion. This idea must have occured to the industry also – only time will tell if anything’s being planned.
I do have a question, and it’s related to the Windows Home Server platform. I have an HP WHS unit, which is brilliant for all sorts of media aggregation and streaming, and (to some extent) remote access. Are you aware of any plans for tighter integration between WHS and WP7? Could there be something planned for the next version of WHS (aka ‘Vail’)? It would be great to be able to access media stored on the WHS via a WP7.
It’s funny you should mention the WHS/WP7 connection, as I just discussed this on a WHS podcast that should go live this week. Sadly, no, I don’t know of any such connection, and while I can’t speak much about Vail right now, hopefully that will change soon.
Charlie Kindel, who is in charge of the development platform of Windows Phone, used to work in the Windows Home Sever team berfore moving to Windows Phone. So maybe we’ll see some kind of integration there because of that.
Oh, and moderation is coming to the SuperSite Blog as soon as today if I can figure it out that quickly. That stupidity is over.
I was under the impression that the HUBs could be extended. If it isn’t coming out until a future release then I’ll hold off on buying a WP7 device. One of the things I’m afraid of with WP7 is that it will follow the Android path were the first few devices can’t support future updates. I want the first device, but I don’t want to be stuck with WP7 v1.0.
You won’t be. One of the other ideals here is that all WP 7 devices will be updateable.
Really an excellent article Paul!!!
You are right on all here!!
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