Monday, November 8th, 2010 came and went, the release of Windows Phone 7 has occurred. I’m sure many of you piled into a car at lunch time with your work buddies, drove down to the phone store, fought for a parking space, pushed through the throngs of people pounding at the doors trying to get a mere glimpse of the glory that is Windows Phone 7, let alone purchase one… Right, the events didn’t quite unfold that way for me either on the big release date of WP7.
The first part of that recount is true however, we did pile into a car at lunch time and drive down to the local phone store, but instead of thongs of people, we were greeted with two cardboard signs for iPhone 4 and the iPad. After milling about for almost five minutes we finally asked someone if they had a display for WP7, which we were directed to and left without much ado. I had the odd feeling we were the only four people in Naples which had any insight to this historic day when Microsoft finally does mobile right. The Samsung Focus didn’t disappoint with its’ sleek display, lightweight frame, and zippy feel, but the fanfare was lacking even from the experts at the store. There were no other phones on display to try out unfortunately.
I checked with a store rep to ask if they had any in stock and he announced they had sold out. Somewhat good news I thought to myself, but then learned that they had only received a single phone which was sold earlier that morning. I don’t know if that quite counts as “selling out” their initial launch, at least in my neck of the woods. Regardless of the lackluster personal experience during the WP7 launch, I do predict the following: Microsoft WP7 will share a similar release as Xbox originally did when Playstation 2 was deeply entrenched in the market. I believe WP7 will slowly gain adoption in the mainstream and eventually overtake Apple (and other phone OS’s) by enabling developers and phone manufacturers to create purposeful, consistent, quality products – both apps and physical devices.
Hopefully, I’ll have a phone in my hands to help spread the word soon!
P.S. – Blog postings on the two apps I have created coming as soon as I’ve tested on a real phone and deployed to the marketplace, stay tuned!
Nicholas Barger's Blog 