Windows Mobile becomes Windows Phone
What's in a name after all? — AT AN EVENT to show off upcoming Christmas goodies, Microsoft let slip to the INQ that Windows Mobile 6.5 is to be re-christened Windows Phone. — This, says Vole, is an effort to unboggle the minds of the consumer with all the …
Context & Ripple Effects
The rename lands after a rough build-up for Windows Mobile 6.5, which Steve Ballmer only confirmed existed last November, and after Engadget's February editorial ran through ten reasons the release misses the mark. Microsoft's answer to that criticism is partly cosmetic: drop the 'Mobile' name and sell the same software as 'Windows Phone.'
The move also squares the consumer brand with the story Microsoft has been telling developers since its next-generation Windows Phones developer strategy event in March. With the holiday lineup being previewed now, the company is betting that a single product-style name will do for phones what version numbers have not: make the platform legible to shoppers.
First-order effects
- Devices shipping with Windows Mobile 6.5 this Christmas will carry 'Windows Phone' branding, so carriers and retailers market one consumer-facing name while the underlying OS and its versioning stay unchanged.
- OEMs building 6.5 handsets get a refreshed label for hardware that reviewers had already flagged as underwhelming, buying shelf appeal without changing the software critics panned.
Second-order effects
- Developers now have one brand spanning both today's 6.5 devices and the next-generation platform Microsoft pitched in March, which lowers the cost of committing to the ecosystem ahead of the successor launch.
- Rivals selling on consumer simplicity — Apple, RIM, and the newly launched webOS phones — face a Microsoft brand stripped of the version-number clutter that made Windows Mobile hard to compare at retail.
Third-order effects
- If the rename signals the pattern, phone operating systems stop being sold as versioned platforms and start being sold as branded products, with each major revision marketed as a new device family rather than an upgrade.
- A consumer-first name creates room for Microsoft to run a harder reset underneath it later — the branding can survive even if the legacy codebase does not, which matters for how the next-generation platform is introduced.
The trend: Smartphone platforms are shifting from version-numbered OS brands to consumer product names, as Microsoft trades 'Windows Mobile' for 'Windows Phone' heading into the 2009 holiday season.