Microsoft gives details on next Windows Phone OS
LAS VEGAS—Microsoft offered today its most detailed look yet into the next version of Windows Phone, code-named Mango, at the company's annual show for Web and phone developers. — Oh, and Microsoft said the popular game Angry Birds will be available on the phone May 25.
Context & Ripple Effects
Windows Phone is Microsoft's second attempt in three years to relaunch its mobile platform: the developer strategy laid out in 2009 was followed by the new Windows Mobile confirmed at MWC in early 2010, and today's Mango preview at the company's Las Vegas developer show is the first detailed look at where that rebuild goes next. The syndicated pickup shows how the story landed — one outlet framed it as a "mea culpa" for slow updates with Mango promised this fall, another ran Microsoft's own benchmarks claiming its browser beats the iPhone 4 and Android.
The same stage carried a mixed message for developers. Microsoft confirmed Angry Birds arrives on Windows Phone May 25 — a marquee app the platform had lacked — while commentary at Mix criticized the company for sidelining Silverlight from both keynotes and leaving its commitment to HTML5 ambiguous. Separately, Microsoft launched Streetside, its StreetView rival built with mapping partner Navteq, photographing London.
First-order effects
- Windows Phone developers leave Mix '11 with a concrete fall roadmap for Mango, after Microsoft publicly conceded the pace of updates has been too slow.
- Rovio's May 25 Angry Birds release closes one of the most-cited app gaps on Windows Phone just as Microsoft is courting developers onto the platform.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft's claim that its Mango browser outperforms the iPhone 4 and Android puts Apple and Google on the defensive over browsing performance, a metric phone buyers increasingly compare.
- Streetside's European launch with Navteq forces a direct mapping-data contest with Google's Street View, raising the cost of geographic coverage as a platform differentiator.
Third-order effects
- If the fall delivery holds, Windows Phone moves toward a regular annual OS cadence — the structure iOS and Android already run — making update velocity, not launch-day features, the measure of platform credibility.
- The Silverlight-versus-HTML5 ambiguity at Mix signals a broader reckoning for proprietary runtime platforms as web standards mature; which way Microsoft resolves it will shape what developers bet on for the phone.
The trend: Smartphone platforms are competing less on hardware launches than on update cadence, app-catalog completeness, and mapping data — and Microsoft is repositioning Windows Phone on all three fronts.