Windows Phone Mango ‘secret’ features demo [video]
Microsoft's next-generation Windows Phone operating system is slick, full of features and addresses the needs of consumers and businesses every step of the way.
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft has been drip-feeding Windows Phone 'Mango' details since spring: an April briefing laid out the next OS's direction, followed by an official first look in late May. Today's WinRumors video — picked up the same day by This is my next — goes further, showing off features Microsoft had kept back, aimed squarely at both consumers and businesses.
The demo lands at a crowded moment for Microsoft's mobile story: Mango devices topped an Android phone and the iPhone 4 in mobile HTML5 performance during April testing, a rebuilt HTML5 SkyDrive went live this week with cross-device content access starting on Windows Phone, and Microsoft is still mid-way through acquiring Skype. The pitch is increasingly about services stitched into the OS, not just the interface.
First-order effects
- Developers and OEM partners get their most complete look yet at what ships in Mango, giving them a concrete target for app and device planning ahead of the release.
Second-order effects
- With Mango positioned as a consumer-plus-business platform backed by SkyDrive sync and a pending Skype acquisition, Apple and Google face pressure to answer with tighter service integration of their own rather than spec-sheet upgrades alone.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, mobile operating systems consolidate around owned service bundles — cloud storage, communications, productivity — where Microsoft's SkyDrive-and-Skype portfolio becomes the differentiator its third-ecosystem bid leans on.
The trend: Smartphone platforms are shifting from competing on hardware specs and UI polish to competing on integrated cloud services baked into the OS itself.