Windows Mobile (or Windows Phone as its known now) isn’t all it seems. There was a two pronged direction which the public saw. Originally, a design just a little bit more smarter and stylish then 6.5, and then what we have now- in many ways a new way to use your phone.
The leaked version which came out years before what became Windows Phone, was a simple elegant new system for Smart Phones. Not the touch phones. It seems support for that form factor was still something they wanted to support, and the OS looked dam nice on it from what was leaked.
This article isn’t here to debate if the images where real to begin with, its to raise the question, what if this direction was taken, instead of one which lead to what we now know as Windows Phone 7.
The classic dial pad, and screen phone style is dying out in favor of a full touch screen smart phone. In one hand this is great, an no doubt Windows Mobile 7 would of had a Touch and Standard edition. But the Standard edition is a interesting thing, as we skipped a few years to 2011, devices are now in touch and tablet, no standard style phones exist in the smart world anymore.
I had a BenQ E72. It came with Windows Mobile 6.1 standard. So I know how the style is a bit out dated, and unwarranted for a smart phone style. However for the most part it worked, and its style also produced much cheaper phones then the touch screen ones at the time (however with Android, extremely cheap versions with that OS exist with the touch screen style). But that doesn’t mean the Standard Edition world should of been kicked out prematurely. It was really only Mircosoft who still had the Standard Edition Smart Phones. iPhone is only Touch, So is Android, so is Web OS. The list goes on- Standard Edition was dead, but would if of been wise to continue it?
The direction which Windows Mobile was headed before it became Windows Phone, was more of the same. It would of been 6.5.3 on steroids. But from a marketing perspective, Windows Mobile had quite a lot of bad stigma. Which technically Windows Phone still uses the same “icon” style list which we have all grown and “loved”, the way it is organized pushes it out of the corners its predecessor was headed into.
Troll don’t want to admit it, but if Windows Mobile continued on its same path, it would of been the same as everyone else. It would have the same style as Android or iOS. The brittle “desktop” widget style home menu, with the icon popup list of applications the device had. By changing the formula, the Microsoft changed the game, and while the OS hasn’t picked up much ground yet, it should have a strong future if the company sticks with it.