Windows Phone

Creator – Microsoft
Initial Release – 2000 (as Windows Mobile), 2010 (as Windows Phone)
Current Version – 7.10 (“Mango”)
Australian Market Share – Estimated to be running on 5% of smartphones, thanks to a dramatic decline in popularity under the Windows Mobile moniker. Windows Phone has not been widely launched in Australia as of the beginning of 2012, but a worldwide launch throughout the year is starting to ramp up. At one time, Windows Mobile ran on over 60% of all smartphones.
Available Apps – 50,000+
License – Microsoft Proprietary
Tablets – No
Flagship Model – Nokia Lumia 800 (Coming 2012), Sony XPERIA X1 - Running Windows Mobile 6.3

Pro

Windows Phone’s main advantage right now is potential. The platform is not widely available, only appearing on 10 handsets around the world (and none of them available through carriers in the Australian market). The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, admiring the panel-based interface and the general smoothness. Large fonts have also helped erase the memory of its predecessors. The Windows Phone team have inherited a lot of tech and personnel from the team that designed Microsoft’s industry-leading X-Box video game system, and it shows.

Instead of a 4 x 4 grid of spaced out icons, the Windows Phone interface uses grids made up of interlocking panels, each one marked with the name of the app and a basic drawing to represent its function. This pleasant design makes even iOS look ungraceful by comparison, and goes in the complete opposite direction of Android’s noisy, tech-heavy look.

Cons

Windows Mobile was bad even when there was nothing much to compare it to. It will take a lot of time and patience to erase the public’s distaste for Microsoft’s take on the mobile phone, and time and patience do not factor into the mobile marketplace. Even now, there is no definitive date for a rollout of the platform around the world, with a vague ‘2012’ usually given as the answer. By the time ‘2012’ rolls around, expect Apple to be introducing an iPhone 5, and for Samsung and HTC to be releasing a torrent of high-powered, do-it-all superphones. Windows Phone might be too little, too late.

Overall

Windows Phone is included as the third most relevant platform despite it being well behind Symbian (now defunct) and BlackBerry OS in worldwide market share. This is due to its potential to be a proper gamechanger. BlackBerry targets a niche audience, the business user in need of tight security, and even there it’s losing market share. Microsoft remains the dominant player in PC software, with an eroding market share that still sees it operating on 90% of computers, and almost 100% of computers used in business and government. The giant from Redmond has deep pockets and is not going away any time soon. Time will tell if Windows Phone will be a relevant player, or if Microsoft will return to its roots, as a premium writer of software for Apple. Nokia, joined hip-to-hip in this venture, will be banking on Windows Phone to remind people that once upon a time, buying a mobile meant buying a Nokia.