The Rant - About Windows Phone 7

This is the post that I have been meaning to write for a very long time now but I couldn't write because I was just so busy this past month. I dedicate this post to the most dedicated haters of Microsoft and Windows Phone 7 who cannot see the real picture and are blowing up their money on stupid Android phones and bloated iOS devices.

I think that people are just not willing to give Microsoft its due. Most of them troll, writing off the software without using it impartially, even once. It saddens me to see that people are just not willing to accept the fact that Microsoft has written a software that is better than iOS and way better than Android so that Windows Phone does not require 300 MB of RAM to just run the OS and few other background services. Instead, it manages to run the OS and all the background services and apps in just about 11 MB. Yeah, you read that right. And most of the people who write dumb comments about Windows Phone 7 think that it is the same as Windows Mobile 6 OS which I admit, was shit. It's time when Windows is not what it used to be. Windows 7 never hangs and my Windows Phone 7 phone has never hung up on me. And as Microsoft promised, it's still running in its pristine state, nine months after I have bought it and has not slowed down even a bit. And I think that the upcoming Windows 8 is just going to fortify that.

I think that people trash Microsoft (and now Nokia because of their partnership with Microsoft) so much because being an apple fan boy is so much more cooler than supporting a Microsoft whose Windows is omnipresent and most probably, they themselves use pirated copy of Windows at their home. Apple, which is so good at luring people into buying things that they don't need, is equally good at creating a cult about their products. Their advertisements and marketing is so good that after watching their ads, one itches to call the phone and order a Mac or an iPad.


I am not saying that Apple's products are not good. They are absolutely amazing and they are best designed.  I personally love the feel of Apple's product. But what I am trying to say it that Apple has managed to create such a fan following its product that people have started to buy things just because it is "Designed by Apple in California". They just don't want to look around for better alternatives (pronounced: Windows Phone 7 and not Android) to Apple's products.

To be honest, I haven't seen another OS in which things are so efficiently integrated that they work seamlessly with the phone's software. Microsoft integrated social networking so Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn apps aren't even needed. And they have done it better than anyone. Windows Phone 7 even works perfectly with Microsoft Exchange, Lync, Microsoft Office and SharePoint. The phone connects to the SkyDrive and doesn't suck like iCloud. And they, unlike Apple offer 25 GB of storage for free. Everything just feels a part of the phone software and you don't feel the need of individual apps. Everything just fits together perfectly and works, without the need of a Pentium D equivalent processor to just run the OS smoothly. 

Talking about the apps, they can be in every way, be designed better in Windows Phone 7 than for any other OS out there. The way Microsoft envisioned Panorama and Pivot controls is just amazing. And they have made available 50,000 apps on the Windows Phone Marketplace which is a feat in itself (being a totally different niche). I know that it is just not even near the number of apps that Apple has in its AppStore but Windows Phone 7 apps have better quality, thanks to their stringent certification requirements. And I would prefer quality over quantity any day. And anyway, even if you have 500,000 apps on the marketplace, how many of them are you even going to put on your device? I'll guess your answer and I bet it isn't even close to 50,000. So why all the hoopla about the number of apps available on the Marketplace?

What’s even better is that the students can unlock their devices and make a developer account at AppHub for free. Microsoft even offers free download of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional Edition for students which otherwise costs INR 36 K. So students can start developing apps for free. How great is that?  Apple charges 99 US dollars to even get you started with the iOS SDK and you need a Mac as a prerequisite. I can only imagine how many Macs has Apple sold just because of this.

The interface of Windows Phone 7 is a breath of fresh air as it takes a totally different approach from iOS or the Android. And unlike Android, they did not rip-off the look of iPhone. And the interface of the iPhone is a tad dated in my opinion. Instead they managed to make something that was beautiful as well as useful at the same time. This is something that makes Windows Phone 7 more than just a game-playing, picture-taking, web-surfing device for teenagers.

People tell me that they can play even PSP games on their Android. But what really intrigues me about this is why in hell anyone would want to play PSP games on their phone. Aren't PSP games designed for analog controller? Touch can never replace it and in my opinion, games are all about user experience. And if you want to play PSP games then you could buy a PSP at even less than a third of the price of a respectable Android phone which can run PSP games. So why bother running PSP games on your phone?

Windows Phone's are also cheaper than their iOS and Android counterparts. An 18 K Windows Phone device can run the OS just as smooth as the 30K device without compromising, even a tad, on the overall usability of the phone. And should I even begin saying anything about what happens when you run Gingerbread on a sub 20 K device? I'll tell you what happens. A disaster.

Internet Explorer 9 is also a place where Microsoft has hit the sweet spot. With native support for HTML5 and with the same engine as that of the desktop version of the Internet Explorer 9, it is faster than the ones on the iPhone and Android. (Test it - I double dare you!).

Update is another thing where Google should take a leaf or two from Microsoft. Microsoft has managed to update every device running on version 7 to 7.5 because they had a plan, unlike Google which does not understand the concept. Windows Phone has turn-by-turn GPS, which even Symbian used to have but iPhone does not. And before Siri, one could already dictate text messages by voice and nobody called it "magical". Take out Siri, and iPhone 4S has nothing that it brings to the table that is in anyway more useful than its predecessor. Does one need a dual core processor to swipe twenty pages in an app? The answer is easy and it is NO.

I love Windows Phone with all its beautiful tiles and amazing transitions but it is not that I am closed to the idea of using an Android device in the future, provided that Android brings something on the table that would trump Windows Phone 7 and by looking at their elusive Ice Cream Sandwich update, I don't even think that even their next big update is going to do that. Windows Phone Apollo is on the road map to be released in June 2012. If Microsoft can meet their deadline, I would be the first to embrace their Super-Smart phones wholeheartedly. 

P.S. And how good is the desktop background if it’s covered with icons for apps? I know you like the picture of your mom and all, but you can't even see it. I'll take my live tiles over that junk any day of the year. Unlock. Glance for updates without opening an app. Lock it. And right back into my pocket. Simple. Efficient. Useful. Period.