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January 6th, 2011, 12:52 GMT · By

Ballmer: Windows Phone 7 Is the Best New Phone Out There

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Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer is certainly proud of what the company has accomplished with its latest Windows mobile platform, dubbed Windows Phone 7.

In his opening keynote address at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 5th, 2011, Ballmer noted that none of the phones available on the market lives up to Windows Phone 7.

“Windows Phone 7 is the best new phone out there,” Ballmer revealed. “As people try it, and discover its new features and beautiful hardware, they see the difference. They see how it makes everything from gaming to social networking to productivity better than on any other phone.”

While I’m sure that there will be those who will challenge the perspective of Microsoft’s CEO, I also encourage users to try out Windows Phone 7 devices when they’ll get the chance.

WP7 smartphones are bound to be surprising, and it’s almost a sure thing that more and more devices will be available for testing. According to Microsoft, no less than 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 units were shipped in just the first six weeks after the platform was launched.

“The reality is, this launch was the first of many steps,” said Aaron Woodman, director of the Mobile Communications Business at Microsoft.

Woodman added that WP7 devices have been receiving rave reviews from the people that actually tried them. “Product satisfaction is the most important figure to us, and we have the highest product satisfaction number we’ve ever had,” he said.

The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace is also growing in terms of the application ecosystem that’s available for the platform, with the software giant now touting in excess of 5,500 apps.

It’s almost a sure bet that this number will increase drastically in the immediate future, with over 20,000 mobile developers now signed up catalyzing an app growth rate of 100 per day.

Microsoft is also hard at work on improving the Windows Phone 7 operating system. The promise is that a series of updates will be delivered over the course of the next few months introducing new functionality such as copy & paste as well as boosting performance.

“When I get a chance to show people a Windows Phone, the feedback that I hear is very, very gratifying,” Ballmer said. “People tell me how snappy it is, how easy to use, how personal it really feels, and perhaps as importantly, all-in, simply how beautiful it really looks.”

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READER COMMENTS:


Comment #1 by: me on 06 Jan 2011, 15:27 UTC reply to this comment

Beauty is subjective ...
Feature limitation is a fact ...

When you look at the feature list of Android, Symbian and iOs ... you can hardly call WP7 a "smartphone"


Comment #2 by: tigger on 06 Jan 2011, 17:01 UTC reply to this comment

Care to backup your thoughts on that 'me'?

Comment #2.1 by: me on 06 Jan 2011, 22:47 GMT

Let's see:

- no multitasking
- no video-calls support
- no copy/paste
- no file manager
- no Bluetooth file transfers
- no storage mode (you can only copy files through Zune, and even then ... you can only copy supported images, video, docs, music formats)
- no Flash support
- no tethering (only Android supports this, not a big thing anyway in my opinion)

There are also a few i'm not sure about:
- no DivX/XviD video support
- swapping memory cards requires hard reset

Aside from this, the glorified user interface is not very usable (consider 15 tiles on the single homescreen).

Saying it can hardly be called a smartphone is a bit exaggerated, i admit, but it's limitations are real and serious, and it's VERY exaggerated to call it "the best new phone out there" as Ballmer wants you to believe. It's basically a 2007 iPhone 2G.

Best regads

Comment #2.2 by: User on 12 Jan 2011, 16:32 GMT

to elaborate one of your comments, tethering is supported on the iPhone and Blackberries.

On a side note, I take comments from Steve Ballmer with a grain of salt. Frankly, he needs to take his head out of his * while he leads Microsoft and become more inovative and not reactive when it comes to their non-software related products.

Just to prove my point (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U). The comment made 21 seconds into it is priceless. Everytime I hear talk about Windows 7 Phone, I think of that comment. BTW, that comment was made over 3 years ago, which shows how slow Microsoft is in combating the smart phone market.

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