14 DAY TRIAL // 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.”