Today Microsoft officially announced the next iteration of Windows Phone 7 dubbed "Mango"; the actual delivery will come in the fall of this year and it will be a free upgrade. Microsoft has announced that they will add over 500 new features, and a handful of these do target enterprise applications. The one I was most interested in was a client for Lync, but if you were looking for a tight coupling between Windows Phone and Microsoft's UC capability, you'll have to wait a little longer.
In the analysts' briefing, Tim McDowd, Senior Manager in the Windows Phone group, set the tone early on when he said, "The consumer is at the center of our focus". Of course, with the growing number of dual-use phones, it's getting harder to distinguish between what’s "consumer" and what’s "enterprise".
Certainly Mango will add a number of key features to enhance the consumer experience. Microsoft has gone in a different direction from Apple and the others who take the app-centric approach. Visually, Windows Phone 7 is organized around a series of hubs, which are displayed as "tiles". They have purposely shunned the "pages of apps" view pioneered by Apple and emulated by the other mobile operating systems.
Mango builds on that idea with functions that link elements together. Contacts can be organized into "Groups" (e.g. family, friends, work, clubs, etc.) and you will be able to send group emails or texts. Also, you will be able to see all of your communications with a particular contact including chats, calls, emails and even their Facebook postings, without jumping from app to app. They have also added a function called "App Connect" that will support functions like snapping a picture of a book cover and linking directly to a place you can buy it. It was challenging to determine how useful and functional these features will be, when Microsoft is giving a description that’s supported by static PowerPoints.
Among the 500 new features, the one I was focused on was the planned Lync client. What is most tantalizing with Windows Phone is the potential to tightly couple it with a Lync environment. User acceptance of mobile UC clients like Cisco Jabber or Avaya’s oneX has been dampened by the fact that they appear as separate clients on the device. Placing calls or accessing other features means you’re loading the app and then using a different (read "foreign") mechanism to operate your phone.
Most UC vendors are stuck with this arrangement, as the handset manufacturers do not open all of the devices' APIs The result is that smooth integration with native features (e.g. send/end keys, address book, etc.) is virtually impossible, so they build what workarounds they can. The end product is a disconnected (pardon the pun) experience, and since the users don't find the extra features worth the bother, they don't use them.
A number of us had been hoping that since Microsoft had full access to the innards of the operating system, they could actually build a mobile UC capability that was truly "integrated" with the phone--so we could do things like open the address book and see the presence status of all of our Lync-supported contacts.
Apparently, that's not going to happen. Like the Cisco, Avaya, and other mobile UC implementations, the Lync application will appear as a separate entity in the phone. Unless something happens between now and when it's delivered, the Lync client on Windows Phone Mango will be no more integrated than it would be on an iPhone, an Android, or anyone else's device.
Windows Phone 7 has had decent reviews (including mine), but it's starting way late in the game and in a field that’s already crowded with options. Those other options have also developed followings, but the mobile device market is characterized by a fickle consumer. You only have to look at the phenomenal uptake we have seen with Android over the past year to see how quickly the tide can turn. However you slice it, Windows Phone will be fighting an uphill battle to gain market share.
The core focus of the mobility market remains the consumer, and consumers don’t have PBXs, UC, or click-to-conference requirements. What collaboration and social networking capabilities they need are anchored in the mobile device or in options like Facebook and Skype.
Bridging the gap between developments on the mobile front and what we see in enterprise UC is an elusive goal. With a play in both UC and the mobile O/S, Microsoft is the one UC vendor with the potential to provide a solution that linked those two realms in a way that could deliver a truly integrated user experience. Well, maybe someday.
