Windows Phone 7 Series in the Enterprise: not all good news

Microsoft has been quite explicit on the matter: Windows Phone 7 Series is being designed first and foremost for the consumer market. The result is the emphasis on a strong, consistent, effective user interface, possibly at the expense of functionality; Microsoft wants to have this thing out in time for the "holiday season" this year, so there's a limited window for further development, at least for the initial release.

That said, the phone does have features aimed at the enterprise market. Obviously, there's Exchange support, with ActiveSync, providing push mail, address book sync, and all those features that we know and love. In common with Outlook 2010, Windows Phone 7 Series also seems to support multiple Exchange servers concurrently. I say "seems" because it didn't quite work when we tried, but that seemed to be due to a bad password rather than any fundamental flaw—the phone was happy to accept the configuration and created two distinct Outlook Tiles on the Start page, so it looked like it was doing the right thing.

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Microsoft patents automatic device pairing system

A recent patent application (via WMPowerUser.com) describes a system devised by Microsoft to enable automatic pairing of devices over short-range wireless connections such as Bluetooth and Wireless USB. After an initial manual pairing, say between a phone and a PC, the system would allow those devices to automatically pair with other related devices, such as a second PC.

The pairing mechanism would act as an alternative to the preexisting pairing mechanisms already built in to these protocols, and would require device support for both sides of the operation. Public key cryptography is used to securely share pairing information among different devices; that information might be transmitted via USB key, network connection or any other convenient method. The described system respects user identities, so merely pairing with a computer would not mean that anyone logged into the machine would be able to use an automatically paired device.

Scenarios in which suitably enabled devices would be useful are not too hard to envision. Having phones automatically paired to all the PCs you own is perhaps the most obvious example of when this would be useful, but more broadly, any peripheral could be used: headsets that you pair with your PC but also work automatically with your phone, mice that work with every PC you own, and so on.

Of course, filing a patent does not mean that this will ever materialize in any shipping product, and there's no indication thus far that this will form a part of Windows Phone 7 Series. That said, phones and PCs are probably the best-suited devices to this kind of technology as, being software-driven, they're the easiest to update to include this kind of extension. Seamless wireless syncing (Zune already performs syncing over WiFi, unlike the iPhone), including seamless wireless pairing, would certainly be another way in which Microsoft could distinguish its phone platform from the iPhone, and would enable the company to promote the more connected, less wired merits of Windows Phone.

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Leaked: WinPhone 7 Series dev to use almost all managed code

One of the many unanswered questions about Windows Phone 7 Series is what the application development situation will be like. A few details have started to emerge; through both official and unofficial channels (via WM PowerUser).

We already know that Windows Phone 7 Series will look and feel completely unlike Windows Mobile. We know that it will support applications and that those applications will be for sale through the Marketplace.

Microsoft will still charge OEMs for Windows Phone 7 Series

Earlier in the week, Microsoft showed off its attractive new mobile platform. The new operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series, promises a radical change in the world of Microsoft-powered phones, but one thing that remains the same, the company confirmed, is that phone manufacturers will still have to pay to license the software. With Android (and now Symbian) open source, and the BlackBerry and iPhone software not available to third parties at all, this means that Windows Phone will be the only major smartphone OS available on a paid basis.

With strong competition from Android—which costs manufacturers nothing—the decision to retain this policy has surprised some. All things being equal, a license makes Windows Phone less attractive to manufacturers than a free platform, and coupled with the delay Redmond has suffered in bringing to market a credible alternative to iPhone and Android, Windows Phone could be starting at quite a disadvantage. Given that Windows Mobile is not believed to account for any substantial amount of revenue for the company, forgoing the license fee would eliminate one Android benefit for little real cost to Microsoft.

That said, all things are not equal; Windows Phone offers a unique—and apparently high-quality—user interface, as well as built-in applications with no direct equivalents on other platforms. The handset manufacturers appear to have no qualms about licensing the current Windows Mobile platform, and the major manufacturers are claimed to be on-board with Windows Phone 7 Series too.

Further, those manufacturers then spend additional money developing and supporting custom front-ends for Windows Mobile phones. Such front-ends will be prohibited on Windows Phone, curtailing future expenses. Similarly, the improvement of the built-in Internet Explorer browser might similarly put an end to licensing and customization of third-party browsers like Opera (a common feature of many Windows Mobile handsets), further reducing costs relative to its predecessor.

As such, the decision is not so surprising after all. Many things stand in the way of Windows Phone 7 Series succeeding in the marketplace—like Microsoft's ability to deliver something fast, stable, and on-time—but a license fee is probably not one of them.

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