Microsoft turns to 'Windows Phone' brand to revamp WinMo

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Microsoft turns to 'Windows Phone' brand to revamp WinMo

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 2 September, 2009

READ MORE: Microsoft | Handset | Windows Mobile

In the world of mobile web platforms, brand awareness is as important as technical wizardry in wooing developers and consumers - and Microsoft has been losing the battle badly. Delayed upgrades and a tired-looking offering compared to the hyped-up newcomers like Android mean the most successful WinMo handsets tend to be those that are disguised as something else (under a wizzy LG user interface, perhaps). So Microsoft's decision to base WinMo's comeback on a heavy 'Windows Phone' branding approach seems risky, but is a strategy the company - never strong on self-awareness when it comes to Windows - is determined to pursue.

Microsoft says the first phones sporting the new WinMo release, 6.5, will appear on October 6 and that several of them have commitments from AT&T, Sprint and Verizon Wireless (fewer details available about international distribution). These will be the first handsets codeveloped by Microsoft and its various closest partners, that will bear the 'Windows Phone' logo - an attempt to leverage the brand power of the PC operating system, but at a time when 'Windows' is losing kudos to Linux, even on the PC, let alone the hostile phone territory. It is not clear which hardware makers will unveil phones, though LG is almost a dead cert, given its huge commitment to Windows earlier in the year (it has promised to create 50 devices for the OS in 2009-2010).

WinMo's main task will not be to add ground breaking new capabilities - that has to wait for the more major upgrade, the delayed WinMo 7 - but to revive the image of the mobile OS. The aim is to sign up hardware and apps partners to increase the cool factor of WinMo devices among consumers, trying to break out of Microsoft's mobile enterprise niche. "We know people want a phone for their whole life," Stephanie Ferguson, general manager of the WinMo unit, told a press briefing. "They just frankly want to do more. That's why we've shifted."

Among the new features that are included are enhanced web browsing and conversation threaded email, and of course support for the new Windows Marketplace app store. An important improvement has been made with AT&T, in particular, in mind - easier use of the phone on Wi-Fi hotspots, increasingly important to the US cellco's bundled services strategy. There will also be a revamped IE Mobile browser with a new engine, plus built-in Adobe Flash Lite and Windows Live to coordinate social networking behaviour.

None of the US carriers would specify whose WinMo 6.5 phones they would support, but all three have seen the Microsoft OS as a second or third string, as they evolve mass market mobile web strategies, which will be centered on their own-branded software platforms and stores. Verizon Wireless is veering heavily to Android, while AT&T said this week that it was still evaluating its midrange web OS choices, with Android and Symbian of most interest.

The October 6 launch will come in a 'consumer open house' event that Microsoft's head of entertainment and devices, Robbie Bach, will host in New York. The centrepiece will be Marketplace, sporting apps like Netflix and the ubiquitous Facebook, plus Microsoft's launch of its free My Phone service.