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Thought: Introducing the Xbox TV and Xbox TV Pro
As the battle for supremacy continues to be waged in the mobile space, there is companion battle brewing in the background not garnering big headlines but I think just as important. By this I mean the living room. Cable companies have long held the monopoly as the main gateway by which consumers access TV programming but the landscape is on the verge of a major shift. For the longest time, consumers have been chained to expensive programming packages that contained a lot of programs they hardly watch and to make it worse, cable/satellite boxes usually contain some of the most antiquated user interfaces around.
All these are in the process of a transformation with the slow but maturing offerings of IPTV focused devices like Apple TV, Xbox+Mediaroom, Google TV, Boxee, Roku and more. Out of all these companies, I think Microsoft is the closest to bringing the living room to the age of the internet as you can see from the video above. Some of the features like the voice control and gestures are slated for the big Xbox refresh this fall.
Closing Nokia stores should be converted to Microsoft stores
With Nokia’s fortunes falling, they have been forced to shutter some of their stores because of decreased demand. They have closed stores in the UK, US and recently in Russia. These stores were located in prime location so it is shame to see them go. I have no idea if Nokia still owns the buildings but wouldn’t be great if Microsoft bought these stores and converted them to Microsoft stores? They are already in ideal locations, already designed to sell electronic devices so the remodel and conversion should be quick.
This same process could also be extended to Nokia stores that are still currently operational since Nokia has essential decided to go all in with Windows phone and hopefully Windows 8. This gives Microsoft Windows Phone an immediate first class physical presence and speeds up the number running Microsoft stores so that more consumers can experience the new OS without bias and have their questions answered by knowledgeable representatives.
What do you guys think?
Low end Windows Phones should not mean low spec
There has been a lot of talk lately about the next wave of Windows Phone handsets taking aim at the mid and low end of the market to combat the proliferation of Android devices in that space. It is my hope that Microsoft will not be tempted to let OEMS build cheap lower spec phones just for that purpose. Instead, I think they should follow the Apple model and make the current generation phones be their low end and the next generation be their high end.
This idea became even more clearer when I was playing around with two of my friends iPhones (and was able to compare them side by side), one which was a 3GS and the other an iPhone 4. The latter device’s screen and design is so much better than the older generation. That’s the same kind of thing I wish to see for the next Windows phones. Perhaps the rumors of a higher resolution screen may come true because the iPhone 4’s screen sharpness is remarkably better than their previous generation. There were stories last year that Windows Phone had the capabilities of resolutions higher than the current 800×400 and the fact that Windows Phones include a hardware image scaler, a 1280×720 screen device seems quite plausible for second generation device.
So here is how I see it, instead of chasing the low end market with cheap underperforming phones, the strategy should be moving current generation phones which are still quite capable to the mid and low end while at the same time introducing higher specced hardware for the high end. In this way, Microsoft can maintain the quality of the Windows Phone brand and user experience at a level on par with the iPhone and better than Android.
Little tweaks that could make Windows Phone easy for new users
Watching the video from a recent post on a usability study of the top four smartphone OSes, something became evidently clear. Even the Windows phone interface provides an intuitive and easy experience for most users, there is more that can be done to make it easier. One thing I saw that could improve it would be to have the app bar show text under the icon buttons by default instead of when the bar is swiped up (some of the comments on the post alluded to this). Watching the video, you could tell that the user had no idea what some of the icons meant. There could then be a setting to toggle the text on and off for people who didn’t want the text. A second tweak would involve changing the three ellipses to an upward facing arrow (maybe still made of dots) to hint to the user to scroll up.
I think these two tweaks and especially the first one would not be that hard to implement with a minor software update. What do you guys think?
Something borrowed, something new
One of the advantages of metro design principle is the simplicity of design and the focus on limiting clutter on the screen. Unfortunately, with the limited screen real estate on mobile devices, sometimes the end results in features that users love being removed like tabs button in IE9, or being hidden like folders in the Mail app toolbar. Since windows phone design guidelines call for a maximum of four buttons on the toolbar, I think the WP team should borrow an idea from the office ribbon. They should include an option for advanced settings so users can choose which four buttons appear on the toolbar. This could be extended to third party apps as well. So for example in the mail app, users can swap the select button with the folders button which a lot of users prefer and blogger Manan suggests in his article, UX Inconsistencies In Windows Phone 7 Mango.
What do you guys think?
Image credit Manan Kakkar
Dancing over Nokia’s grave
The technology world is abuzz with the reports that Apple has surpassed Nokia to be the largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. It gives the Cupertino based company a second crown, the first being the the largest technology company in the world in terms of market capitalization. How many times have you read the number of professional sports teams that the company could buy and have cash left over? What about countries? The latest involves the current US debt ceiling debate in which Apple is cited as having more cash than the US treasury.
When the talk turns Nokia, all you hear about is their steep decline in profits and the big mistake on staking their future with Microsoft instead of partnering with Android, or going at it alone with Meego. The critics however downplay the fact that hardware wise, Nokia is on par if not ahead of the competition. Case in point, the N9 (The first Nokia WP device, Sea Ray, will share the same specs as the N9). The Finnish giant’s phones are also renown for their superb optics. No matter what shiny new hardware the iPhone 5 or the latest flavor of Android will bring in the latter part of this year, Nokia can easily match and even beat them in some of the specs.
The next two quarters will be brutal for the company as turns the ship around and integrates itself with Microsoft technologies, but by the beginning of next year, I see the company starting the steady ascent back to the top. There are three areas that make me optimistic to think that Nokia will be fine twelve to fifteen months from now.
You say Google+ Circles, I say Windows Phone Groups
After few failed attempts at trying to crack the social networking nut, search giant Google, last month unveiled Google+, their most ambitious project to date in their quest to go after the social networking giant, Facebook. The service received high praise from the tech community and they positioned it as a real threat to Facebook and twitter, citing reports of high audience engagement and rapid user base growth now reportedly approaching 20 million.
One of the new highly touted features in Google+ is Circles, a method by which users of the service organize all their contacts by default in circles. While it seemed like a great idea in theory, a lot of people are finding them not really practical in real life in that, our relationships are hardly static apart from family and a small set of close friends. Read this article here and here which show why trying to categorize contacts in neat little groups is impractical in real life. Mark Zuckerberg alluded to this when asked about what he thought about Circles during the Facebook video call unveiling. He said people rarely use lists on Facebook which are akin Circles. He said that more people preferred groups which are dynamically created by users.
This now brings us to Windows Phone Mango with the groups feature. With this new capability, I think Windows Phone Mango comes closest to Fred Wilson’s idea of a Micro social network (which based on the people on you phone’s address book) that he thought was the next evolution of the social network. The groups feature excels at this in my opinion. However, even though you can chat with the group or send a group SMS, I’m not sure though if you can post something just to that group on Facebook since as far as I know (I stand to be corrected), the groups on the phone do not sync with the groups or lists on Facebook when it comes to wall posts. I hope that gets fixed if it hasn’t already.
Linked Profiles in Windows Phone Mango
We already know that Windows Phone Mango will bring linked inboxes which is a much better way to organize ones email accounts just the way you want it instead of unified inboxes found in competing OSes. Did you know that they have extended this feature to the People card? I for one did not and have no seen it reported anywhere else. If so, forgive me for being late. The whole video which is a presentation by Microsoft’s Daniel Egan and Scott Cate is pretty good. If you are pressed for time, watch from minute mark 9:25 where this feature is described. It seems to go beyond the linking of Facebook and phone contacts. This will be useful for the twitter integration where people don’t usually use their real names or have multiple accounts and further down the line with Skype. Now, a Windows phone user can aggregate all that information under one person’s card.
For all you guys who have the latest 7712 build installed, let us know how it works.
Update: Sorry guys, the feature has already existed since version one of the WP7 OS. I had the mistaken impression from watching the video that something had changed in the Mango release but I was obviously wrong.
Update 2: Apologized too early. Scott explained what is new here:
Hi Guys – This demo was a ton of fun to put together. To clarify, there are a couple of new Mango features, and a few left overs from 7.0 (NoDo).
Original 7.0 Feature. Link Profiles from Email (Gmail / Exchange / Yahoo / etc). This would let you see all the phone numbers, emails, inside a Linked Profile. Old news to some.
New in Mango, is the ability to add Twitter, and Linked in Profiles. On the Linked Profile, there is a History Tab, that shows all the history with that contact, against all the Email / Text / Social Profiles.
New in Mango, when you are texting this Linked Profile, you can “switch” between them, on the same screen. So you can jump from Text, to Facebook Chat, to Live (MSN) chat, all on the same screen.
Also, you can post directly to Facebook on the Linked Profile, assuming you have a Facebook linked item, in that profile. Also new, is the Linked Email Inbox, that let’s you define where you email shows up on your phone. And I’m (still) loving the Pinned Inbox Folders.
A lesson worth learning
If Windows Phone 7 is so good, how come no one is hearing about it? (And why are so few people buying it?) Because for whatever reason, the important people in the mobile industry aren’t really talking about it much.
That is a quote from Dan Frommer in his article analyzing the Changwave survey on Windows Phone 7 customer satisfaction results. It dovetails with the sentiments of my recent post and a majority of our readers as well.
The point is (not to beat over a dead horse) that Windows Phone has great potential just waiting to be unleashed. The following headline illustrates a huge contrast between the two tech giants, Microsoft’s and Apple’s marketing strategies. From Boy Genius Report
It goes on to say
Apple is recruiting additional staff at U.S. Apple Store locations ahead of the launch of its highly anticipated fifth-generation iPhone. MacRumors reports that Apple is contacting former employees and asking them to come back as part time workers from August 15th through September 15th. In emails reportedly sent from Apple to the former retail staff, Apple says it is looking for part time employees to assist with the “holidays, new product launches and back to school time.”
There Fujitsu, I fixed it!
By now, most of you have read about or heard of the Fujitsu phone running Windows 7. That’s right, the full OS on an Atom based processor that gets a whopping two hours worth of battery life in Windows 7 mode! The manufacturer does have a WP7 device slated for the fall mango release but I like the design of this better.
There is a funny website called thereifixedit.failblog.org from which I borrowed the title. I hope I did a better job with the mockup than stuff found on that site. I took the liberty to “Photoshop” in a Windows Phone 7 interface and in my opinion, I think it would make a killer device and hopefully in two varieties, one with a keyboard like the one above and one without. The atom processor would be replaced by the latest ARM chip.
This device also has some key features on my wish list for a phone
- Real hardware keys for back, home and search
- Front facing camera
- LED notification light which in this case is nicely integrated into the home key. I miss that from my old HTC Wizard that is, being able to tell whether I had messages or that Bluetooth or Wi-Fi was on without having to turn the phone on.
- The keyboard will of course have to change in order to meet the Windows Phone specs but I hope it maintains the spacing between the keys.
What do you guys think?
Original image source Fujitsu
Image credit pocketnow.com for the landscape mode picture.
My hopes for Xbox “Live Television”
Microsoft announced at the E3 conference that they would be bringing live TV to the Xbox this fall. This will further elevate the Xbox to be the center of media experiences in the home. It also offers a better value than its competitors like the apple TV and Google TV. Currently, I have an Xbox set up as as media extender. It is connected to a HTPC running Windows Media Center so that I can watch live over the air TV that comes in via SiliconDust HD HomeRun dual network tuner.
I will be more than ecstatic if the “Live TV” will mean that the Xbox will be able to be configured with network tuners like SiliconDust or USB tuners in such a way that users do not require a PC to obtain over the air channels. Not only that, I get the benefit of DVR capabilities and I hope that this will also retain the auto archive feature for recorded shows via Windows Home Server. Just as an icing on the cake, I hope Microsoft will provide an SDK so that third parties can create apps for the system, or at least make it easy for Web only video channels like Revision3 and Twit.tv to be easily added to the program lineup. With that, I believe I can finally cut the Cable cord and just use Netflix streaming, Hulu Plus, supplemented by the over the air channels.
Video source Winrumors
How “merchandising” could help boost Windows Phone sales
I have to start by thanking all our readers for the great feedback from my previous post, “Microsoft has 3 months to make or break Windows Phone.” It has been comforting to know that I’m not “crazy” and that there are a lot of people who share my sentiments.
Reading through the impassioned commentary, I realized that Microsoft may find salvation to boost its WP7 outlook in the most unlikely places; its own loyal followers, readers like you! We always talk here about how many of our friends we have convinced to try out and eventually use the OS. How about if Microsoft were to make it worth your wile and pay for your efforts?
You see, I have friends who do merchandising in order to supplement their income. This is basically a part time job they sign up for online and get partnered with various retail stores. Their job is to go to their assigned stores and make sure that the product shelves they are in charge of are stocked, neatly presentable, record inventory and more.
Microsoft could take a page from this business practice and start their own program to make sure that wherever Windows Phones are sold, there will always be somebody who cares to make sure that the inventory is up to date, presentable and always in working order. These individuals would also get to be in charge of running special promotions and being at the stores a few hours a week to help prospective consumers with the phones. As an incentive, these individuals would be provided with a free WP7 and get trained on all the in and outs of the OS before they started working.
I think this provides a win-win situation for both Microsoft and the loyal fan-base in that Windows Phone gets better exposure and the fans get paid for their efforts. There will of course have to be some form of simple certification and formal code of ethics that these merchandisers will have to follow to make sure that the consumer, the merchandiser, the retailers and Microsoft have a pleasant experience.
Image credit Joe Wilcox
more info about merchandising can be found here
Microsoft has 3 months to make or break Windows Phone – Part 2
Click here for part 1
3. Windows Phone Studio
The new IOS 5 will include the iCloud service with allows easy syncing of IOS devices. The old Windows Mobile had a great online component called My Phone. With it, you could…
synchronize your contacts, calendar appointments, tasks, photos, videos, text messages, songs, browser favorites and documents between your phone and your My Phone web account.
Then came the Kin Studio, a revolutionary cloud service that accompanied the short-lived Kin Phone. I hope that Microsoft will bring this back in the form of “Windows phone Studio.” This would include all the features that existed in the My Phone service like lost phone tracking in this new service. I also hope they integrate the Office Web Apps, Office 365, SkyDrive, and Live Mesh Synching capabilities. Something that the Skype purchase could bring is text messaging (as a premium addition perhaps) to cell phones and land lines directly from the the web interface. Adding Xbox live account management, Zune pass streaming, podcasts and Zune social would be a good bonus!
I also would like to see the the Kin Studio UI maintained rather the stale Windows Live UI. With this, Windows phone will be well ahead of Android and IOS when it comes to the cloud component (especially the ease of use) of mobile devices which I believe will be an integral part of the industry going forward.
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