Weaving ever tighter–My Phone being integrated with Windows Phone 7

September 21, 2010 | By Surur

My Phone moving to Windows Live

Previously a persistent complaint regarding Microsoft services have been their siloed approach to their various businesses, with very little integration between Microsoft’s many services.

With Windows Phone 7 this is clearly set to change, and of the signs is this recent leak of Microsoft’s Wave 4 upgrade to their Windows Live service, which will bring Microsoft’s My Phone service to Windows Live, meaning users will be able to locate their phone, make it ring, lock it and wipe it.

Other reports have concentrated on the fact that these features cost $99 on the iPhone, but what I find most interesting is this picture below:

myphonewl

The header shows Microsoft to be one of the most cloud-based companies, with web services, from games to streaming music to web PIM to photo sharing all weaved together and available now or very soon. This is of course something Microsoft does not at present get much credit for, but will hopefully generate more awareness of when Windows Phone 7 is released.

Via Liveside and WMExperts

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged my phone, myphone, windows live, windows phone 7

j2inet

Can't help but think that the previous siloed approach was some how a side affect of the anti-trust and other anti-competitive law suites that were brought against them.

Jake

I agree but they've also struggled to develop a really compelling on-line presence. I can't think of any one cloud service from Microsoft that really works well and Live is still cluttered and confusing despite all the work that has gone into improving it lately.

For instance, my girlfriend logged into hotmail for the first time in months yesterday and couldn't work out how to get into her inbox. There's so much clutter on the first page that you get to after logging in that it's difficult to work out where you have to go next. It shouldn't really be like that.

gullygod

Your girlfriend can get straight to her inbox by setting the options under "Hotmail highlights" on the first page.

http://www.martinschmidler.com martinschmidler

The problem I have with Windows Live is the inconsistent UI.

To be honest, besides my Windows 7 PC and my Xbox360 I also own a MacBook Pro and an iPhone 4 (until there's a good WP7 device, of course). I can't help but wonder again and again how nicely Apple ties it's products together with a consistent UI.

Sure it's become better with Wave 4 but there are still so many places where I think "Does Microsoft need some tips for their user interface?". So many things and settings are cluttered over multiple sites, so many things that could be done with 2 clicks instead of 5.

Also they need to aggressively promote their services. I wouldn't bet on Windows Phone 7 to pull Windows Live into the limelight. People might even be irritated because they have never heard of things like Live Calendar.

(And please, don't be childish and downrank me just because I own Apple products. I am simply not biased, that's all.)

FatSon

Why would "people be irritated because they have never heard of things like Live Calendar"? That makes no sense to me. Really? They would get annoyed? Because of what? The name? They didn't know it was there? What?

Are you upset because you just found out they have on online calendar? Are you projecting your feelings into a generalization?

http://www.martinschmidler.com martinschmidler

Huh? That's an imputation, you know? I know the Live Calendar for a long time now.

What I was trying to say is that the Live services, apart from Hotmail and Messenger of course, aren't really in people's heads yet. Windows Phone 7 could change that, of course. But as with many things Microsoft does they are not being advertised or "hyped".

The ideal case would be that people buy WP7 because they WANT to have WL calendar integration.
The truth is people might buy it because of the Xbox Live integration – simply because Xbox Live is a strong brand.

gullygod

Man, You hit the nail on the head. By no means I'm I a fan of Apple's products, however, they are the most easiest things to use.

Microsoft needs to resign all their services into one consistent UI like MobileMe. Skydrive is a GREAT! service, but it is the worst when it comes to usabiltiy and one of the most frustrating thing about this service is that I can't mount it on my system w/ EASY. Even Dropbox does a better job than MS in this area.I wish someone at MS would listen and make their services more appealling to use.

http://www.martinschmidler.com martinschmidler

I guess MS now gets it (though it took them a while). I bet we will see the Metro style across more devices and services in the future. Maybe even Windows 8 (or parts of it).

djguapo

I don't get it…what's the new news here?
Krekiere

The more Windows Phone 7 is close to the release, the more I can feel the high expectations of the system, and the stakes around it. Microsoft is playing a lot, and finally, I can see that almost all their consumer-based cloud services (even some company targeted ones, like office) are living on one hope : WP7.
That explains so much abount the mediocre services on Windows Mobile. They really focused a whole lot of what they had on WP7 those past 2 years, and we're going to see what will happen with time. Now, i'm just waiting for Microsoft presumed enormous ad-campain
http://twitter.com/chmun77 @chmun77

Integration takes time. And it is an double edge sword. Too tightly and users will find it restricted, too loose and they will think the integration sucks.

Give MS some time. They are on the right track now.