CEO Reflections

I have been reading about the upcoming Windows 7 phones, set for Nov 8 release. For a change, a Microsoft product is garnering very good reviews. Yet, almost every reviewer is calling this effort to be too late to staunch the rising tide of iPhones and Android based mobile devices. I disagree. I use the iPhone personally and think that it offers the most seamless web experience, yet I dislike the controls imposed by Apple. The Android based phones are blazing fast, but they have a little bit of a “stutter” when compared to the smooth web experience of the iPhone. Also, with lax or no controls in the Android app store, I have seen applications that should have never made it past the half-line, forget the finish line.

I think that Microsoft, despite no free license, will gain market traction at the expense of Android. The imposition of certain controls will be a good thing and frankly, I have been waiting for MSOffice on a mobile device – I have tried Quickoffice, Office2HD etc, and though they work well, they do not give me the same experience as I get when using say Office 2007 or 2010 on my PC or their brethren 2008, on my Mac.

However, as an ISV, we have to deal with yet another platform to support. That is a headache for sure, but in the world of 4 major browsers, 2 major desktop OS (with their numerous variants), what is one more mobile OS ?