With over 500 features for the smartphone lovers to delve into, will 'Mango' prove to be a threat for its contenders, Android and iOS?
Although not too popular, O2 Pocket PC, Windows Mobile 2003 SE, Windows Mobile 6.5.5, all testify Microsoft's decade long existence in the field of mobile phones, besides computers. Although the company planned to continue the Windows Mobile line, however, Microsoft decided to create a new mobile operating system platform. Hence, Windows Phone (WP), the upgraded mobile operating system was brought to the limelight in 2010.
Although the reception was generally positive, the product however lacked some of the common features that we have come to enjoy in other smartphone operating systems, like in Android and iOS.
Realising today's consumers' demands and the aftermath of its shortcomings, WP addressed these limitations in an update Windows Phone 7.5 codenamed 'Mango'. The roll out held on September 27, 2011, Mango is a major software update for Windows Phone, to get the major wrinkles of the shortcomings ironed out.
Features that do make an impact on our everyday smartphone experience-- multitasking, social network integration, email and exchange, will finally be incorporated. In short, WP7.5 is precisely what we wish Windows Phone would've been from the beginning -- a platform that's capable of handling all of our needs, no matter how crazy they may be.
A gigantic improvement and one of the favourite features in WP7.5 is its email and messaging feature. It has a linked email inbox that combines multiple email accounts into one consolidated tile, making the system convenient and time saving. With WP7.5 one doesn't have to hunt through hundreds of other messages to find each segment of a conversation, as the full correspondence is grouped together-- an absolute must-have feature in this day and age.
In today's busy life, it's all about 'Glance and Go'. We tend to communicate with our co-workers, friends and family on any social network and trying to keep in touch amidst the busyness. WP7.5's ability to integrate social network content with many of the platform's other key features is sure to be near the top of the list.
The phone is now littered with plenty of ways to communicate via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Tweets that mention your name are dropped into notifications, and you're given the option of replying to it. WP7.5 also gives you the ability to organise your contacts into 'groups', which by showing live tiles for individual members, notifications and pictures make interaction all the more easier and simultaneous.
It is immensely frustrating when say, we are streaming internet radio and aren't able to keep the music going as we surf the web or perform other tasks on our phones. In WP7.5, this frustration, along with others is rectified. The functionality is all built in so a simple long-press of the button pulls up your most recently opened apps.
For the corporate kiddos who use tasks or to-do lists, embedding our tasks within the WP7.5 calendar might as well prove to be worth its weight in gold. To-dos, included as its own pivot screen inside the app, are fully integrated with your agenda, making each deadline appear as its own event.
As mentioned before, every programme in WP has been enhanced to be more customisable and increase the user's experience, and the camera app is no different. People can now be tagged in pictures by tapping on their face and picking a contact from a list.
Sometimes it's the little things that drive us completely batty. Any person who used an iPhone for the first couple years can relate to the frustration of only having a few ringtones to choose from. With the new WP7.5, one can make a customised ringtone by just changing the song's genre to 'ringtone'.
According to Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, swapping a platform used by millions with something youthful and fresh isn't going to earn customers and praise overnight, especially when it's a brand new ecosystem that has to start from scratch. But with 'Mango', Microsoft has caught up with Android and iOS in nearly every way, with its feature-laden, user-friendly features. Despite a few criticisms in the beginning, the bright future of Windows Phone is worth wearing shades for!
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