So you did it, you got converted, you finally may of seen the light. You traded in your once beloved iPhone in for a brand spanking new Smartphone packing a Windows Phone 7 OS. It’s definitely a big solid leap of faith to change platforms.
Your mobile contract is up for renewal, and you’re deciding if you should continue your love affair with the trusty Apple, or consider the great features which are available on an enterprise orientated smartphone such as the BlackBerry.
The iPhone 3GS is a reliable phone, has an absolutely gigantic library of apps of all shapes and sizes along with cool fab games. But, you may be struggling a bit with the iPhone’s business limitations as well as its productivity functions, particularly the keyboard and its battery life, or the lack of it.
Are You A Smartphone Dependent Business Person
Do you use your mobile primarily for business, a mobile enterprise user can be classified as the following:
• You’re constantly reading as well as editing documents while on the road using your smartphone
• You need to take important phone calls from anywhere and wherever you are on the road as well as wherever you’re able to get a signal
• Your inbox as well as your calendars are absolutely critical to your daily success and functionality, both on a personal as well as a professional level
• You need to collaborate with a handful of people or a group at any given time during the day and often more
• While at home or at work, you live in a Microsoft as well as a Facebook world
• You have all of your important contacts scattered across LinkedIn, Outlook, Facebook as well as various spreadsheets
So whatever smartphone you decide to use, it needs to be “smart” enough to be able to bring you all the accessibility and the functionality that you currently have in your office, when you’re out on the road.
For these reasons, you’re not completely crazy about your iPhone, and you’re not willing to go back to another BlackBerry again. So if you look at Microsoft’s promise of MS Office as well as SharePoint integration, you may consider trading in that iPhone for a Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system enabled smartphone.
The business or industry segment that you currently work in may also be considering and slowly swinging over in that direction as well.
Why You Should Consider A Mobile Windows 7 OS Based Smartphone
To begin with, the Windows Mobile smartphone interface has excellent eye appeal as well as easy to use navigation features. The simplified economy of the interface includes tiles for accessing key points such as your: calender, photos, people, inbox, Office, and all of your custom pinned tiles.
Instant Contacts
For all of your social as well as your Outlook contact records are automatically and instantly linked together, allowing for quick “glance” views of someone’s contact info, their social status as well as Facebook photos.
Easy Touch Keyboard
Typing is a lot friendlier and easier than it is on an iPhone, this because of keyboard aids such a functional backspace button and a far more user friendly spell check function.
Includes Microsoft Office Mobile
You can create, then edit, and save your e-mail documents, presentations or spreadsheets, as well as toggle Outlook flags on your e-mail messages. You can use OneNote to take notes by voice or by text, and then sync it up directly to your SkyDrive for complete access to or from your desktop.
Just press a button on a scheduled appointment for it to send an automated “Sorry, I’m running ten minutes late for the meeting” message to all of the attendees.
Integration With SharePoint
You can open lists or documents on Microsoft’s SharePoint Server 2010 directly from the smartphone.
Perform Comprehensive Searches
There are three specific buttons on the mobile device which are dedicated for searching the Web. The first is directly on the Home screen. Tapping that button will instantly open up Microsoft Bing for you to be able to perform a search. Also, you can access Bing Search from the inbox or from an app. Those buttons will instantly open the search bar for a keyword search, while still within the app.
Bing search also drives the maps function as well as the navigation feature, but currently, this may be a little less reliable than say Google Maps.
Instant Voice Commands
Pressing and then holding the Start button will activate the extremely accurate MS Tellme speech feature. You can then directly speak by saying something like “open calendar,” or “call John’s phone” or “list the nearby Greek restaurants” etc., even without having to program the device.
Multiple Calendar Feature
You’re able to manage multiple calendars, which also includes shared Gmail calendars directly from within a single calendar or agenda view.
Quality Of Phone
Some swear that the phone quality of the Windows Phone 7 is a lot better than the iPhone, as well as having fewer dropped calls, while using the same mobile carrier.
Some Things We Didn’t Like About The Windows 7 Mobile
There are some obvious functionality features which are missing from the Microsoft Windows 7 mobile device:
• There is no built in “Copy and Paste” feature as of yet, but it’s promised that it will be available soon
• There is no multi-word Select or Select All
• The Tasks and/or Notes are not integrated with Outlook as of yet
• You’re not able to see the availability of others when attempting to schedule appointments
• The inbox has a limited filter as well as search options, there’s also no cc: line on new messages
The Limited Amount Of Apps
Microsoft claims that there are thousands upon thousand of apps currently in the works and will be available soon, so initially, you may feel a little left out as your iPhone and Android friends are constantly downloading the latest greatest cool apps.
Also, the current Windows Marketplace for Mobile Apps is a little difficult to browse as well as search, as everything including songs, albums and the apps are not properly sorted out in the search results list.
Windows Phone 7 also currently has no customization of alarms or ringtones. The tapping sound effect, although it helps with the typing, can also be a little annoying to some. The alarm feature does not have any snooze settings for those who happen to like to nap for more than ten minutes at a time.
There are a lot of things to like about the Mobile Windows Phone 7 OS, but there may also be some features which Microsoft has yet to address, but that’s what upgrades are for.
So considering that it’s still a first generation release, it may be impressive enough for most to choose the Window Phone 7 over an iPhone, Android or Blackberry. The promised integration along will the additional productivity enhancements on the Windows Phone 7 should be soon on its way. So Microsoft Mobile may be an excellent option for you, and there are surely a lot more apps which will be available soon.