The competition for mind share in the smart phone OS landscape is heating up again. I was amazed by the gains Android has posted over the last year, actually shipping in more phones that the iPhone. And while the announcement on the new Windows 7 Phone OS might seem a bit ho-hum at first look, I have to admit there is some pretty interesting stuff in there. Take for example the announcement of 60 game titles from reputable game developers at the recent GamesCom 2010 conference in Cologne, Germany. I can’t imagine these would approach the quality of Xbox 360, but could they set a new standard for phone gaming? Microsoft seems to be emphasizing the gaming play on Windows 7 phones with statements around linking these games somehow to Xbox 360 as noted in this post at Yahoo.
Being an Xbox user, I’m fascinated how this might play out. But in my humble opinion Microsoft will have to marry this gaming strategy with a competitive 3rd party apps program, which has in large part driven adoption of the iPhone and now the Android smartphone systems. Don’t count Microsoft out. They clearly have immense resources to leverage. The question is: Can they deploy them in way that will bring the variety and functionality that is clearly showing up in the leading Smartphone offerings? Expect to see some interesting demo’s this year at CES.
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