Finally! A Contender: Windows Phone 7

I'm not sure if I'm more antagonized by there being only two players in the field right now*cough*monopoly*cough*, or the chest-drumming nonsense I hear from people on either camp. But it's about time for there to be a third contender in the iPhone versus Droid war.

Microsoft Phone 7 is expected to arrive in November, and this past week has been ripe with media reports about all sorts of aspects of this new operating system and the rigorous requirements MS has put its manufacturers under (unlike Google, but in line with Apple).

Case in point is a great article by Wired, titled Why Windows Phone 7 Will Make Android Look Chaotic.

Here's what caught my attention early on in the article: "Each device must feature three standard hardware buttons...and before they can ship with Windows Phone 7, they have to pass a series of tests directed by Microsoft. (As I mentioned in a feature story about Windows Phone 7, Microsoft has created new lab facilities containing robots and automated programs to test each handset to ensure that features work properly and consistently across multiple devices.)" Looks like they're committing time and resources, good start!

And there's never harm in making the decision to buy a particular product over another a no-brainer for an overwhelmed or non-techie customer: "Most importantly, a consistent user experience will help customers understand what they’re getting when they’re shopping for a Windows phone. The OS is going to be the same with identical features on every handset, so as a consumer, your decision-making will boil down to the hardware’s look, weight and size. Compare that to the experience of buying an Android phone, which could be running a different version depending on the handset you buy: Donut, Eclair, Froyo, blueberry pie, Neapolitan or whatever Google chooses to call it eventually."

And the clincher in the article leaves us hungry for more, but makes a valid point: "...the Phone 7 user interface is refreshingly different compared to the siloed-app experience of iOS. But Apple is so far ahead in terms of cultivating a rich mobile ecosystem that I don’t think Steve Jobs needs to be sweating just yet." And I have no idea what they mean by a "rich mobile ecosystem"...is it the apps and iTunes...that sort of add-ons that build the phone up?

I will keep my eye out for additional tidbits on the Windows Phone 7, because I'm very, very glad there's a breath of fresh air in a stale, rut of a tug of war that's been going on between iPhone and Android for a couple of years now.