Dell's Windows Phone 7 Switch: Good for Microsoft's Enterprise Hopes? - eWeek

Is Windows Phone 7 slated to become the next big enterprise device?

That becomes a more pressing question following news that Dell plans on dumping Research In Motion's BlackBerry from its corporate offices, in favor of Windows Phone 7 devices manufactured by the company. Within hours of that news leaking online, RIM responded with some biting commentary:

"We find it highly unlikely that they will actually save any money with this move and far more likely they were looking for a little free publicity," Mark Guibert, RIM's senior vice president of corporate marketing, wrote in an e-mail to Dow Jones Newswires.

In a Nov. 5 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Dell Chief Financial Officer Brian Gladden indicated that the company's switch will save around 25 percent on mobile communication costs, and that negotiations had begun with T-Mobile to carry corporate voice and data.

Dell's Venue Pro includes a 4.1-inch multitouch display and sliding QWERTY keyboard. Fronted with ultra-durable Gorilla Glass, it closely resembles RIM's BlackBerry Torch 9800, which also includes a sliding keyboard. The difference, of course, is the Venue Pro's Windows Phone 7 operating system.

Whether Dell made the switch to promote its own smartphone line or if it decided that ejecting RIM indeed translated into substantial cost savings, other large businesses are likely to debate whether to embrace Windows Phone 7 for their executives and workers.

Some analysts believe that, while Windows Phone 7's tight integration with features such as SharePoint offers a lot to the enterprise, the platform does have an Achilles' heel. "It will be hard for apps to be ported unless they are already Silverlight-compatible or built-in standard .Net mobile protocols," Jack Gold, primary analyst for J. Gold Associates, wrote in an Oct. 11 research note. "The majority of enterprise apps are not."

That being said, Gold added, businesses could find a lot of benefit in the Windows Phone 7 platform. "Business users [are] at the core of the previous Windows Mobile constituency, but many have defected over the past year," Gold wrote. "It is unclear whether Microsoft can win them back, or even keep the existing, albeit significantly diminished, base of enterprise users." Despite that, he added, "the business hub on WP7 looks compelling (provided you are an Exchange/Outlook user)."

Microsoft seems aware of the need to push Windows Phone 7 as a business device, having announced at several points its intention to include productivity-centric features such as cut-and-paste into future editions of the software. It has also been encouraging developers to build work-style apps for the platform. 

"Critics have commented on the lack of specific features like copy & paste and lack of 100s of thousands of new applications," Arpan Shah, Microsoft's director for SharePoint, wrote in a Nov. 4 posting on his corporate blog. "And while both are true, copy & paste will be available as an update in a matter of weeks (early 2011) and as for applications, it's just a matter of time."

Shah's blog posting suggests the timetable for the feature's addition is still on track. While early critics focused on that missing cut-and-paste, Windows Phone 7's first iteration will also lack support for tethering, Adobe Flash and full multitasking.  

To be fair, despite its hold on the enterprise market, the BlackBerry also lacks a large number of apps?at least in comparison to the Apple iPhone or the growing Google Android family of devices. Businesspeople have traditionally gravitated toward RIM's offerings because of their messaging abilities and reputation for security. But Microsoft wants Windows Phone 7 to appeal on those fronts as well; a substantial part of the company's marketing push, particularly its television ads, portrays the smartphones as the ultimate timesavers?at least when it comes to using mobile features. And its "Office" and "People" hubs have been designed to feed information to users in a tightly integrated, streamlined way.

But whether Dell represents the first of many companies to jump to Windows Phone 7 remains to be seen. Microsoft doubtlessly hopes that's the case. RIM most likely doesn't.

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President Obama Shares His Hopes And Fears After MTV Town Hall - MTV.com

During "A Conversation With President Obama" on Thursday (October 14), the nation's leader addressed a range of concerns, directly from the country's young people. He elaborated on his administration's plans to curb illegal immigration while streamlining the process of entering the country legally. He discussed plans to improve resources for teachers and keep guns out the hands of kids. And while he addressed viewers' apprehensions about the future of the United States during the broadcast — thanks to their #mygreatesthope and #mygreatestfear tweets — he also divulged his personal hopes and fears after the show.

For a politician saddled with responsibilities of unparalleled gravity, President Obama told forum attendees he is concerned about the level of political engagement of America's youth. After personally greeting audience members, Obama took the mic one last time before heading out and urged everyone in the room to vote, maintaining that the efforts of enthusiastic citizens will drive change.

"Regardless of who you vote for, regardless if you found anything I said persuasive, I need you to vote on November 2," he insisted. "One of the things that happened in the last election is that young people got involved in ways that they had never gotten involved in before and that has to sustain itself, that has to maintain itself. Because the only way we're gonna solve these problems is if everyone is seriously engaged."

Then Obama, who won his historic 2008 presidential campaign on the tenets of hope and change, quipped, "Nobody [today] asked me what gave me hope," and explained what still inspires him.

"What gives me hope is all of you," he said. "What makes me afraid is the possibility that because these problems are hard, because it takes time to solve energy or education or build a good infrastructure or deal with immigration, because these are big complicated issues, that people get discouraged when they don't get solved right away."

The president reminded the attendees that change is often realized through long-term commitment to reaching a specific goal.

"This is a process. It's always been that way, and that's how we've overcome challenges in the past," he continued. "I have no doubt that America will remain the best, greatest country on earth as long as all of you are a part of building it. As long as you keep your eye on the prize and recognize that a change doesn't happen just because of one election, it doesn't happen just because you wish it, it happens because of hard work and sustained persistence and involvement."

The leader of the free world added that, ultimately, making a difference is not just in the hands of politicians, but also the work of dedicated citizens.

"I hope that all of you stay inspired," he said. "Don't just look to some elected official for that inspiration. Look to each other, look to yourselves."

What do you think about President Obama's hopes and fears? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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Microsoft Is Pinning Its Hopes on Windows Phone 7 - BusinessWeek

By Peter Burrows and Dina Bass

In an interview shortly after he unveiled Microsoft's (MSFT) new Windows Phone 7 mobile software on Oct. 11, Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer declared a new era for Microsoft. "This is a big launch for us—a big, big launch," he boomed.

Ballmer, never known for understatement, may be lowballing this one. Gartner (IT) expects smartphone sales to surpass PCs in 2012. Microsoft remains immensely profitable thanks to its aging PC monopoly, and it will remain so even if it never figures out the smartphone market. Yet the stakes go beyond numbers—it's about staying at the center of computing while the world's information moves away from PCs and into the cloud.

People get e-mail, music, and Season Two of Mad Men on smartphones and other mobile devices—essentially pocket computers—and that information is warehoused at and delivered from far-off data centers, not PC hard drives. "If Microsoft gets this right, the stock is really, really cheap," says Michael F. Holland, founder of investment firm Holland & Co. "It would be an indication they've been able to evolve into a 21st century company."

By almost any measure, Microsoft is nearly out of the mobile game. Its market share fell to 5 percent from 22 percent in 2004, says Gartner. Customer satisfaction of Windows smartphones is 24 percent, according to ChangeWave Research; it's 74 percent for iPhones and 65 percent for handsets powered by Google's (GOOG) Android. There are a few hundred apps for Windows mobile, vs. 250,000 for Apple (AAPL) and 70,000 for Android. Asked about Windows Phone 7's chances, Google Android chief Andy Rubin has said: "The world doesn't need another platform."

Unless, of course, Windows Phone 7 handsets, on sale Oct. 21 in Europe and Nov. 8 in the U.S., blow away consumers as the iPhone did back in 2007. Today, consumers load their smartphones with apps. Rather than tap between separate programs, Windows Phone 7 users will choose from a few larger icons—Microsoft calls them tiles—that aggregate information from related apps. For example, a "People" tile lets users contact friends via phone, text, or Facebook without having to click on any of those apps. An "Office" tile opens a screen to edit and send a PowerPoint deck or Word file, no attachments necessary. This is the biggest step forward since Android, says Jonathan Sasse, senior marketing vice-president of Internet music company Slacker.

Microsoft mobile chief Andy Lees says Windows Phone 7 reflects his group's new approach to design. In the past, the company wrote the software and left it to licensees to ensure great products. This time, Microsoft set strict rules. All Windows Phone 7 handsets must come with three buttons (home, search, and back) and a camera with at least five megapixels of resolution. "In some cases that meant saying no to some of our largest partners, says Lees. He adds that Microsoft doesn't need to have as many apps as Apple or Android, just the most popular ones. That way Microsoft can assure the quality of Windows handsets. Ours is a structured ecosystem," says Lees.

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