Windows Phone 7, Microsoft’s modern replacement for the ancient Windows Mobile 6, is finally here, and it actually looks quite decent. I haven’t yet used it in person, but judging from various screenshots and videos, it looks like Microsoft really tried to innovate with their new platform, rather than create yet another “3×4 grid of rounded icons” iPhone clone. In particular, the “hubs” concept is a really interesting idea that solves a common problem in a unique way.
But there’s something even more significant about the release of Windows Phone 7 – it is completely incapable of running Windows Mobile 6.x apps. This was absolutely the right decision for Microsoft to make, given Windows Phone 7′s radically different touch-based UI; but it’s a surprising one from Microsoft, which typically opts to preserve backwards compatibility when launching new products.
In fact, has Microsoft ever introduced a major new platform that completely broke compatibility with existing software or file formats? Imagine Microsoft releasing a new version of Windows that couldn’t run any existing Windows apps – it sounds crazy when you think about it from that perspective. Yet that’s basically what they’ve done with Windows Phone 7.
So if only for that reason alone, I hope that Windows Phone 7 succeeds. If the platform does well, Microsoft will have proven to itself that starting over from scratch can pay off. And if that inspires them to make similar revolutionary jumps with their other products, that can only be a good thing.
