Microsoft Windows Mobile 7.0 Preview or Simple Mockup
link: original article - section: microsoft
This article is based on a leaked concept, although we're not sure if it's a fake or Microsoft's future Windows Mobile 7 will actually include at least some of the features described below.
With the iPhone seriously taking the lead on the mobile market, Microsoft intends to 'clone' all Apple's new techs included in their handset, then improve it and add even more of these. That's no news as both companies, Apple and Microsoft, 'borrowed' some of their innovations from one another. How much utility and functionality will bring the new Windows Mobile 7.0, and how fast and stable will it be? These questions will get their answers no later than the next year (2009), when Microsoft intends to launch the 7th sequel of its operating system. Unfortunately, the upcoming version 6.1 that will be officially launched next month is almost an updated version of the 6.0, thus it doesn't come up with any real changes.
Anyway, what's Windows Mobile 7.0 after all? Nothing short to an entirely new reshaped operating system that will blow you mind the moment you start using it. At least, that's what Microsoft intends to do with this new OS that will totally change the way we are using our mobile devices (less iPhone users?:). WM 7 will strongly focus on touch and motion gestures, but to a degree that will not leave too many things to add, keeping it to a certain level of simplicity, just like Apple did with iPhone's interface. How much they will succeed remains to be seen the moment we have something official and not some photoshop-ed screenshots (even if made by Microsoft's designers).
It seems that one of the goals of the "mockup" OS is to support devices that doesn't feature touchscreen and stylus, but also those that feature both or those that are touchscreen dedicated (referred as 'iPhone compete':). The new user interface won't be optional for old applications, but rather the applications will get support for the new interface. There's also a promising "game mode", that will make games 'miss' UI requirements and use similar movements for different actions, thus allowing user to control the game much easier than a standard application.
Microsoft took it to the next level and intends to make a research that has the size of the 'average fingertip' as subject, just to make touchscreen devices without a stylus more easy to control. That users will be able to scroll up and down with no fear of doing something else. Tap drills down in a list, but some lists will have you tab once to select, once again to drill down the list. Scrollbars, corner elements, icons, title bar and status bar will all be stylized and resized, so it will be easier to tap on them. It seems that, in Windows Mobile 7, scrollbars will rather float as transparent visual elements on top of any application, rather than being part of the screen. They will only be used when necessary.
