News - WP7 tipped to debut on 21 October

[HEXUS]

Date and adverts surface for WP7 launch, while Sony Ericsson dumps Symbian.

Read more.

[miniyazz]

WP7 seems to be going from bad to worse with a developing lack of features

[Brewster0101]

No copy and paste function.. As in no copy and paste with text as well... surely not!

[usxhe190]

How can they not have copy and paste?? They are trying to pull a Steve Jobs??

[Funkstar]

Am I the only one that hasn't actually used copy and paste on.... * scratches head and thinks * ....any previous phones?

I'm sure it will be added in a future update. I bet that was a feature at the edge of requirements so was dropped when crunch time approached to get this out the door.

[MadduckUK]

Am I the only one that hasn't actually used copy and paste on.... * scratches head and thinks * ....any previous phones?

maybe!

The adverts seem to suggest that this is a phone for seeing that you have a text, and seeing your friends are facebooking or whatever, but not for actually seeing what they have said, and maybe replying to them.

[TheAnimus]

Am I the only one that hasn't actually used copy and paste on.... * scratches head and thinks * ....any previous phones?

I'm sure it will be added in a future update. I bet that was a feature at the edge of requirements so was dropped when crunch time approached to get this out the door.

Whilst its at the 'edge' of core features for the average joe.

As a retard, I mean dyslexic, I find that remembering certian things like chains of digits, or postcodes is quite hard. Hence why I use it about once or twice a month, but when I do use it, its bloody useful.

But for me the killer app on a 'smart phone' is ALWAYS google maps, I have a P series vaio when I want to browse on the go, but g maps does 90% of what I'd want to look up on the net whilst out and about anyway. But then again I'm the kind of person who has a few computers at the clients office, some at mine, and probably one in my bag. So maybe I'm abnormal in that....

[miniyazz]

I used copy and paste earlier today, on both my phone and my iPod
Another day, another copy and paste, lol.

I can't believe it's that hard to implement

[jim]

With WM 6.5, iOS and Android in the marketplace at the moment, I struggle to see where WM7 is going to fit in.

I think they've come far too late to this party to get any appreciable piece of the pie, especially since innovation is so lacking as things stand.

[crossy]

Sony Ericson currently makes phones supporting two different OS. Its Vizaz range runs Symbian but other handsets run Android.

Strange phrasing since as far as I'm aware, it's only the X10 family that runs 'droid, but in addition to the Vivaz, doesn't the Satio also run Symbian?

Rikko Sakaguchi, Sony Ericsson's chief creation officer told Bloomberg: "We have made a significant shift to support Android," back in July, while acknowledging that the Symbian-run Vivaz range was doing well.

They've made "a significant shift to support Android? Try telling that to any of the legion of well pi**ed off X10 owners who got stitched up over updates!

The lack of tethering adds to other limitations such as no multitasking or copy and paste functionality, which some other rival smartphones support.

No multi-tasking or tethering I can relate to (especially as I'm assuming that the teleco's hate tethering), but not copy/paste? Obviously this is an OS designed by someone who's never had to poke in a long WPA2 key...

Is WP7 even relevant these days? Thought that Blackberry, Apple and Android had pretty much cornered the business, "creative" and "geek" markets between them? I've severe doubts about a mobile OS where folks seem to be focussed on what's not there, as opposed to what it can do. But I've got an SE X10, so what the heck do I know about mobile phones...

[TheAnimus]

I used copy and paste earlier today, on both my phone and my iPod
Another day, another copy and paste, lol.

I can't believe it's that hard to implement

Ask Apple why it took so many months for them to implement it on the iOS?

All features have a 'cost' some of them are deemed critical, some like teathering regrattably matter a lot more to me, than to 95% of users....

[badass]

With WM 6.5, iOS and Android in the marketplace at the moment, I struggle to see where WM7 is going to fit in.

I think they've come far too late to this party to get any appreciable piece of the pie, especially since innovation is so lacking as things stand.

$400 million Marketing budget. You'll be amazed how many people just believe adverts.

[jim]

They've spent a lot of money on advertising Bing and IE8 and I'm not sure it's helping them *that* much.

I'm still yet to hear somebody say "I'll have to bing that when I get home"

[TheAnimus]

its small, but it is growth.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10628973

Think how much smaller it would be without advertising.

[usxhe190]

My thinking is that the first version of WP7 won't be that good.

But once Microsoft finds themselves, the next update will be good. Businesses need a good alternative to Blackberry and RIM so that there are some cost savings.

Not having copy and paste is really bad though.

[dangel]

Not having copy and paste is really bad though.

Whilst I find it useful like everybody else - as has been pointed out Apple managed just fine without it for years (amusingly WM actually did this before and throughout) so it's obviously not a 'killer' feature to 99% of punters. Far more critical (and MS know this) is Apps - and this is where WP7 will struggle the most to justify itself (but then again, everything has to start somewhere). MS do have very good tools to build Apps with, as well as some instant sell with Windows/Silverlight/XNA devs because of the obvious crossover. Also, I guess the XBox integration is going to big for some and it'll be interesting to see how it fares as a gaming platform given their obvious desires in that area.

Personally, I'm pretty interested to play around with this - the GUI has some interesting ideas (substantially different from Apple incidentally) and ultimately that's what shifts smartphones. The iPhone never fitted well with me (far too restrictive) and so that really only leaves Android (which my current phone is running) as an alternative.

Everything has it's weakness - iOS is restrictive and the GUI is looking dumb, Android can't compete in games (this is changing with froyo and market share) and WP7 has only just arrived (and therefore lacks completeness compared to more mature platforms). Apple and Google won't be sitting back and thinking "aha! no copy and paste!" though - MS is certainly a company capable of coming from nowhere, being underestimated and punching the competition in the nuts (ask Sony).

S'all good tho - more the merrier, better the innovation and the more fun for us lot.