by Frank McPherson, author of How To Do Everything With Windows Mobile

 
I find all the speculation of whether Microsoft is going to make a Zune phone amusing. No doubt it comes from interest in seeing how Microsoft will respond to Apple's iPhone, but noone seems to take into account that iPhone may be in response to Windows Mobile.

Why should Microsoft invest in making a Zune phone, when with some minor alterations they could make Windows Mobile more competitive? Here is one way that Microsoft could do that, provide Windows Mobile integration into the Zune Marketplace. How about providing an online library, a subset of my Zune library on my PC, that can be shared across Zunes and Windows Mobile devices? If I already pay the monthly subscription, why not let me download and play the same music on either a Zune or a Windows Mobile device? Apple won't have this type of integration between iTunes, the iPod and iPhone, so this would be something that Microsoft could have as a competitive advantage.

Another way that Windows Mobile could beat iPhone: Voice Command! Voice Command has got to be one of the least known pieces of Windows Mobile software, the problem is that Microsoft has chosen to not include it as a core component to Windows Mobile, and the time has come to change this. What is cool about Voice Command? No creation of voice tags, just install the software, and after some indexing, you can instantly voice dial every entry in your address book.

But wait, there is more! You can use Voice Command to control Windows Media player on the device. Say "Play anything" and your Pocket PC starts playing music. Say "Play rock" to start playing all the rock music on your device. Can you do that with an iPhone? When you are running around, even a touch screen can slow you down, while with a Bluetooth headset and Voice Command you can operate and retreive basic information from a Windows Mobile device. For example, say "What is my schedule" and your Windows Mobile device will speak back your upcoming appointments.

In my opinion Voice Command is Microsoft's secret weapon against iPhone, but Microsoft has got to get the software in ROM on all Windows Mobile devices. (Currently, you can buy Voice Command and install it on any Windows Mobile device, but there is a 4 MB storage penalty.) Next, Microsoft needs to kick Voice Command up a few notches. Add some speech to text capability to allow me to actually respond to text messages or email via voice, or at least let me easily record a voice response that can be sent as an attachment to an email. And how about integration with web services to query the web. I would love to say something like, "What is the traffic report for I-75" and have my device query the web and provide back via voice the traffic report on I-75. I am thinking here integration between Voice Command and Windows Live mobile.

Bottom line: Microsoft doesn't need a Zune phone to compete with iPhone, it just needs to improve Windows Mobile, but it has to provide more revolutionary changes in the next version than what they have provided in Windows Mobile 5 or 6. I think Windows Mobile provides the software foundation to tcompete, and I am confident that hardware vendors like HTC will be able to provide hardware that will match what Apple provides. The key to success will be differentiation rather than "me too" responses. With it all, I look forward to seeing what the next couple of years will bring.

Labels: opinion

posted by Frank at 12:35 PM 

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