What Microsoft’s ‘Mango’ Says About Its Phone Strategy

Source from:http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/what-microsofts-mango-says-about-its-phone-strategy/?scp=3&sq=phone&st=cse
By STEVE LOHR

Microsoft showed off the next version of its smartphone operating system, code-named Mango, at an event in downtown Manhattan on Tuesday morning.

The presentation comes seven months after the release of Windows Phone 7, when it became clear that Microsoft was finally going to stop trying to cram Windows PC software onto a cellphone.

The Mango upgrade takes the simplified user interface of Windows Phone 7, with its big tilelike icons, and pushes things further with some neat features (500, Microsoft claims).

But more important, the show-and-tell pointed to the strategy and tactics Microsoft will count on to catch the leaders in smartphone operating systems, Apple and Google. Microsoft is moving fast for a change, and betting on its computer science, deep pockets and partnerships.

The computer science part amounts to a deep integration of Microsoft search expertise — not just Bing, but all the skills of that team — to alter the user experience of smartphones. “We’re blurring the line between search and applications,” said Andrew Lees, president of the mobile communications business.

The current smartphone experience, he explained, is organized around apps. “The user has to go app by app by app,” Mr. Lees said. “It’s as if every time you wanted to go from the living room to the dining room, you had to go through the front door.”

Mango links location data, information about a subject and shopping options. The results are presented to the user as related views on the screen, instead of links to Web sites as in conventional search.

In a demo, a person typed in the name of a recent movie, “Water for Elephants.” The first screen displayed the location of nearby theaters and show times for the movie. Another tap, and the next screen showed the description and summary of the film, pulled from the movie information service IMDb. Next came options to purchase a ticket through a few online services.

Derek Snyder, a product marketing manager, put Mango through its paces in a speed test against Google Android, Apple iOS and BlackBerry phones. The Mango-equipped phone won. No surprise there. The home team always wins demos. But Microsoft is claiming Mango will be fast and responsive.

Deciding how Microsoft’s Mango compares with the offerings of its fast-moving competitors will be up to the likes of David Pogue, when the new software appears in smartphones in the fall.

But the new Microsoft operating system will be offered by more mobile operators and more handset makers. Mr. Lees did not mention the new operators, but said the “addressable market” would be four times as large as it was for the original Windows Phone 7.

The handset makers in the fall will include the initial three for Windows Phone 7 — Samsung, LG and HTC. The new converts, Mr. Lees said, include Acer, Fujitsu and ZTE. And the big new partner, of course, is Nokia, which in February struck an alliance with Microsoft and declared it would abandon its smartphone software and adopt Windows Phone.

“Nokia brings scale and innovation to our ecosystem,” said Mr. Lees, who noted that Mango was already running Nokia phones in development.

“The stars are aligning,” he said. Mango, Mr. Lees added, represents “a tipping point of opportunity.”