Windows Phone 7 is all about content

Microsoft unveiled its long-awaited release of Windows Phone 7 this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and content was front and center in the announcement:

• Zune: Microsoft has made Zune services available for Windows Phone 7 users meaning they can access it in the same way iPhone users can access iTunes from the iPhone.
• XBox Live: Microsoft has made XBox games available as a service for Windows Phone 7 opening up the phone as a lucrative platform for the XBox games market.
• Microsoft Office Hub: Here's the key piece for you content managers out there. Users will be able to access Microsoft Office, One Note and SharePoint along with email and appointments.

Sure, you can argue that this was a long-time coming, but for Microsoft-centric enterprise settings this is a huge development because it means you can hand out one of these phone to your employee and the rest should be easy from a back-end management perspective.

The real issue out there is the gap between a demo at a conference and the reality of the finished product. How well all of this works in practice is all that matters, and we won't know that for a long time until the phones hit the market and employees start testing them in earnest under real conditions.

Regardless, if you are using SharePoint and Office, the prospect of having a series of handsets that are potentially completely compatible with what you are doing on your in-house servers has to make you smile. Only time will tell, however, if it actually works in practice.

For more information:
- see the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 press release

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