A web site called InsideMicrosoft has managed to get its hands onto a paper covering many aspects of Windows Mobile 7. Currently, the authenticity has not been confirmed - but some of it sounds rather plausible(even though there seems to be no actual screenshot in here - all of it are mockups). Here is a short summary of the changes:
General UI concepts
This release of Windows Mobile is targeted at one-handed usage; people using the touchscreen should touch the screen with their fingers rather than a stylus. The product will use its integrated camera for “motion capture”; physical gestures like shaking the phone will be used for some functions.
For example, shaking the phone left and right allows you to navigate forward and back in Internet Explorer:
Tap “bubbles”; ribbons
The device will feature a variety of ribbons that can be tapped with a finger(no idea how they want to do that…a toolbar that’s tappable…like 1cm² icons???). The user interface will prioritize icons somehow; and will act similar to an iPhone’s by popping up a bigger icon showing the currently-selected icon:
My conclusion
The document states that Windows Mobile 7 will hit the road 2009. That means that they still have more than one year to go; and Microsoft is known for changing its plans significantly while a product is actually being coded.
If Windows Mobile really ships in the form shown above, many business customers would insist on being able to get back to the classic UI. If it really materializes, this UI will be little more than yet another UI frontend, joining the likes of Palm’s and T-Mobile’s.
WM devices always stood out from the crowd by having MORE features than the rest - iPods and iPhones rarely get bought for the hundreds and hundreds of things that they can do. Thus, I am pretty sure that Microsoft won’t kill its classic UI system dead…
What do you think?
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