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Know Your Mobile had a chat with Greg Sullivan, senior product manager of Windows Phone, about all things Windows Phone 8, Microsoft Surface, Xbox Live and why we won’t be seeing a Microsoft-built Windows Phone – at least, not yet. Here is part one of the interview.
Q: [Ben Griffin]How is Windows Phone doing in terms of sales? Obviously reviews have been positive but you haven't really said anything on this.
A: [Greg Sullivan]I don't have any data to share with you but I know we're seeing really positive trends from the launches of some of the new phones, the Lumia 900, the Titan II, both on AT&T in the States - I follow that pretty closely. We're seeing very positive trends.
I think the point we are at - 18 months after the original launch of Windows Phone 7 - is strong. If you look at Android, for example, or iPhone, people forget it took a while for those platforms to get established. Android didn't have 100,000 apps at this point.
From our perspective, there's really this sequence of events that each one is necessary but not sufficient to get us to where we need to be and we're accomplishing each of those in sequence to be where we need to be for the long term. It started with building a great piece of software that people love.
We only had Windows Phone in five languages on nine pieces of hardware in a relatively constrained regional availability so we knew that the kind of results that had on sales was predictable, right? When you go from global availability on hundreds of networks to five languages in not as many spaces on one kind of high-end phone you can expect what happens.
But we knew that some of that was going to happen because we knew our long-term strategy was dependant on building a phone that people would love, and really focusing on this user experience. So we started there and then we added the developer ecosystem and platform as you've got to have the apps. We just passed 100,000 - that seems to be a fairly significant milestone in terms of the platform getting to critical mass, and I think that's the point at which it gets easier to keep the flywheel spinning because you have this virtuous cycle that occurs - that's another thing that needed to happen.
Then what we've been doing over the course of the last several months, and in fact, just starting yesterday, to deliver what's been called the Tango MCR3 update - a commercial refresh that enables new devices and new languages, come to new markets, support for WCDMA in China, and then also the ability to shrink the footprint of the operating system so that manufacturers can build 256MB phones with a lower cost, devices like the Lumia 610.
Those dynamics really represent an expansion of availability. We get more regions, we get more networks we can run on in new parts of the world, more languages that we support in our user-interface and marketplaces, so we start with this good product, we get developer support, we get it available in more places as we continue to build more partnerships such as the one with Nokia but also our longstanding partnership with HTC, Samsung and others. We continue to work closely with mobile operators and then we do other marketing activities to generate awareness and continue all off the positive virtuous cycle of effects across our ecosystem, and it takes time. We're 18 months in and we take a long-term view.
One of the things you'll see us pretty explicitly do is align with Windows 8. One of the things we talked about last week was Windows Phone 8 has a Shared Core from an architecture standpoint and basically under the hood is Windows 8. And if you look at the user experience of Windows 8, it has kind of adopted our kind of style with Metro so they've adopted this symbiosis, this synergy between our mobile and desktop platforms that you'll see us highlight...Windows is such a big phenomenon in the industry that will generate awareness.
The user experience approach we've taken in Windows Phone, which, as you are experiencing, people really see the value in what we are trying to do here. We would argue that Android largely copied the iPhone interface. I think they have the ability to do widgets, which are different programs that are not necessarily related to the program that is installed on your phone but essentially they have taken the approach of multiple screens of icons that launch apps. And then even within them, the framework of the user experience has got this skewer orphism, - it's less Apple and less consistent. It's kind of all over the place a little bit. The idea is largely the same. It's like ‘here I am going to present you with this grid of icons and you launch app'.
We want to surface and integrate information so you can act on it, and spend less time digging around for apps. Our approach is catching on but we know that each of these things is necessary but not sufficient and we need to continue doing those things and that's what we will do.
Q: [Ben Griffin]How much of an impact will the way Windows Phone 8 is being deployed have on the future? We've had a Windows phone since day one and they are getting the 7.8 ‘stop-gap' update but not the full shared core and all of the other benefits. How much of an effect will that have going forward?
A: [Greg Sullivan] Well it is a generational shift for us architecturally and, we've really thought about it. We've really tried to do the right thing for all audiences and that means making Windows Phone 8 the best possible release we can, and so therefore we targeted the latest generation of hardware by building what are effectively primarily hardware-dependant capabilities that we achieve with this new core.
Right off the bat, it brings us support for multi-core CPUs [like with the Lumia 900], it brings us support for three new screen resolutions, it brings us support for removable SD cards and it brings us NFC in the platform.
So a lot of the work we did and a lot of the capability unlocked by this new core is directly or indirectly related to hardware, and the existing devices in virtually all cases don't have that hardware. It made more sense to focus on making Windows Phone 8 as good as we possibly could, fully exploiting this new generation of hardware. But then at the same time, [it needed to] do two very important things. The first is bringing the marquee user-interface change to existing phones with the new Start screen.
Q: [Ben Griffin]Do you think that's enough of a reward, then, and the idea is the new Start screen will entice people to take the plunge again? Because obviously they might be thinking ‘well, I didn't get Windows Phone 8 but I've only just bought a Nokia Lumia.' Is the Windows Phone 7.8 user-interface enough?
Well one of the things you'll see happen with the existing devices is that they will continue to improve. Windows Phone 7.8 will come and bring the new Start screen. Nokia is adding and improving services and applications like its map stuff. Nokia is also enabling new scenarios for the Lumia cameras, adding core functionality like internet connection sharing across the whole Lumia range, so we think the Lumia 900 you just bought or may buy tomorrow or next month will continue to improve very, very much over the life of the phone - and that's because Windows Phone is more than just the kernel.
While you're not getting the NT kernel on the Lumia 900, you are getting this most obvious user experience feature from Windows phone 8 so it will look and feel like Windows Phone 8. You'll get enhanced applications and services from Nokia, and all of the services Windows Phone connects to, which help really define the OS - things like SkyDrive, Xbox Live and the music service. All the services you connect to that are part and parcel of that core experience will continue to improve as well. So while it's true that you won't get the NT kernel on the existing devices, you'll get all of that other stuff.
Q: [Ben Griffin]Will the same level of support be applied to first-generation devices such as the HTC HD7 or the Trophy? Nokia has announced it will be looking after its user base - what about the older Windows Phone devices on Mango that are about to get Tango?
A: [Greg Sullivan] I don't know about specific announcements from other OEMs that are analogous to what Nokia is doing but the rest of value proposition is still there, the new Start screen will be made available for existing devices. We'll make sure with our mobile operator partners it is arranged on a given phone operator pairing.
I expect Nokia won't be the only one to continue to invest, add value and support its customers. But even if it is the only one, the other devices will continue to improve because they will be getting new services and software updates from Microsoft.
Q: [Ben Griffin]It seems like Microsoft is going for this ecosystem where everything in your home works seamlessly and has a purpose. Where do you see Windows Phone 8 fitting into this kind of ‘grand plan', as it were? We've seen lots of the bits of the puzzle but not how it all slots together - where does Windows Phone fit in?
A: [Greg Sullivan] It is an astute observation that we've got a lot of these elements but haven't quite snapped all of them into place. 2012 is the year that really happens, and I think Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 are a big part of it. Today we know people use sets of technology to get their jobs done, to stay in touch and to be entertained, right? We use our smartphones, we use our laptops, we use our tablets, we use the web, we use game consoles, we use TVs, we use web services at work, so all of these elements, we don't consider them as discreet platforms. We consider them as part of a broader platform that enables experiences that span multiple elements along that whole spectrum.
For example, today you can have a multi-point instant messaging conversation with one person on a Windows Phone, one person on a laptop, one person on Xbox. We've actually been able to do that for a while. I have a game on my Windows phone that I play on Xbox Live that if I get enough points on, I earn a special magical sword on the console version (referring to Fable Coin Golf, if you were interested). Apart from adding the game points, there's a meaningful additive experience by virtue of the fact they are both connected to the same and part of the same platform. So we'll continue to build in the ways that's meaningful.
SmartGlass is a good example. Xbox is innovated to have a rich entertainment experience that can be shared and incorporated into other devices, even if those devices don't come from Microsoft. This is an important aspect of our approach - we posit that all of these technologies such as the web, the tablet, the laptop, server at work and games console are all things we use and that [Microsoft] has the most complete and well integrated platform, if you define that as the platform, but our approach doesn't require that you have our components at every stop along the way.
Q: [Ben Griffin]Does that mean it's service agnostic?
A: [Greg Sullivan] Yes, it's service agnostic. It's a platform approach that says both our services are platform independent and our platforms are service independent. Just because we have a music service doesn't mean our platforms don't support others. We have a phone but that doesn't mean our mapping service or our gaming console requires you to have our phone to participate. So it's this level of choice in any direction at both the hardware component platform and at the service level. We think, and we'll argue, that if you have a Windows Phone, and Windows 8 and an Xbox, and Windows Live and SkyDrive, that you'll be able to do things that will be easier and better with our stuff, but largely - with some exceptions - you can plug in third-party components at a hardware or service layer. We don't have as much flexibility in, for example, third-party game consoles - the work just hasn't been done there. There's some industry-standard software, DLNA and things. And that's not because Microsoft hasn't done the work, it's for other reasons.
So I think in general the idea that it is all coming together and there will increasingly be scenarios that benefit you by virtue of having Microsoft hardware - you'll see that become more and more clear, but again, not to the exclusion of other platforms. We'll just make it better on ours.
When we fully roll out Windows Phone 8, you'll see more of the specific scenarios. We highlighted a little bit of that last week [at Microsoft's developer event] with an NFC mechanism - Joe Belfiore tapped the NFC and it launched a game, established a peer-to-peer Wi-Fi connection and then he was able to play real-time multiplayer gaming. There were some other content transfer scenarios.
Q: [Ben Griffin]Like the business card data transfer?
A: [Greg Sullivan] Yes. We really just showed a couple of things like the wallet experience and the start screen because those are the consumer-facing features of Windows Phone 8. We'll have a lot more to show closer to launch, including how all of these pieces will fit together and why it benefits you to have a Windows Phone and a Windows 8 PC. ###
Windows Phone 7.8 User-Interface Overview
Part two of Ben's chat with Greg Sullivan will be coming soon - stay tuned.
