The launch of Windows Phone 7 today marks an exciting and significant milestone in Microsoft’s strategy for delivering great software and services. As you heard earlier from Steve Ballmer, Windows Phone 7 delivers on Microsoft’s vision to provide truly integrated experiences for users that can be consumed on any device. It also marks a new era in our proposition for mobile operators. Windows Phone 7 is a different kind of phone — one that provides a unique user experience and creates unlimited opportunities for our operator partners.
Microsoft has a powerful consumer value proposition that comes from products and services spanning the game console (Xbox 360 with Kinect), PC (Windows 7), TV (Mediaroom), and phone (Windows Phone 7), brought together through the cloud. We’ve always believed that impactful consumer technology is greater than the sum of its parts, and this holiday season we’re bringing it all together with the support of our operator partners by offering users compelling connected services. From Xbox Live for games, Zune for music and video, Windows Live for Web-based e-mail, calendars, pictures and services, amazing search capabilities with Bing, and of course a growing list of games and applications that are increasingly available across multiple devices thanks to a common development platform and toolset — therein lies the magic of software.
For operators looking to differentiate their offerings in this intensely competitive market, being able to partner with a platform-company whose assets span PC, TV, phone and more opens up a myriad of new revenue streams and defines a path to winning the hearts of consumers. Microsoft’s partner strategy with Windows Phone 7, as well as our other consumer propositions, is to bring a great end-to-end experience to the market in a way that allows our service provider partners to differentiate themselves within the experience — for example, through customized Live Tiles on the home screen or unique content. In addition, our business models and commercial frameworks are designed to help service providers create additional value and share in the revenue across a set of experiences on the phone and in the cloud. With the combination of Microsoft’s software experience, great OEM partners, innovative hardware and service providers’ unparalleled reach and uniquely differentiated offerings, a new era has begun for the smartphone industry.
It’s not enough to have exciting games, intuitive e-mail, rich music, extensive social networking tools or even beautiful hardware to house it all. The magic comes when all of these things work together to bring the people and the things you care about closer, while simplifying your life. That’s what you’re seeing from Microsoft today, and we couldn’t be more excited about what lies ahead.
Tony Mestres, Vice President, Consumer Channels, Communications Sector at Microsoft
For additional information on Windows Phone 7, please check out the following:
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Windows Phone 7 Twitter account @windowsphone
