Mango Phone 7 Update Enhances User Experience (NewsFactor)

Ramping up its effort to break into a smartphone market that seems to be passing it by, Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled the first major update to Windows Phone 7, seven months after the software giant introduced the revamped mobile operating system. Nicknamed Mango, the update will enhance the social-media connectivity of Windows phones, an effort in which Microsoft failed terribly last year when it briefly featured a series of Kin phones centered on quick-share options.

In a series of media events around the world Tuesday, Microsoft officials demonstrated enhancements to its live-tiles system allowing dedicated space for updates from groups or individuals as well as localized search for Bing; smart camera operation through Bing Vision that allows scanning of bar codes or searching based on pictures or text; and Music Search, which allows users to hold up their phone to listen to, identify and download songs, as users of Verizon's VCAST can do.

Pushing Boundaries

In the biggest nod to the social-media addicted, Mango will allow threads to incorporate texts, Windows Live Messenger messages, and Facebook chats into a single conversation.

In all, Mango has 500 new features the company says will "push the boundaries of the smartphone experience around communications, apps and the Internet."

The timing for updates of existing phones wasn't announced, but a new Phone 7 devices are due this fall from Fujitsu, Acer and ZTE that will ship with Mango, as will upcoming Nokia devices.

Finland-based Nokia recently signed a deal estimated to be worth $1 billion to replace its Symbian operating system with Phone 7 on many devices.

Currently, Phone 7 is available on a handful of smartphones made by HTC, Samsung, LG and Dell.

Microsoft also announced added support for additional languages, and expanded access to Windows Phone Marketplace in 19 new countries. The beta software developer kit for creating Mango apps is also available now.

"Seven months ago we started our mission to make smartphones smarter and easier for people to do more," said Andy Lees, president of the mobile communications business at Microsoft. "With Mango, Windows Phone takes a major step forward in redefining how people communicate and use apps and the Internet, giving you better results with less effort."

Still Trailing

According to Gartner Research, sales of Phone 7 devices made up 6.8 percent of the global market in the first quarter, almost unchanged from the previous quarter and still trailing Symbian (44.2 percent), Research In Motion's BlackBerry (19.7 percent), Apple's iOS (15.3 percent), and Google's Android (9.6 percent.)

Can Mango give Phone 7 a boost?

"It's always hard to judge when you have not actually played with the device, but certainly it looks like on paper they are improving the experience in social, Internet and apps -- three core aspects of what users do with smartphones," said Gartner Vice President Carolina Milanesi. "It's good to see that [the] Nokia [deal] has not put off vendors and new licensees were announced today. Not sure this is much about hardware, to be honest. This is about delivering a stronger experience on whatever hardware you have, and having had hardware at the launch might have taken away from what matters, which is the software."

But she said what devices use Windows is secondary to making the user experience more sexy as an interface, an area where Android and iOS have excelled. "This is what Mango is trying to address," she said. "Having had this at launch would have made (Phone 7) a stronger proposition from the get-go."

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Gaining marketing experience from scratch: The Rob Shoesmith story (Appolicious)

The growing market for mobile device applications has changed the way some businesses promote products and services to customers, and it has changed another thing too – the way some marketing professionals break into the business. One example is Rob Shoesmith.

Shoesmith got his start marketing mobile applications by promoting an app he conceived, but did not develop. MEDL Mobile, a mobile application design studio based in California, launched the Problem Halved app in 2009, which is a venue for users to enter and help solve a variety of problems. Shoesmith submitted the idea for the app, and dozens of other app ideas, to MEDL Mobile’s App Incubator, which allows anyone to submit ideas for apps.

Shoesmith said it took the company a couple of months to complete its development process, and during that time he spent 30 to 40 hours a week researching media outlets and contacts that might be interested in covering the app, as well as preparing a news release.

However, 29-year-old Shoesmith, a Coventry, England, native who went to the University of Derby for Internet Marketing before dropping out for financial reasons, decided to pitch his story with something other app developers didn’t – his own life story.

Shoesmith was a bin man, or, as it’s known in the U.S., a trash collector. Several outlets picked up the rags-to-riches story of a garbage man turned app marketer, and Problem Halved took off. Today, the app has been downloaded tens of thousands of times, Shoesmith said.

iPhone users weren’t the only ones that noticed Shoesmith’s story. MEDL Mobile has since hired him to work part-time promoting other apps.

“Because I personally had a lot of success with my application Problem Halved a couple years ago, and MEDL saw that I sort of had like a knack and passion for it, they asked me to help out other people in a similar situation to myself to generate media interest, and a buzz about their apps really,” Shoesmith said.

In his work for MEDL Mobile, Shoesmith said he worked with other people that had great ideas for apps, and helped them attract media attention by providing a personal back-story with their ideas. Every app is like its own business, and Shoesmith’s experience promoting his own apps can be applied to others to make them profitable, he said.

Shoesmith said he expects his marketing work at MEDL Mobile to become a full-time position in the coming months. When he first found the App Incubator, he saw it as a way to get his foot in the door.

“I knew that if I went to a marketing or PR agency and said, ‘Look, give me a job,’ with no disrespect to people that do that type of job, I wouldn’t think that I would get to the next stage,” Shoesmith said. “So I thought I’ve got to think a little bit outside the box.”

While his workload increases with MEDL Mobile, Shoesmith said he is also planning a stunt to coincide with the release of the iPhone 5, which has been rumored to release in October. He plans on camping in line in front of the Apple Store in London on Regent Street awaiting the release of the new iPhone. Shoesmith has begun soliciting products and services from companies for his stunt, and hopes to attract significant media attention.

So far manufacturers have sent him a bag for his gadgets, a Paper Jamz guitar and recycled clothes pegs to hang up a line of laundry, he wrote on his blog. Restaurants have agreed to deliver food, a fitness trainer has committed to helping him stay in shape while in line, and a salon has agreed to style his hair.

“The whole point of the experiment really is to see how much free products and media attention I can generate indirectly from Apple, because Apple is such a hot topic of conversation online on tech blogs and in mainstream press,” Shoesmith said. “So I’m just seeing how absurd it can be.”

Shoesmith said he’s going to blog from outside the Apple store. He said he may have a lot of time on his hands, perhaps 48 hours. Shoesmith said he may ask companies to provide entertainment on the streets. He said all the products will be donated to a charity after the experiment.

Shoesmith’s path from bin man to app marketer illustrates an unconventional career path in a cutting-edge technology industry. He pursued his desired profession in Internet marketing by following tried-and-true methods, despite not completing a college degree.

“If people want to change jobs or get into a new vocation, then a lot of it can be self-taught, and you don’t necessarily have to spend thousands of pounds on college education,” Shoesmith said. “Yes, it is useful, but sometimes you do need the practical application of actually going out and doing stuff rather than being shown examples. It’s all well and good to have the theory behind a subject, but it’s the actual doing that makes the idea great.”

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