Why the Windows Phone browser has no tabs. Should it?

Microsoft’s newest Windows Phone browser (coming soon via the Mango software update) shows improvements, but tabs aren’t part of the redesign. According to the official Windows Phone blog, by way of Gotta Be Mobile, Microsoft’s research shows that an overwhelming number of smartphone users type out web URLs in the address bar, and that tabs and favorites are barely used at all. Both are still available through the browser’s menus in Mango, however.

With a relatively small screen to work with, I can understand the design trade-off to some degree, but it still feels like an omission to me. Perhaps I’m outside the normal user base of mobile devices, but my go-to browser on Android devices, Dolphin HD, does support traditional tabbed browsing, just like a desktop browser. I use the tabs feature extensively — as well as the favorites – even on the small screen of a smartphone. It’s support for tabs that first drew me to this third-party browser, although there are a number of other reasons I think every Android owner should try it.

While the IE9 browser in the newest version of Windows Phone has impressed me, it’s a little disappointing that Microsoft didn’t go further with the redesign. There’s a number of design options that would have allowed for tabs, favorites or other features in way that doesn’t require a menu button. We’ve seen this with Firefox Mobile, for example; swiping the screen left or right shows open tabs, favorites and settings through the clever use of virtual screen space, similar to Dolphin HD. Even a user-configurable option for tabs would be nice. Instead, IE9 in Mango replicates much of Safari’s look and feel on Apple’s iOS platform.

Again, maybe I’m in the minority. Perhaps most mobile users prefer to type their website addresses in or would rather have the small screen of a smartphone focus mainly on web content as opposed to tabs or on-screen menu options.

It likely depends on the display size on a device: A larger or higher-resolution screen — which new handsets are generally trending toward — may provide enough “room” for tabs and such. What’s your take? Do you want tabs in your mobile browser, or are you happy with tapping a menu option to switch between open sites?

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Mango for WP7 ready to roll within 2 weeks

After months of demonstrations and testing, Microsoft’s next major software update is nearly ready for Windows Phone 7 (WP 7) handsets. In a blog post today, the company said that existing smartphone owners can expect the software, known as Mango or WP 7.5, “in the next week or two.” The upgrade availability will vary based on carrier and smartphone model as it will also include hardware-specific updates from the original handset makers.

When it launched last year, my first impressions of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 showed a solid start but had plenty of room for improvement. The new Metro interface, application tiles and hubs showed me a fresh take on old touch interfaces while performance was reasonably good for a first iteration on hardware that was cutting-edge nearly a year prior. But unlike rivals such as Google Android and Apple iOS, Windows Phone 7 lacked multitasking, copy and paste functionality and a unified Inbox, to name a few. I also wasn’t sold on the home screen tiles, finding them to take took long to show useful information.

Then I tried the final developer version of Mango in early August. What a world of difference.

My tests were run on the same hardware I initially used last November and yet it felt like I had a brand new phone. It was as if someone replaced the processor on my HTC HD7 with a peppy dual-core unit while boosting the available program memory at the same time. Apps open faster and the entire interface moves along quicker. A nifty way to multitask was added — just hold the Windows button to see or switch between running apps — although developers will need to update their software to enable support.

Voice recognition, by way of Microsoft’s purchase of TellMe in 2007, is stellar; perhaps even better than it is on Google Android devices. A unified Inbox is now available and the mail client supports threaded conversations. Xbox Live integration is improved and the IE9 browser supports HTML5. And all the while that Microsoft has been working on Mango, it has been attracting developers and third-party applications; the platform now boasts more than 31,000 apps.

It’s certainly true that sales of Windows Phone 7 smartphones have underwhelmed and there are several reasons why. Few handset models are actually available and all use the same basic hardware. The application market, while steadily growing, pales in comparison to rival ecosystems. And the first software release lacked key features as I noted.

But now, nearly a year after first launching, I think Microsoft Windows Phone is set to gain momentum due to the improvements in the Mango software. Improved marketing may help and so too will new hardware from partners such as HTC and Nokia.

As Microsoft gains momentum, Research In Motion is losing it, Symbian didn’t have it, and HP’s webOS has completely lost it. That leaves Microsoft in a good spot in the race for the No. 3 mobile platform, just in time for the Mango software update.

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The connected planet: Smartphones aren’t the only player

The number of connected devices is steadily on the rise, but it’s not smartphones or computers that will lead us to the 50 billion connected devices expected by the year 2020. Rather, the Internet of Things — numerous smart objects that speak to the web and one another — is the next wave of wireless and will power a wide range of devices as we want remote access to everything all the time.

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Connected Consumer Q2: Digital music meets the cloud; e-book growth explodes

Not dead yet, Symbian getting Microsoft Office apps

Nokia phones running the new Symbian Belle software will gain more productivity applications in the form of Microsoft Office products. The first suite of tools, called Microsoft Apps, are expected by the end of the year with a widespread release in the beginning of 2012. A planned future update will bring Word, Power Point and Excel to Nokia’s recent smartphones by mid-2012.

Software in the first release will include Microsoft’s Lync 2010, OneNote, PowerPoint Broadcast and Document Connection, which includes SharePoint access. In addition to these and the release of the traditional Office productivity apps, Nokia says it’s also working with Microsoft to integrate mobile device management tools.

For a platform that’s essentially on a long-term death watch, the most progress I’ve seen in Symbian has been after Nokia decided to use Windows Phone for its future smartphones. It’s a bit of a head-scratcher, given that Nokia has publicly committed to support Symbian only through 2016.

Plans can change however, and I wonder if Symbian isn’t quite dead yet. Yes, as of now, Nokia is planning to shore up profits and market share with new Microsoft Windows Phone 7 hardware. But that hasn’t stopped the company from releasing new Symbian handsets, refreshing its old user interface with positive changes and now, adding productivity tools.

Granted, the recently launched handsets were likely already in the production pipeline. But if Nokia continues to invest in new Symbian hardware and major software updates — and sales begin to rise — Symbian could prove to finally be the platform it always had the potential to be for Nokia, a solid supplement to the company’s Windows Phone 7 devices and a backup plan for platform independence.

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What’s the best-case scenario for Nokia?

Nokia’s transition to Microsoft Windows Phone 7 software will cost Nokia far more market share and profits than it will ever gain by dumping the Symbian operating system. So says Tomi Ahonen, a former Nokia employee turned analyst/blogger in the mobile space. Ahonen outlines Nokia’s performance prior to the company’s February announcement of its partnership with Microsoft and sets expectations through 2013. His analysis follows Nokia’s news last week of tumbling market share, sales and revenues.

Until Stephen Elop left Microsoft for Nokia in September of 2010, however, Ahonen appeared convinced that Nokia’s Symbian strategy would eventually pay off, a scenario I disagreed with. The company’s hardware always impressed me, but in my opinion, it always lacked in user experience and software. That held true in my review of the Nokia N8 handset. Others would disagree, of course; more Symbian-powered smartphones have sold than any other platform, at least until last quarter, when Apple and Samsung both sold more smartphones than Nokia. And HTC is fast growing sales as well, thanks to its early adoption of Google Android.

Ahonen is still justifying his original belief in the Symbian strategy, saying that the platform had already improved enough to help grow sales:

Then came the new Symbian S^3 on several phones, led by the new flagship phone N8 which set a Nokia record for fastest sales in a quarter. All declining trends were turned into growth – this tells us the market loved Nokia’s new smartphones on the new Symbian S^3 operating system and this is absolute proof that Nokia was on a come-back. Whatever you may have thought of Symbian prior to Q4 of 2010, became obsolete. Nokia had indeed on its hands, a true hit series of phones and a hit operating system with the N8 setting internal Nokia records for new phone sales. Look at the facts. [Emphasis added by Ahonen]

I won’t argue with the numbers that Ahonen lays out, but I will point out that he’s missing one key number: overall market growth for smartphone sales. “A high tide will lift all boats” is a common phrase that applies, and even leaky boats will rise with the tide. Smartphone adoption is increasing around the world, and even the less competitive market players can see gains. Nokia’s smartphone sales in the final quarter of 2010 rose 7 percent, partially for this reason. But the overall market grew faster: IDC suggests that year-over-year growth in smartphone sales for all vendors was up 87.2 percent; Nokia accounted for the least growth out of the top five handset makers.

But Nokia’s Symbian past has little to with its Microsoft Windows Phone 7 future, and Ahonen’s model — meant to be simple — suggests that in a best-case scenario, for every WP7 phone Nokia sells, it will be offset by the loss of a Symbian sale. Essentially, the platform transition will be an even sales swap and by the end of 2013, Nokia will have a far lower market share than it has now:

So taking the very best case of 2012, using the best ramp-up ever, and then using the best case of growth in mass market scale, we get Nokia’s Microsoft Windows Phone 7 based smartphones – the very very best case scenario – to hit 20.3 million smartphones not at the end of 2011, not at the end of 2012, but the end of 2013. By that time, Nokia’s smartphone market share will be at . . . 8%.

The 20.3 million smartphone sales ten quarters from now seems low to me for two reasons. One is the growing smartphone market I made reference to earlier, which will help all smartphone platforms to some degree. The other is the timing, because the smartphone market is changing so quickly. If you don’t think so, look at Research In Motion, which is working through a transition of its own; the company is changing fast and as a result faces declining sales. It just reduced its workforce by 10 percent. When you’re in a fast-growing market and have to eliminate jobs, that means you’re either not competitive, not profitable or both.

In the end, Ahonen blames Elop’s decision, saying,

Before Stephen Elop killed Symbian, Nokia’s smartphone market share was 29%. Nokia towered over its rivals and was growing smartphone sales with highly desirable new smartphones. Today just five months after his ridiculously-timed announcement of Microsoft, Nokia’s smartphone market share is down to 15% and collapsing.

I agree with Ahonen that Nokia’s market share is collapsing; we’ve already seen evidence of that. And by publicly stating that Symbian was a dead end, Elop may have added more stress to an already fragile public perception. But I think it was the right call. Had Symbian continued along a path where it underwhelmed, Nokia would run the risk of having that negative vibe transfer to new Microsoft-powered phones. In fact, I wonder if Microsoft made this part of the overall deal, simply to avoid such a scenario?

Regardless of my different reasoning from Ahonen’s, I think we can both agree: No matter how sad it is to see the mighty fall, Nokia’s best days are behind it.

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