I took my iPhone and put it back into its box and placed it on the shelf. It would sit there on that shelf for a long time while I explored a new platform: Windows Phone 7. My mobile experience so far has been full of interesting ups and downs. At times I hardly missed my iPhone. Other times were spent cursing the new platform. It’s been just over 7 months of nothing but Windows Phone 7 and I’ve finally had enough. I will be putting the iPhone back off the shelf.

My initial impression of the new platform was positive. My overall experience was positive. I think the platform’s future looks positive. In fact, I’m positive this new platform will succeed. I’m also positive that it can’t currently compete with iOS.

Here’s my take on WP7 in all its infantile glory.

User Experience

Metro is refreshingly simple and perfectly suited for mobile where getting information quickly is given preference over UI candy. I image the lack of image-intensive, rounded, shadowed UI elements contributes greatly to the performance of the platform. While the new experience can be overwhelmingly different at first, it does end up feeling very natural. The typography is simple and helps with getting the UI out of the way and that’s a good thing. I think the design team did an impressive job with Metro.

Operating System

My absolute favorite feature of the new WP7 OS is wireless syncing. This is a killer feature and one that is sadly lacking from iOS at the moment. I almost never plugged my Windows Phone into my PC. I had no reason to. Instead, after 10 minutes on the AC adapter it would silently and automatically sync. This usually happened at night while I was sleeping. I’d wake up with all my content synced both ways. This feature will be missed greatly.

When I first picked up the Windows Phone I was appalled to see a physical back button. Without a valid reason I immediately hated the idea. Of course over time I grew to depend on that back button; often using it without thinking. The hardware back button also forces app developers to adopt a specific navigation model. I’ve not really decided if this is a good thing or not yet. Either way I find myself constantly reaching for the missing back button on my iPhone.

Marketplace & App EcoSystem

The problem here is the lack of developer support for the platform. Even hugely successful apps vendors like Rovio have publicly stated they are not sure when or if their apps will ever make it to the Windows Phone Marketplace. There are also no officially supported messenger apps for the platform. The apps on the marketplace are hard to find and most are poorly written and buggy. My experience so far has been a general lack of “there’s an app for that”.

Conclusion

The major issue is with the quality of apps available for platform and that’s not something I think Microsoft has a lot of control over. Maybe as the platform matures and gains more traction the big name developers will come on board and people can shoot birds from their Windows phones as well. In the meantime, this remains the single biggest factor in my leaving the platform.

I do believe Windows Phone 7 will be a contendor in the mobile space. It’s initial execution, while not perfect, was impressive. It was not as painful an experience as I expected and was actually pleasant at times. There are things I think WP7 does better that iOS but overall the platform is not there yet. It has a long way to go just to “catch up” with iOS which is itself constantly evolving. In the end I just missed my iPhone and the amazing apps available for it.