Digital Life: Microsoft dials the right number at last

Almost everybody uses Windows computers but almost nobody uses Windows phones. Microsoft has long failed to translate its domination of the desktop into a foothold in the phone market.
So to try to compete with the iPhone, MS selected the nuclear option for the launch of Windows Phone 7 -- starting from scratch with new software and imposing strict quality control on the hardware makers who actually build the phones.
Thankfully, WP7 works nothing like Windows on your computer, which was the downfall of Microsoft's previous phone effort, a hostile and ugly beast known as Windows Mobile.
Intriguingly, the touchscreen-based WP7 doesn't much resemble the iPhone or the similar Android software either.
Instead of row upon row of icons, you're presented with a scrolling stack of 'tiles' representing the apps.
Some of these contain useful live information, such as the number of new emails and missed calls or upcoming appointments.
This fresh-looking style with its big, bold lettering gives you more information at a glance than the iPhone can.
Digging a bit deeper, it's easy to like how Microsoft has integrated features such as the Xbox Live gaming hub and photos from Facebook friends.
Music and video is slickly handled with an interface cribbed from Microsoft's Zune MP3 player.
As befits a premium device, all WP7 phones -- three models of which are available in Ireland -- are fast, powerful and loaded with goodies such as a five-megapixel camera.
But as much as Microsoft got right, version one of WP7 is far from perfect.
It took Apple a couple of revisions before the iPhone copperfastened its place as the smartphone king.
Windows Phone 7 still needs a similar amount of polish, leaving it a year or more behind where Apple and Android are at.
Some missing features, such as copy and paste and multitasking, may be added next year.
Others, such as the paltry current catalogue of about 1,000 apps, may never catch up. It's disturbing, too, that some apps are priced well above their iPhone equivalents.
The tiles concept starts to fall apart when you acquire more than a handful of apps, forcing you into endless scrolling to hunt for a specific item -- not helped by the lack of a search function.
Of the three WP7 phones on the Irish market, the HTC HD7 is the first available, costing €290 on the cheapest O2 contract.

Though a smidgin too large for some tastes, it's the best of the bunch that also includes the Samsung Omnia 7 and the LG Optimus 7.