Photo: Microsoft

A Microsoft executive recently showed off the same game being played on a Windows PC, Xbox Live and Windows Phone Series 7 at a conference in Dubai, demonstrating that their ambitious Live Anywhere project is finally coming to fruition.

Convergence at work

Possibly more impressive than the game – an Indiana Jones-like platformer – being played on all three devices was that the session was maintained, too. This is a fancy way of saying your progress on each platform is tracked so that you can pick up where you left off even on a different platform.

Imagine starting your game on your PC at work when your employers aren’t watching, of course, continuing at your previous save point on your Windows Phone Series 7 device on the bus or train home and switching over to your Xbox 360 when you get home. The devices and the games would merely sync in the background.

Live Anywhere, finally

Photo: Microsoft

Long time Xbox 360 gamers won’t be all too impressed with this, considering Microsoft promised this feature a long time ago in what the company called Live Anywhere. The strategy was to make Live its own autonomous platform, accessible from any Internet-capable Microsoft device to give the user complete control.

Vertical integration a thing of the future

Most large technology companies have begun to realise the value of properly integrating all of their properties for cross compatibility. While this may seem a no-brainer to consumers, corporate structures have always made it so that different divisions have had a hard time talking to each other.

Apple has been leading the pack since 1998 with its iTunes platform expanding to connect its iPods, iPhones and the soon-to-be-released iPad, as well as collapsing whole products into others, as is seen with the iPhone having a fully capable iPod built in.

Google has centralized its various apps and hopes Google ID will allow consumers to transition between, and discover, different web apps seamlessly.

Photo: Sony

Sony, who have been slow to get off the mark, have long been begged to add some extra PS3 functionality to their Bravia range of LCD TVs, as well as getting the Playstation and Sony Ericsson groups talking, which seems to be the case with the rumoured iPhone-iPad competitor products.

Microsoft, however, has probably wowed the most, with software that works today on the PC, Windows Phone Series 7 and the Xbox 360, with 90% identical code. Live anywhere, now.

Photo: Microsoft

The Mobile World Conference is well and truly under way and the rumoured Windows Mobile 7 operating system has been confirmed. Abandoning the ‘Windows Mobile’ moniker, the official name is now Windows Phone Series 7. Other than changing the platform’s name, Microsoft has overhauled the entire product. This new mobile operating system uses completely new code and a refreshing interface akin to that found in Zune.

Unlike Microsoft

Photo: Microsoft

One cannot emphasise enough how much of a departure this platform is from Windows Mobile 6.5. Gone is the desktop-mimicking start button, replaced by an entirely new interface with customisable tiles that behave as a launching pad for the user’s favourite functions. The interface resembles the Zune HD’s, with large clickable icons that mean the outdated stylus can now be tossed for good. The marvel is that for a company of Microsoft’s size that has become known for slight improvements on their products rather than revolutionising them, the Windows Phone 7 Series is as astounding as it is unexpected.

Functions and specifications

Photo: Microsoft

The mobile operating system is heavily focused on social networking and integrates with Microsoft’s other platforms, namely Zune and Xbox Live. Zune’s interface will be a direct port for the stand-alone players, while Live will provide profiles, avatars and Live games.

Microsoft has also abandoned its strategy of allowing various carriers to modify the interface as they see fit. Additionally, the company has stringent specifications on screen resolution, processing speed, memory, button layout and other handset requirements. What these two measures mean is that, regardless of handset manufacturer, the Windows Phone Series 7 will look and behave the same on all devices and, in addition, will have equal performance capabilities across all mobile devices. This will allow Microsoft to both avoid the fragmentation of its platform, as well as create an app store with applications supported across devices.

Manufacturer and carrier partnerships

Dell, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, Qualcomm, Garmin-Asus, HP, LG and HTC are confirmed to support the Windows Phone Series 7. Samsung, who have their own operating system, Bada, in the pipeline, and HTC, who’ve indicated they intend on increasingly supporting Android OS in lieu of the Windows Phone 7 Series, are in precarious positions now that Microsoft’s operating systems have arrived, so to speak.

From a carrier perspective, AT&T will be the premiere carrier in the US, with Orange being the premiere carrier in Europe. T-Mobile, Telefonika, Sprint, Verizon and SFR have also been confirmed as carrier partners.

Microsoft rolls a 7

Photo: Apple

This was billed by all as Microsoft’s final roll of the dice in the mobile operating system market, and the Redmond-based company rolled lucky number 7. The tech press, if the reaction of the audience in the press conference is anything to go by, hotly anticipates the Windows Phone Series 7. Scheduled to launch in the 2010 holiday season – that’s around November – this latest mobile operating system appears to be a worthy contender for iPhone OS and Android both. It may take a while still for the disbelief to dissipate, but Microsoft have risen to the call to get with the times by seemingly leapfrogging everybody else altogether.