Windows Phone 7: To be or not to be in the enterprise?

Smartphones running the Windows Phone 7 Series operating system will come with Word and other Office features, but whether they will be good business tools remains a subject of considerable disagreement. As Microsoft dribbles out information about the platform this week at its MIX10 Web developer conference, industry observers are discovering some serious limitations for enterprise users.

For one, Win Phone 7 will not allow users to cut and paste, Chris Ziegler at Engadget wrote this week. According to Ziegler, Microsoft officials insist that the clipboard feature isn't really needed by Office users. Ziegler isn't the only one to disagree with the Redmond, Wash., giant on this one.

Meanwhile, Network World's John Cox reported several other factoids that might impede the productivity quotient in Win Phone 7 devices. Multi-tasking, particularly the kind that developers do, will not be facilitated. If a user switches programs, the initial one will pause and may even shut down if the OS needs to draw on additional memory. The devices will not run native applications, and there will be limited database options available on them. Cox presents these and five other Win Phone 7 tidbits revealed at the MIX10 conference this week.

Not to be out-listed, eWeek's Don Reisinger suggests 10 reasons why Win Phone 7 needs enterprise users to succeed. Reisinger argues that Microsoft will have a hard time going up against Apple's iPhone OS and Google's Android, neither of which places much focus on the business sector. But if Microsoft can make Win Phone 7 appeal to businesses, it might just gain a foothold in an already competitive market. "After seeing its mobile market share plummet at the hands of Apple and Google, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 Series is the software giant's chance at regaining its position in the market," Reisinger writes. "That will only come with the enterprise's help."

Microsoft has said repeatedly that the new mobile operating system will evolve, and perhaps the company will take enterprise concerns to heart. In the meantime, how many iPhone users do you know who are planning to swap out the iconic Apple device for a Win 7 phone?

For more:
- read Chris Ziegler's post [1] at Engadget
- read John Cox's article [2] at NetworkWorld
- read Don Reisinger's analysis [3] at eWeek

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Pushing forward with Windows Phone 7 Series [5]
SOUND OFF: What Windows Phone 7 means for the enterprise [6]