Before we start using Windows Phone 7, we should understand the philosophy behind the new design. Code Name for the new design is “METRO”. It is called so, because it is clean and modern. To understand the Metro Design in detail, you can read the document by Microsoft Windows Phone Design System – Codename Metro.
As you can see in the document, we see signs everywhere, either at the Hotel, Railway Station or Airport, we follow the clear and crisp signals which help us to reach our destination easily in our daily life, as shown in some of the pictures below.
The new Windows Phone UI is responsive and very light, it is clean and has white space for a better experience. Its not a fancy design but it is built with a purpose to make end user’s life simpler. The Phone gives priority to the Content, which is of most importance.
Windows Phone reflects who you are. it contains the information which is relevant to you and what you need.
Other phones in the market use the switching between one App to another App experience, while the Windows Phone 7 has Live Tiles which shows real information on the start screen itself. Back Button helps the users to move back which makes it convenient to navigate. App can be pinned to the start screen based on the user’s requirement.
The whole Windows Phone 7 experience is called Hub Experience as it has:
- People Hub
- Photo & Video Hub
- Music Hub
- Office Hub
- Application Hub
Below is the basic Framework details of the Windows Phone 7
Silverlight is the core application development framework for the phone. Top most layer is the CLR (Common Language Runtime) layer. Applications are deployed on top of this model.
Hardware
All manufacturers will have to include the basic three hardware buttons in the Windows Phone 7, they are Back, Start and Search (shown in below picture).
Windows Phone 7 Hardware Buttons |
Hardware specifications of Windows Phone 7 are as follows:
CPU : ARMv7
The touch screen will have capacitive touch with 4 or more contact points.
Sensors will include A-GPS, Accelerometer, Compass, Light and Proximity.
Camera will be 5 mega pixels or higher.
Memory will be 256 MB or more, 8 GB Flash or more.
GPU will have DirectX 9 acceleration.
Hardware keyboard is an optional component of the phone, hence the developer should keep that in mind and develop the apps accordingly.
In the coming blog posts, I will cover Windows Phone 7 in more detail, which will explain how the apps model work.
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