Windows Phone 7 will sync 'select content' with Macs

I'd take objection to that.

I think Apple's iTunes for Windows is bloated, yes, but it does a damn good job of delivering essential functionality (music, video, contacts, photos, etc) that an iPod or iPhone user needs to take advantage of their device.

If Microsoft doesn't at least make all the WP7 phone features available for Mac users, they will have signaled that they don't want Mac users as their customer base = automatically writing off 10% of their market.

It doesn't have to do it well (see iTunes), but it has to work.

If MS's solution is to provide a version of ActiveSync to connect to iTunes, it can stay far away from me.

I was tortured for a decade with Windows Mobile (all versions) and Active Sync with multiple WM PDAs & Phones. "Reliability" was one of the two words that is totally alien to MS' mobile devices division; "Stability" is the other. (hourly warm rebooting is a WIM "feature"..). Even my Newtons were better developed than any of the WM devices I suffered with. I don't care what they claim to do, just keep that crap far away from my PCs, Macs, and definitely don't go near my iDevices.

I am a mac user and currently own an iPhone. WM7 have many great things going for it, it looks very slick compared to anything out there (except for the home screen which I don't care for much at all) and it does seem to offer great cross-application functionality that the iPhone sorely lacks (even though I couldn't care less about social networking).

The requirements on hardware is the second best to actually making it yourself, and there fore WM7 will be a better experience than Android and the fragmentation should not be a big problem.

When I'm up for a new phone in 6 months I will consider a WM7 phone, albeit there are still unknowns that will make or break it for me:

- The appstore is a big big big selling point at the moment, and if I have to give up functionality due to apps (mainly news apps and puzzle games) not being available on WM7, I am unlikely to take the plunge. I don't need 250,000 apps, but I do hope that small games (eg Ragdoll 1) will be available alongside the large titles like NFS (don't like them on phones anyway).

- Hardware - pre-iPhone 4, iPhones was niether prettier nor more well built than some of its competitors out there. Now, they are miles apart and HTC and the likes have to make something radical (I like unibody, but they are dreary brown/grey) in order to catch up. The phones on offer at the moment does not blow anybody's mind.

I didn't buy a mac because I like the iPhone (the mac came first in my case) and I don't think that having either of them should play any part in buying the other, and Microsoft are doing itself a great disservice if they do not offer the full experience on macs as well, especially after coming up with a very compelling alternative to the iPhone. Many Apple users were drawn in by iOS devices but also because of Microsoft failings, if Microsoft can come up with alternatives, I think that people who have already jumped ship would jump again if incentivised enough.

And I do not like the article at all, competition is good and if WM7 can force Apple into making the annoying things in iOS better, then all are winners, even the ones that would never move (Android has certainly failed miserably in competing in my mind). Credit where credit's due, a large behemoth took a look in the mirror and recognised its failings, not many companies do that nowadays (Apple need a dose of that too).

Indeed, it is the clarification of what "select content" is defined as that worries me. Clearly I am not expecting DRM content from iTunes to play on the Windows Phone 7 devices and if it is only this content that does not sync then that's fine. However, if the Mac software is going to have further restrictions then I'm going to pass. If you can't enjoy the full experience as the manufacturer intended it (for better or for worse) then there's little point in buying the device.

I guess it will sync with your files on the Mac that are not DRM protected. And why not? It is right that yiu can listen to your music via any channel you chose.

But DRM protected files, like Movies, cannot be synced as Apple does not share its Fairplay DRM scheme. The studios win again and meet their goal of controlling the media delivery chain.

Wnat a movie on your Windows phone? Buy it again.

I don't understand the negative and condescending overtones of this article. The fact that Microsoft is even writing a Mac client to sync some Windows Phone content is pretty significant. Not everyone wants to or can use an iPhone; this will provide Mac users with an option they didn't have before.

As for playing catchup to the iPhone, I both agree and disagree. Apple's UI looks great, is very functional and fun, but is getting a bit stale. It's notification system is terrible compared to Android's, and Steve Job's aversion to buttons really gets on my nerves. Ask any Palm Pre or Android user how convenient it is to have either a back button/gesture or dedicated camera button. In my opinion, Windows Phone 7 is really compelling- it may not be as pretty as iOS, but it looks like it has great potential.

Except Apple actually has to treat PC iTunes users properly as they probably outnumber the Macs something like 8:1.

More imitations of apple. Yawn.

The greater problem is how long the vendors will support the hardware with firmware upgrades. In my brief flirtation with Window Phone, the OEMs (Dell, Samsung, HTC) supported the hardware, just until you left the cell phone store. Six months later, when a new, updated version of the firmware was announced, the customer was SOL and stuck with a craptastic, obsolete piece of hardware.

Palm tried spoofing the Pre's USB ID to make it look like an iPod. So it could sync with iTunes. LOL. Worked out great for Palm, as we all know.

I wonder if Ballmer is going to try that with WP7.