Windows Phone Mango update will bring many, 500 to be exact, features to Microsoft’s second shot at the mobile OS market. Quite a few are under-the-hood developments that assist app developers to integrate their apps better into the OS leading to a better user experience. Some are a bit more noticeable, like the ability to multi-task, a blazing new browser and a few subtle changes to the UI in general. While this is definitely the right direction for Microsoft, they still have quite a bit of work to do if they are planning to become the market leaders. Here are a few things we would like to see in future iterations of WP OS.
Increase the Screen Resolution: The folks at Redmond should bump the screen resolution to the upcoming standard in high end devices: qHD (540x960p). This provides a beautiful 16:9 aspect ratio. The new and improved browser would make full use of those extra pixels and apps would be tailored to fit those high-res. screens, something Android won’t be achieving anytime soon.
Multi Core Optimization of the Kernel: Since dual-cores are the latest fad in the mobile computing market it would be nice to see Microsoft optimizing their future versions to make full use of the added cores.
Increase Minimum Storage Requirements: Now, since multi-tasking has been added some extra memory might be required to keep those fluid animations stutter free even with half a dozen apps suspended in the background waiting to be reopened.
Resizable tiles in the Homescreen: Apple’s unwillingness to allow even basic customization was (and still is to a large extent) Android’s biggest advantage. So to avoid this folly allow those live tiles to be resized (with sensible restrictions) to the user’s will. It IS their phone after all.
File Management: A system wide file manager that would allow the user to access all his installed apps, images, videos and music and be able to delete or move them as per his choice is a must. Come on Microsoft, you created Xplore, the best File manager on a mobile platform. Redo it for your latest mobile OS.
Screen Shot: This is one of those things that make Apple’s OS standout in the crowd: its ability to capture screen shots as easy as holding down the power and home button simultaneously. With a two level camera button present in all devices, holding down the camera button to the first step and the power button to capture a screenshot is a nifty little feature that we’d love to see soon. It’s currently available as a hack as mentioned in this post.
Front Facing Camera: This has been expected since Microsoft announced it's intentions of buying skype (read: facetime was launched). Maybe a 1.3 MP AF camera as a minimum requirement to keep it above the slew of pointless (worthless) front-facing-cameras on board today. Skype bundled with the OS and a FFC makes perfect sense.
Custom Colors: As in the previous point, customization (even to a small level) is appreciated by all. It allows users to differentiate their phones from one another. Give a few options to add a few colors of our own by mixing a couple or so (think MS Paint) to the background and tiles and also save it (Think themes). Dual cores are quite capable aren’t they?
Movie, Music etc. Store: What App store were a few years ago, online movie and music stores are now. The idea of buying/renting your music or movies online and storing your entire library up in the cloud has caught on. A store that blends well with Microsoft’s app store allowing users to buy music from their WP device or PC or even their Xbox and allowing them to share it with their other registered devices would always be welcome.
More Functionality to Windows Live: HTC has got quite a large market in the Android department (from which Microsoft earns a lot). This could be due to their cloud based service: htcsense.com. It’s a privilege for all those with the devices supported by HTC. Turning Windows live to something similar and allowing users to add custom themes (point 5) locate their phone, and maybe even use it to send a text or two. Merging Windows Live to the market place sounds like a very interesting possibility that holds a lot of possibilities for Microsoft’s aim of Mobile OS domination
A new logo/avatar: Above all, the most important and urgent thing for Microsoft to do is to get a cute logo and perhaps an avatar that suits their latest OS. Something similar to a little green man.
UPDATE: Two new additions have been made in this wishlist. The file management and a front facing camera.
