Xbox Live is the Hook That Will Sell Windows Phone 7, says Microsoft

The best feature of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft’s mobile operating system, is one that will differentiate it from the rest of the smartphone platforms on the market: Xbox Live integration. This feature will help players carry their online persona into the real world, said Matt Thompson, general manager of developer and platform evangelism for Microsoft. Thompson made the comments at the GigaOm Mobilize conference in San Francisco today.

[donniebaseball]

Probably won't be enough for the mass Iphone audience to care

[Raikiri]

its not targeted on the iphone audience rather gamers on xbox live who also like social networking

[Cevapi88]

so wait? on top of paying for the phone, plus the monthly charges, are you going to be paying a Live fee??

[number47]

Cevap, what do YOU think?

M$.

[Active Reload]

Are you telling people they have to pay for Live twice? If so, where is the link?

[Trebius]

He's saying you have to pay PERIOD.

[BattleAxe]

I just bought an HTC: Desire with Google Android OS and I'm lovin it so far. Since Google and Sony seem to be planning some future ventures, I wonder if a PSN App might be in the works.

[SeNiLe911]

You will only need a free Silver account with Windows Phone 7.

[Raikiri]

hes talking about the monthly charges for the phone.

@Cevapi88

you pay for internet to play on PSN right?

so why wouldn't i? its not like they are forcing me and i already pay monthly charges for my phone..so now i get more value for the same amount of money

[SilentNegotiator]

Well, Xbox LIVE charges might be enough to have it last longer than the kin.

[cyborg6971]

Any phone with windows mobile is a joke. Android all the way baby.

[beardpapa]

They should be more worried about the android market. With motorola/htc, those droid commercials we see, and a growing android market, it'll be a tough battle for MS market WP7 successfully. Live + WP7 itself isn't enough to justify someone into switching over for social networking purposes. There's a reason why people these days still use their iPhone or Droid to do facebook/twitter. Their friends are on there. Their coworkers are on there. They have family on there. You don't see your average joe or jane walking around with their iPhone/Droid checking out their XBL avatar or gamerscore. With that point, it seems they are only targeting the people that use their services (MSN, Live) and prospective social networking apps, and abandoning the core WinMo users (<6.5) who originally sought Windows Mobile phones for business purposes and not entirely social networking. Oh and I've seen WP7 do Word/Excel and it looks fantastic, but it just seems MS is targeting the wrong crowd trying to grab someone else's market audience, when they should be focusing and providing support to their appropriate end users.

[MrMccormo]

Xbox Live is not the hook it once was.

[pimpmaster]

yea cause theres nothing i want more than paying 60$ a year for 'xbox live' on a cellphone, in addition to my montly charges.

[dragunrising]

Just like with Xbox Live on the PC, Windows Phone will not require a membership to access its online gaming capabilities. Not sure when people started to spread misinformation, however, they should grow up.

[Seijoru]

or the android audience.

[Blaze929]

yeah, because no one buys phones to talk anymore.

[gamingdroid]

I think it is going to be more towards the people that would typically buy a PSP Go, but wants a phone as opposed to the iPhone crowd. The Android people don't really care for games as far as I can tell.

[dragunrising]

The Android "people" don't really care for games? I have a Droid, and game on it. Also, judging from the thousands of people that buy games from the Android Marketplace, I'm not the only one.

The iPhone may get the better games and sooner, however Android is starting to get much better games. Windows Phone should have great games as well.

[Longrod_Von_Hugendon]

say what?

[DailyAddict]

Have any of you actually been followed Windows 7 features/announcements? It's garbage. No copy/paste. No tethering. Retarded looking OS. Missing major features across the whole platform and only AT&T and probably T-Mobile will even carry it at launch because Verizon said they pretty much have no interest in it.

It's the Kin Adult. And, just like the Kin, it will get erased from the face of the planet 3 months later. If there's one thing Microsoft really doesn't know how to do well it's anything related to mobile products, as Windows Mobile has always been garbage and Windows 7 mobile is just looking like slightly nicer looking garbage.

Mark my words, it's a failure right now and Xbox Live won't save it.

[Active Reload]

You forgot to mention Telstra, Verizon, Orange...

[dragunrising]

Your little rant is misinformed and filled with conjecture...none of which is well thought out.

Lets break apart your "comment" will we?

Windows 7 doesn't have copy/paste, teethering, etc...
Probrably the biggest ommision. Although we are so soon to forget that the iPhone only recently aquired it. Also, when is the last time you used copy and paste on a cellphone? Not only is it awkward to use on my Droid but not practical. If your computer was missing copy and paste...now that would be a big deal.
The same goes with teethering. Ask anyone with teethering how much battery life they're able to get when they teether. Teethering is still not practical as you only get a couple hours at most.

Retarded OS? It all depends on your preferences. Many people find the interface intuitive and attractive. If YOU don't, no big deal. Plenty of people like it.

Verizon has no interest in Windows Phone? LOLOLOL!!!! Good one. Actually, Microsoft decided to release Windows Phone 7 for GSM frequencies first. Most of the world uses GSM and the world is not US. What makes most sense: releasing the phone to a hundred million potential users in the US, or a billion world wide to GSM carriers?

Kin Adult? Have you personally used a Kin, Windows Mobile 6.5 or Windows Phone 7? If not, actually use them before you make yourself sound like a fool.

[2late]

who couldn't give 2 fucks about xbox live? If that's all they got riding on the phone it's doomed to failure

[Adrela]

If that's the case, it makes me wonder why you clicked this article...

[Longrod_Von_Hugendon]

to witness the carnage.

[THC PRITCHARD]

Lol

[Vegetom]

And it won't be available until April or even later in 2011 in the Netherlands.. :')

[Bazookajoe_83]

So i hope for their sake that windows phone 7 will be better. But i doubt many iphone or android users will jump on that train.

[SeNiLe911]

I've had iPhone's and I have an Android at the moment, but come October 11th or early November or whenever it's released, I will get the Windows Phone 7 day ONE.

People are over the iPhone! All it is is an app luncher. Android does a little better with widgets, but the Windows Phone 7 is so much more and the only phone that will have Xbox Live!

Even Sony wants a piece of the action http://n4g.com/news/615748/...

[TheRealist2102]

I'll enjoy my Jailbroken iPhone that allows me to fully customize my iPhone and I mean fully :)

[plb]

I'd wager MS office is more of a seller than xbox live. At least for business.

[W831SOLIDSNAKE]

Microsoft treating thier customers like fish... not right.

[jukins]

im sorry but if xbox live integration is what microsoft honestly believes will pull people away from iphone and android they will end up with another KiN. given the rapid growth of android and the already dominate iphone there's no way xbox live will change anything

[jukins]

@the ppl who disagreed question. did xbox live on zune take over the ipod market? has bing topped google? did the kin vanish from the face of the earth in less than 2 months? face it windows phone past present future are no good. microsoft should just stick to what they know operating systems and console gaming

[dragunrising]

People disagreed because your making a pretty big generalization. History sometimes repeats itself but it doesn't always set a precident. Once upon a time, the ipod did not exist and neither did google. They assumed market leading positions because they're good products. The Zune HD is arguably a better "mp3" player than ipod touch. Unfortuanately it neither had the marketing budget or mindshare of the masses. Google on the other had has done so well on account its been the major player with little competition. Yahoo Search and Live Search were hardly competitive. Bing actually is an honest competitor to Google.

Before you put all your eggs in one basket, remember that no one got to the top for no good reason. If Windows Phone caters to the correct audience and people appreciate it for what it offers, it should do well.

The Kin was a horrible product put out to die. It was only released on account of a contractual obligation to Verizon Wireless. Nothing more, nothing less. Windows Phone 7 has all the resources of Microsoft and you better believe they are going to market it better than the Kin.

[internalbit]

couldn't have said it better my self

@blindfromthesun
Are you kidding me Micro$oft and its marketing budget...

Thats what M$ are followers and thats why they always fail.

Its only windows and office products that is keeping the company alive.

[dragunrising]

@ internalbit

To be honest, everyone is a follower to a certain extent. Unless others made mistakes, there wouldn't be a market leader. Perhaps M$ has had its fair share of mistakes, however they are hardly fail when you consider everything else they do

Windows and Office are two of M$'s biggest money makers, however Microsoft has many other products and services (of which you usually never hear about). Live Essentials for example is an excellent photo editing software that is made by none other. This is but one example. Just wiki them and you'll grasp how much influence they have and a selection of their products. You have to keep in mind, that M$ is first and formost a software company. Windows Phone's fate is largely decided on how well manufacturer's like HTC, Samsung, Dell, Asus, etc make phones people want to buy and how aggressively service providers market the phones. Windows Phone 7 software is very solid. Thats fine if you don't like M$ however they are here to stay no matter if a few of their projects fail or not.

[internalbit]

@blindfromthesun

it's not a question of I don't like M$, what I am amazed by is a company with so much money, that can hire the brightest and the most creative talent why then can't a company like M$ come up with cutting edge, innovative products. BTW I did have the original XBOX, it was a well put together hardware. Wonder what happened with XB360???

[interrergator]

how much is the phone anyway???

[kharma45]

No prices as yet, it'll all depend on the hardware specs from the likes of HTC etc., much like the way Android is.

Won't be cheap though as the WP7 basic spec is reasonably good.

[Active Reload]

And thats the problem I have with MS and this...next step. I would love to have Windows 7 mobile because of the Live integration, but I don't want to have to buy a $300-$800 phone, nor do I want to have to upgrade...unless they have a sweet deal within the contract for the phone. I would much prefer they sale Windows 7 mobile to be downloaded or upgraded or whatever the case may be. They should sale it like they do Windows for PCs.

[interrergator]

i just hope they have a good plan though i mean im with sprint and they suck i was ready to go to t mobile till i heard about this its a nice phone though but 300-800 is pretty steep

[jukins]

if they were smart it'd be $200 with a 2 yr contract like the iphone and android phones.

[kharma45]

It'll more than likely be the carriers and hardware manufacturers that set the prices, not Microsoft. They'll just get the licensing fee from sales.

[x_gifted]

Lol

[BillOreilly]

live is free on the phone it looks good to me. all they need is a real halo made for it not waypoint. the crackdown game looks good but the best part is using the ms dev kit. if all the indy dev from live put games like braid limbo on there it would be a respectable platform. iphone is damn good though they need to really invest in the marketplace and apps they have a good start but thats not enough.

[Blaine]

but I set my PSN Facebook integration options to off. All of them.

So I fall under the category of people who definitely wouldn't be attracted by the possibility of carrying their online persona into the real world. Blaine gets enough time on PSN, no need for me to shove him in the faces of my RL friends!

Also, there's nothing MS could do to hook me into Win phone 7, because I'm only interested in Android.

[xtremeimport]

problem with this is, they have to convert iphone and Blackberry users. which will not be as easy as they think.

[CrzyFooL]

Stay away from mah Droid!!

[KiLLUMiNATi_89]

Lmaoo MS what drugs y'all on for real.

[Mr2Good3]

HTC EVO for life!!! but serious it all depends on who they allow to carry the phone. if they go to tmobile it will be a fail.. but sprint and evo for life!!!

[GoldPS3]

Well guess what MS you won't be getting a sell from me.

[dragonelite]

Dam people read.
It's a portal you can use your games for windows account which in most cases is the same account you use on live. You have enough with a silveraccount you can still buy apps get your achievements and stuff watch who is online on your friendlist.

If i got it wrong correct me with a good source link.
or else take this for truth and disagree me.

[kasasensei]

useless.

[mcstorm]

Ive got big hopes for Windows Phone 7 I was a big fan of windows mobile and loved my last windows mobile the HD2 but because of the lack of support of windows mobile 6.5 i have moved to android and I like the OS so far but it is a HTC desire so Sence makes the OS even better.

But when I am due for an upgrade next I will defo be looking at windows phone 7 as it seems to tick all the boxes for me for using my mobile at work and at home but It will be at lest 6 months into the release of WP7 before I look at getting one.

[xg-ei8ht]

M$ treating their customers like sheep.

oops i forgot, they are.

[R2D2]

but your avatar stopped me.

[Spinal]

I was interested in the Windows Phone 7 cause of Xbox Live as someone who has a 360 with live its nice to be able to have it on my phone so i can acually keep in contact with some friends on live without being at home.

But i feel i need to give Windows time to get the app line up better. Right now I got an iPhone 4 an for gaming its the best right about now. Android isn't even close to iphone's gaming. Sonic 4 out next week, look up dungeon hunter 2. iPhone got the developers right now! so hopefully windows will step it up.

I got my eye on the Dell an Asus Windows phone 7 models.