If you’ve been holidaying under a rock for the past couple of months you may have missed the incredibly hyped launch of Windows Phone 7. Yes, Microsoft has made a last ditch attempt at success in the smartphone market and by all reports they may very well succeed.
The WP7 mobile OS platform is a lot like Android, in that it is designed to work across a variety of handsets. However, Microsoft does seem to have left out a couple of minor details.
The loudest objections have been over the OS’s apparent lack of Flash compatibility. While that’s something could hurt their play against Android they certainly can’t be blamed for it. Where WP7 is a totally new platform the iOS (Apple’s mobile OS) still doesn’t have Flash compatibility and it has been a market leader since 2007.
Another piece of missing functionality that cropped up on Engadget is the lack of a Cut & Paste function. Microsoft has told its customers not to worry, as Cut & Paste and Flash will be coming in early 2011.
Phew, Microsoft. That was close.
But, now another seemingly obvious omission has cropped up: no customisable ringtones.
Microsoft seems to have left the ability to add your own custom ringtones out of Windows Phone 7 altogether. The Surround itself has a couple recognizable fan favorites that we recognize from AT&T and HTC phones past, so it looks like manufacturers and carriers will be able to bring their own to the table, but for the end user, it looks like you won't be able to roll your own -- at least for the time being
A few of us here at the office are on the iPhone bandwagon and every time a message goes off or a phone rings you’ll see all of us unoriginals reach for our pockets. Why? Because we all have the same alerts. With the iPhone there’s about 2 viable choices for ring tones and 1 choice for a message notification. The rest are just garbage.
iPhones do have customisable ringtones, they’re just annoying to get going so no one does it. With WP7 you have to choose between the twenty or so very similar ringtones Microsoft has kindly bestowed, and they’re very similar. The beat may change and the melodies might vary a little but everything sounds like its coming out of some horrible xylophone/glockenpop hybrid from the 80’s.
Honestly, take a look at this video. You don’t have to watch the whole thing, after the first few you’ll get the picture.
Are we doomed to a world where we all reach for our pocket every time a phone rings? Honestly Microsoft it’s not that hard to let us play whatever we want as a ringtone.
The lack of custom ringtones hasn’t been confirmed yet, so there may still be hope. But we’re still a little disappointed that such a great looking OS is being slowed down by the little things.
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