Windows Live has long had a mobile aspect but this has often been downplayed and for some things deservedly so. However from what I can tell and expect Microsoft will be raising the presence of its Windows Live mobile efforts later this month.
Currently Microsoft provide a very good Windows Live experience on the iPhone but its own Windows Mobile devices’ Windows Live experience could certainly do with some new features. Microsoft have also taken very little action to publicise or market Windows Live on mobile devices.
However, as we all know, later this month Microsoft will announce Windows Phone 7’s release and the operating system will feature great integration with various online services. Windows Live will be no exception and in fact will supersede the social features other cloud services like Facebook provide as it will provide options to sync the same data as My Phone currently does to SkyDrive and even find a lost phone, lock the device, remote wipe, etc. In doing so Microsoft will be making Windows Live Phone, a very powerful and useful part of Windows Live and it needs to be treated as such.
Enter Windows Live Phone (or mobile) information being shown alongside information about the new Hotmail, Messenger and Essentials.
Last week I noticed that on explore.live.com Home, Hotmail, SkyDrive, Office and Help Center all had a list of new features shown when hovering over their names. I wondered at the time whether Messenger and Essentials would receive a list too when Microsoft made them available for download earlier in the week and I was proved correct. When visiting the site all products now have a list of features apart from, you guessed it, Mobile.
You might also notice that in the updated header, that can be found on all non-Hotmail Live locations (the Hotmail header is being updated slowly), the list of destinations under “Windows Live” contains an option for Mobile. This currently goes to explore.live.com mobile page, the same page which currently doesn’t have a list of new features.
I expect that when Microsoft announce the Windows Phone 7 availability that it will also announce and demo the features of the Windows Live Phone service. At this point I would think that explore.live.com/windows-live-mobile will receive a makeover with information with all its new features. I’d also expect to see the link in the new Windows Live header to actually link to windowsphone.live.com.
If I am correct and Windows Live’s mobile offerings will now receive as much attention and publicity as Hotmail and Essentials then Microsoft might yet have some more non-leaked features to announce for it. At the very least it will be reassuring to see Microsoft pushing its mobile support for its online services. Some people want there to be mobile counterparts for Photo Gallery and Movie Maker which I don’t see happening for some time yet, but if they were to be released then I’m sure they’d also reside on the Explore Windows Live mobile page.
