TechEd 2010, Microsoft's New Orleans confab for thousands of developers and enterprise customers, has already seen developments such as yesterday's announcement of the Windows 7 Service Pack 1. Now, the event is also bringing some details of how its forthcoming Windows Phone 7 operating system will lend itself to enterprise purposes.

Introduced by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at a Mobile World Congress (MWC) press conference in February, Windows Phone 7 has been touted as a "fundamentally different approach to phone software." The operating system's main screen (right) is "chromeless," without borders or a start button, and features dynamically updated "live tiles," the company says.

According to Microsoft, Windows Phone 7 handsets will go on sale toward the end of this year, initially featuring 800 x 480 pixel capacitive touchscreens, with 480 x 320 devices coming later. They'll all have the same chipset (Qualcomm's Snapdragon, we've been led to believe), cameras, and microphones, the company said in February.

Enterprise-friendly features

Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.x operating system has been known for its enterprise support, and the company was expected to carry this forward to Windows Phone 7, but until now, relatively few details have been provided. (In the meantime, ironically, Apple's iPhone has made inroads partly because of its 2008 integration of Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync protocol. See our earlier coverage, here, for details of the many Exchange ActiveSync licensees.)

Microsoft said in February that Windows Phone 7 would eschew Windows Mobile's desktop metaphor, replacing it with six different scrolling pages known as "hubs." One of these is Office (below), touted as bringing "the familiar experience of the world's leading productivity software to the Windows Phone."

Windows Phone 7's Office hub
(Click to enlarge)

In a Windows Phone Blog posting yesterday, Paul Bryan (right), director of enterprise services for Microsoft's mobile communications business, reiterated how the Office hub would bring "PowerPoint, OneNote, Word, Excel and SharePoint into a single integrated experience. Noting that more than 90 percent of target customers for Windows Phone use their smartphones for business, he added that "Windows Phone 9 is designed to excel at the business scenarios most commonly used."

Bryan's posting further promoted Windows Phone 7's enterprise-friendliness by saying that it:

• is built from the ground up using industry best practices in secure software development (secure development lifecycle)
  
• "deeply integrates" email, calendar and contacts with Exchange Server
  
• integrates with SharePoint through the SharePoint Workspace client, enabling enhanced collaboration through offline document access and syncing
• helps protect corporate information by securing devices through PINs and passwords, disallowing access to data via PC tethering or SD cards, and providing remote wipe and reset to factory settings options
• helps ensure data reliability and integrity through application sandboxing and managed code
• provides certification and verification of applications and content through Windows Phone Marketplace, further enhancing security
• enables secure data transmission through 128- or 256-bit SSL encryption
• supports secure access to on-premise applications and network resources using Forefront Universal Access Gateway (UAG)
• is "future ready" with cloud/services integration, including hosted Exchange and SharePoint services via Microsoft's Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS)

Alluding implicitly to Windows Mobile 6.x's difficulty competing in the marketplace, Bryan added, "The vast majority of individuals make their own personal decision regarding which smartphone to purchase. Given this, we often hear from IT professionals that their most important considerations for smartphones are that they are phones people want and that they meet the organization's IT needs."

Bryan notes that "for more highly managed corporate scenarios or where customers have made significant investments in applications on Windows Mobile 6.X, Windows Mobile 6.5 may remain the best choice in the near-term." But, he adds, "We needed to restart in order to build the right foundation for the future."

In her reporting for ZDNet from TechEd 2010, Microsoft watcher Mary-Jo Foley provides additional detail. For example, she writes in a blog entry:

"When Windows Phone 7 devices ship this holiday season, theyll be able to sync with Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2010 and the current version of Exchange Online (that is based on Exchange 2007). After that (no dates yet), Microsoft will enable syncing of the phones with 2010-enabled versions of Exchange Online and SharePoint Online."

Foley adds that Windows Phone 7 devices will not provide IPsec VPN functionality, though Windows Mobile 6.x phones did. Also, she writes, "Microsoft isn't changing its stance on requiring Windows Phone 7 applications to be written in managed code."

If there are business applications that developers are having problems getting to work without native raw-socket access, Microsoft will work with those companies to try to find a workaround, Foley quotes company officials as saying.

Windows Phone 7's version of Excel (left) and its Games hub (right)
(Click either to enlarge)

Windows Phone 7's Pictures hub (left) and OneNote application (right)
(Click either to enlarge)

An About screen (left) and system information utility (right)
(Click either to enlarge)

Further information

Paul Bryan's posting on the Windows Phone blog, entitled "Windows Phone 7 Means Business," may be found here. Further information on business aspects of Windows Phone 7 may be found on the Microsoft website, here.

The blog posting by Mary-Jo Foley cited earlier in this story may be found here. Further coverage may be found on our sister site eWEEK.com, here.

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