Ran also outlined Microsoft's ambition for the People Hub: "Let's say I met up with you today and I want to find out a bit more information about you. I need to go to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and so on. There's now a case where I might be playing a puzzle game and I want to play with you, you'll even be able to nudge and say 'hey, it's your turn now'. I think again it will change what game publishers are able to do and what consumers can start doing."
Start, search, back
Finally, we asked Ran for some thoughts behind the hardware spec behind Windows Phone 7 Series. All the phones will have three buttons - Start, Search and Back. "I guess you want a combination of giving manufacturers flexibility, but we also wanted to raise the bar in user experience. Search changes upon where you search. [The buttons] are a minimum requirement, like the capacitive touchscreen, GPS, camera and whatnot."
If a phone manufacturer decides they're going produce do a phone which is brilliant for gaming or music or photography, that's up to them. We're building a platform for that and working really closely with them. I really want to have a phone that does this, this and that. I really hope the huge creativity that's out there will be channelled towards that."
Once you're mobile that's your connection to the world. It's not about a search button that just pops up Bing. It's about if you're in the People Hub wanting to search for people, if you're in your email client that's different. Calendar, different. You don't need to think about what you're doing. It's intuitive right? I'm really interested in how that's going to play out for the UK."
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Liked this? Then check out Hands on: Windows Phone 7 Series review
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