Telstra Shows Off What Carrier Customization Of WP7 Looks Like
Here’s a look at the TelstraOne HUB that was designed for Windows Phone 7 and as you can see they’ve copied the Metro look and feel so it has the WP7 feel to it within the app. Of course, everything is live. I’m not sure if they’re utilizing caching here but they really should so you don’t always wait for background images to download. Anyway, I can see other carriers providing similar apps including local information like Telstra has here. It’s actually a pretty good app (carrier aside). Also remember that within Marketplace you can expect subcategories for your carrier. Anyway, here’s the app:
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davidk
6 Comments
@Ruben: It’s ok man – this is just an app:) MS has locked the UI and paltform. Carriers can add up to 5 apps and choose the default color scheme. So this isn’t gonig to replace WP7’s interface. This is just Telstra’s app that they will include when they ship the phone and you can unpin it from the homescreen if you don’t like it.
@DavidK: LOL, okay, thanks for the explanations. I guess I just got too used to the stupid ideas MS sometimes comes up with, so I was worried they were going to kill another of their unborn babies.
If it is how you say it is, I can relax. That is indeed, in my opinion, a good strategy. Locking the UI is basically the reason they abandoned WM6.5, so I flipped out thinking that carriers are meddling with it.
I spend countless hours figuring out how to remove as much carrier/manufacturer ballast each time I get a new laptop, phone or smartphone. I’d appreciate if I could uninstall carrier software in addition to unpinning it, but I can imagine they’ll ship it in the ROM.
Thanks anyway, David, now I feel better informed 🙂
@Ruben:
Have you been following the platform at all? Everything David said to reassure you has been common knowledge for months now.
@Max: Actually I have been following the platform, yes. I am in the middle of developing my first app for Phone 7 OS (recreationally) and so I do have an idea of what’s going on.
I must confess though that I have not sought info on carrier customizations yet, since until about a week ago it wasn’t even clear when the OS was finally going to be released. It just reminded me of how my Samsung Omnia II looks nothing like Windows Mobile any more (which I guess is a good thing for the Omnia) and I was taken aback by reading this now, because you never know. I wasn’t aware of the 5-app limit, that’s for sure. Nevertheless, I wish all mobile apps were optional. Hope that explains it, Max.
No no nooo! Why must carriers customize the system before we get used to its pristine version?! This is so going to mess up consumers’ perception of quality and coherence. If the implementation is at all buggy, it’s going to discourage potential customers and MS is going to fail big time compared to the iPhone which is just unified across the board (or so I believe).