Will WinPhone 7 Change How We Shop For Smartphones?

AT&T's Windows Phone 7 handsets tumble today, but if you navigate past the company's large dash page, you'd never know it.

That's since similar to many other phone retailers, AT&T's online store drills down by producer and device sort (e.g., smartphone, underline phone, tablet/computer), but not working system. The usually smartphone OS it now separates out is Android, grouped with categories similar to "free," "slider" and "refurbished."

While tech-savvy consumers increasingly regard of smartphones in conditions of competing working systems, wireless companies still regard of their own attribute with their subscribers first, manufacturers second and platforms a remote third.

It's even starker if you're an existing patron seeking to ascent a mobile phone; an AT&T patron perplexing to find an Android phone has to navigate a long list of smartphones, whilst Apple and Blackberry's models burst to the top.

Verizon Wireless's online store does break phones down by working network if you rodent over the "Phones & Devices" menu. The choices are Android, Apple iOS, Blackberry, Palm WebOS and "Windows phone" - the final something of a misnomer, since Verizon usually offers comparison Windows Mobile devices, not the new Windows Phone 7.

This arguably benefits companies similar to Apple and Blackberry, who suffer high name approval and whose platforms are usually existing on their own branded devices. It moreover benefits specific smartphones, similar to Motorola's Droid on Verizon, who are featured prominently on store websites and network advertisements.

But the change is tipping in preference of the working systems. With Windows Phone 7 now gift gadgets from multi-part manufacturers on AT&T and T-Mobile, Verizon selling iOS gadgets similar to the iPad (and maybe shortly the iPhone) and Android's share of the marketplace flourishing an unusual rate, wireless companies will be hard-pressed not to put a device's working network front and core - not buried at the bottom of a tech piece next to its Bluetooth spec and its camera's megapixel count.

AT&T has done a large gamble on its encouragement of Windows Phone 7 - we wouldn't be astounded if we see the menus obtain an ascent soon.

Images: screenshots from AT&T Wireless Store by Tim Carmody.

See Also: