Microsoft always had in its projects, the objective to decline its operating system Windows, in versions adapted to the mobile peripherals.

In order to meet this need for mobility, the engineers of Microsoft conceived an operating system specifically dedicated to the portable telephones and offering the same functionalities as Pocket PC. Baptized SmartPhone 2002, this system was adopted by Orange which proposed in October 2002 the first telephone under SmartPhone 2002 on the European market. This telephone was baptized SPV: Sound Photo Video. Behind this name thus hides a resolutely multi-media telephone.

With the use, the mobiles under Smartphone surprise by their ergonomics. Indeed the system was relatively well conceived and navigation in the menus is more pleasant. One can not only use the minis joystick integrated but also the keys of the numeric keypad to reach directly a command in a menu or a contact.

Just like with Pocket PC, it is possible to install new software on your mobile. However, in Europe, Orange attaches by defect this function so that only the programs having received the numerical signature Orange can settle. This choice is contestable insofar as a many users cannot benefit from the softwares library Pocket PC adapted for Smartphones. In order to cure this thorny problem, Orange placed at the disposal of the users the possibility of freeing his SPV on line.

The principal functionalities offered in addition to the telephony part are as follows:
- Possibility of navigating on Internet since mobile (GPRS and GSM).
- Possibility of consulting its emails on line with a single box of reception (Malls, SMS, MMS).
- Possibility of listening to audio files MP3 or WMA.
- Possibility of visualizing video sequences.
- Possibility of installing plays transforming the telephone into game console.
- Possibility of changing the wallpaper.
- Possibility of changing with leisure its ringings into using Wave files.
- Possibility of vocal notes.
- Cat with MSN Messenger.
- Connection simplified to the PC via ActiveSync and port USB.
- Infra-red Support connection.
- Integrated modem.
-...

Moreover, these mobiles have a screen TFT of 176*220 pixels which exceeds the majority of the screens of competition, able to display some 65536 colours. They also have a card memory card drive with the format Multimédia Card (MMC) and Secure DIGITAL Card (SD) making it possible to increase the storage capacities in a consequent way for the audio or the photographs for examples (until more than 1 Go, 128 Mo being already a comfortable capacity). Indeed certain mobiles integrate, out of standard or option, a camera, thus transforming the telephone into numerical camera!

In this end of the year 2003, Orange is on the point of launching a new telephone, the SPV E200 under Windows Smartphone 2003 renamed Windows Mobile 2003. An update of the mobiles under Smartphone 2002 towards Windows Mobile 2003 is considered by Orange showing the evolutionarity of the telephones under this environement. The principal evolutions of Windows Mobile 2003 are as follows:
- Increased Speed of OS of more than 30%,
- Native Support Bluetooth,
- Function sommeil/reprise GPRS,
- New version Pocket Internet Explorer,
- Up to 8 accounts emails,
- Increased Possibilities of personalization,
- Windows Media Player 9,
- Ergonomic Improvements of the calendar,
-...

In parallel, the first telephone under Smartphone 2002 appears in the USA with Motorola MPx200. Others should follow...


What to retain about mobiles under Windows SmartPhone?
First of all, it is necessary well to acknowledge that the concept of hybrid device initiated by Microsoft is a success and a solution promised to a beautiful future. Whereas Microsoft has only little experiment on the market of the operating systems for mobile telephones, the firm of Redmond proves its knowledge once more by signing an operating system of most ergonomic and thought extremely well. The idea to combine in only one device a telephone, a personal assistant, a MP3 player, a game console, a camera is straightforwardly brilliant the more so as the realization is with the height.

To know some more: Microsoft Smartphone