Vodafone seems to be going in this direction with a rethink of its 360 web services strategy, launched last year but delivering mixed results so far. The cellco now plans to give up on own-branded handsets for 360, reports Total Telecom, and focus instead on expanding the mobile back-up and other cloud services under the brand.

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“We are investing a lot to attract developers big and small to Windows Phone 7 to let them understand what the opportunity is and provide as many resources as we can to help them be successful on our platform,” Brix said. “We’re open for business and we want to work with them.”

It seems that the majority of the commenters and bloggers are getting things twisted a little bit here. No where did Microsoft confirm that they are “throwing loads of cash” at iPhone devs to switch to Windows Phone 7, like it has been rumored before. People need to understand that this is called developer relation and that it has always excited on the console market (MS is doing exactly the same thing with XBOX for example) and any other Software sector. One thing you have to realise is that applications like the official Facebook app for Windows Mobile and Zune HD or the Twitter application for the Zune HD aren’t even developed by MS! They are developed by a software company named Matchbox Mobile who also develop Symbian, Android and Brew applications. Microsoft isn’t making it rain on iPhone devs folks, this is just standard developer relation.

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The Associated Press (AP) has long understood the importance of a mobile presence. AP has applications on all the major mobile devices, and is continually working to improve the user experience offered and to be there on the best and newest phones. The AP Windows Mobile app has been one of the most popular Windows Marketplace downloads, which made it a high-profile case for further improvement.

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The Associated Press (AP) has long understood the importance of a mobile presence. AP has applications on all the major mobile devices, and is continually working to improve the user experience offered and to be there on the best and newest phones. The AP Windows Mobile app has been one of the most popular Windows Marketplace downloads, which made it a high-profile case for further improvement.

AP identified two things they wanted to change. First:  a better user interface, more in keeping with the family of AP Mobile products on other platforms. Second:  a better user experience, with a boost in features to match AP’s other Mobile applications; gesture support, video stories and search were three high-priority features that they wished to appear in the new version.

Our aim at Matchbox was to give AP a new Windows Mobile app that matched the state of the art in UI, features and modes of interaction, while also making sure it fit the Windows Mobile conventions and styles.

Our initial research phase involved close collaboration with AP while we examined their other mobile apps, identifying what was common to each app and what made for a consistent and rich user experience. Once we had gathered the data we began to map the intended experience and branding requirements onto a range of Windows Mobile device types. Our iterative design cycle entailed wireframes, flows, and mock-ups, adding detail as we worked in feedback from AP.

As a result of Matchbox Mobile’s involvement, AP for Windows Mobile is now a state-of-the-art application offering the advanced features and modern UI that users have come to expect.

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Nokia currently offers mapping and navigation tools for its phones under its Ovi brand; with the new partnership, Yahoo Maps will now be “powered by Ovi.” In exchange, Yahoo will become the exclusive provider for Nokia’s Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat services, which will be branded with a “powered by Yahoo” message.

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Matchbox and Qualcomm saw the need for a high-profile social networking Web application and decided on the creation of a Twitter widget for Plaza Mobile Internet as an example of the type of compelling experience Plaza Mobile Internet could deliver. This widget would support all the core features of Twitter: following other users, sending out tweets, replying and retweeting.

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Matchbox and Qualcomm saw the need for a high-profile social networking Web application and decided on the creation of a Twitter widget for Plaza Mobile Internet as an example of the type of compelling experience Plaza Mobile Internet could deliver. This widget would support all the core features of Twitter: following other users, sending out tweets, replying and retweeting.

Our long experience with mobile devices, as well as our specific achievements with creating the official Twitter app on Zune HD, meant we were open to the challenge: to translate the ease-of-use and power of Twitter to a variety of mobile phones using a new web-standard based widget engine.

Our two aims were to create an easy-to-use app that captured the Twitter experience, and also to highlight the benefits of Plaza Mobile Internet by making the widget an inspiration to other potential developers: it would have to deliver a consistent and positive user experience across all suitable devices.

Matchbox worked together with Qualcomm to identify the key experience required, and to focus on the tools provided with Plaza Mobile Internet for rapid application development in a mobile Internet context. As a result of our deep understanding of mobile development, we were able to design, develop, test and deploy a high-quality Plaza widget in under three months. The resulting mobile Internet widget delivers the core Twitter experience including: following Tweeters, sending and replying to Tweets and seeing Twitter user profile images. In addition, the widget acts in two modes – minimized and full-screen – that demonstrate the versatility of the Plaza Mobile Internet widget platform.

The Twitter widget for Plaza Mobile Internet, developed by Matchbox Mobile, is now available to Telcel and Claro Brasil mobile subscribers in both Spanish and Portuguese respectively.

Qualcomm is a trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated.  Plaza and Plaza Mobile Internet are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated.  All other trademarks are the property of their corresponding owners.

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