Windows itself has been evolving to become more data-centric over the last decade.

This is just taking that work and finally applying it to the mobile arena.

Haven’t you noticed how lately Microsoft has been working to move us away from the idea of standard data storage and move us more to virtual/abstract data storage concepts?

Libraries are a big part of that strategy. They move us away from the idea of having different locations for everything and having a central data store that we look into to find our content.

This is the same idea, moved to a more mobile platform. Taking away the need for a traditional file browser and moving to an abstracted data store with views onto our content.

I’d be surprised if they don’t really play up this metaphor in Windows 8 to be honest.

Bing is a search engine. I have since made it my default since I’m not trusting Google. Its beyond what a search engine is all about. The ads are unique and entertaining. Its also more personal, as you can search for something, and find related searches and now, you can find recent searches.

I remember when my family got its first computer in mid 1999. first internet service we ever had was MSN. I remember when MSN was at its hight back in 2003/2004. Even remember January 2003 or 2004 when MSN had its first redesign (ditched the purple/blue for the more XP media center 2005 like color scheme. Flash forward to 2010 and its the same old thing, just refresh to a web 2.0 fell. Do you remember the old msn promos from 1995? It was like an oscar party?

Windows Live. alright. Even after five years I still don’t quite get it. Windows Live? So eveything about windows will be live and up to date? May be that was the point. I do agree though. MSN is a great content portal. Surly they could have come up with a more unique name for “windows Live”

Same goes for Xbox Live. though it makes more sence in gamine

Zune marketplace. Alright, this is an name that is very outdated. Hell, there has not even been any marketing for the zune market place, let alone the zune player.

As for the whole “windows phone” debate. If you look at the iPhone, it uses a mobile, striped down version of mac OSX, doubled “iphone OS” Its still OSX. Same goes for Windows phone. Its ment to be a companion for your Windows 7 laptop or desktop, and if done right both should integrate and stream sleamsly.

It hasn’t lost any meaning. There are still Windows in this UI. Each one of those task panes (named since they resemble window panes) is a view out onto your content, just like a window out into the world.

The metaphor still holds, thus it still has value

Simplest explanation I can give that still makes sense.

@MarkKB I fully understand the roles of the three properties. My point is that there’s no reason for them to be three separate properties because MSN can easily fit under, say, Bing without any problems a la iGoogle or Google News. Keeping them separate leads to confusion amongst laypeople, especially those who I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with.

Mac OS and Mac OS X still carried the same general user interface design despite flushing the internals. Windows Phone 7 is so different from Windows Mobile 6.5 in how it fundamentally operates (Windows has always been a function-centric brand up until WP7) that it shouldn’t carry the Windows name at all. It doesn’t have windows because that’s not how it works. In WP7, each task dominates the stage; there is no function-centric multitasking as Windows has allowed since its inception.

That’s the crux of my argument.

How is that confusing?

Windows Phone 7 is the successor to Windows Mobile, the last version of which was 6.5 – in the same way that Mac OS X is the successor to the Mac OS, despite sharing none of the underpinnings.

As for the name “Windows”, I’d argue that WP7S has windows in the same way WinMo had windows, except WinMo had explicit titlebars to show that they’re windows. Nothing’s really changed in that regard.

Ditto goes for Windows Phone 7. The Windows name is attributed to a certain feel and to certain capabilities. Calling anything “Windows” just serves to destroy that uniform look and feel, which erodes familiarity. That’s the problem.

As for why it should be called “Windows” Phone when there are not any Windows present, I’d guess that MSFT would argue that: 1) it’s providing a window into your data; 2) that the window is larger than the device itself, hence the “panoramic” view. I think the MSFT images showing the device with the UI exploded out the sides demonstrates this well, that the entire left-to-right thing is the window that you view a portion at a time. I could take or leave it either way, but I don’t think Zune Phone would sell the platform, and yet another new name would probably leave the platform dead in the water. In terms of operating systems, MSFT has been consistent with using Windows as the brand across nearly all classes of devices for over 2 decades. Windows 3.x, 9x, NT, CE, Embedded, and so on.

I dunno, if I was Microsoft, and making what by all accounts is a last ditch effort to maintain and grow relevance in the mobile space, I’d use the most powerful brand I’ve got.