At the end of January, Apple announced another highly anticipated new device, while its rival in Redmond, Microsoft, has come out with a new version of its mobile UI. Named Windows Phone 7 Series, it’s an interesting new take on a mobile UI, and while it’s officially planned for release only at the end of this year, it’s spurring a lot of conversation already.

Apple iPad
Things were different ahead of the iPad’s launch than they were back in 2007, prior to the launch of the first version of the iPhone. While many had thought that Apple may enter the mobile phone market even years before it actually happened, no one managed to quite predict what the device would be like. But with the iPad, predicting what the Apple tablet would look like before the company officially announced it was easier. The surprise element of the iPad was smaller than the wow effect that the iPhone caused.

The feeling after the launch was that the iPad didn’t live up to the dreams and hopes of many. People who were waiting for something revolutionary woke up to see the new device as “just a big iPhone”. However, the tablet also had its instant supporters: some claim it’s the perfect computer for their mom, while others simply say that whatever the iPad lacks in its first incarnation (camera, for example) will make it to the next version.

I question the utility of the iPad, even for my mom, as one of her favorite things to do on a computer is to make Skype video calls. I also think she wouldn’t respond too well to the on-screen keyboard. But let’s keep in mind that the device hasn’t started shipping yet, and very few people have handled it, let alone used it in any real-life scenario. The future of it will lie in the hands of app developers – maybe even more than it lies in the hands of the company’s own designers.

For interaction designers, the iPad is an exciting new opportunity. Luke Wroblewski has written a number of terrific articles about the iPad, including a list of new multi-touch interactions and iPad design tools and resources. And Matt Gommel, a renowned iPhone developer, challenges a number of preconceptions about the tablet, including the “just a big iPhone” claim, in his blog. While we’re waiting for the actual device (and an iPad version of OmniGraffle), let’s get our tools and templates ready. Even if the iPad doesn’t instantly appear as big of a game changer as the iPhone, it, together with the HP Slate and other, upcoming tablets, is still the beginning of a new kind of personal computing experience.

Windows Phone 7 Series
Microsoft seems to have done what it hadn’t really done before: taken a totally new, fresh approach to something it had already built. The new Phone 7 Series looks and acts totally different than previous versions of Windows Mobile, incl. version 6.5, which will now continue to live on as Windows Phone Classic. The 7 Series promises to be, finally, finger-friendly, complete with multitouch, and it looks significantly different than any of the competing touch-based mobile UIs.

The initial response to 7 Series seems to have been positive, though some point out that the bold new design may not work so well in practice. Luke Wroblewski has been exploring Microsoft’s new UI as well, and written an excellent post about its information resolution vs. the iPhone. Edward Tufte responds to it here. While at first I find it quite easy to agree with Tufte’s comment that “the WP7S layout and typography have a looseness found in commercial art and marketing, an inappropriate metaphor for a handheld information and communication device”, I think it may be premature to call Microsoft’s idea “inappropriate”, when they’re trying to redefine the mobile UI so drastically. Let’s see how users react to it.

Karri Ojanen