Microsoft look to the community for the key features in the next version of Windows Phone: Apollo

Following the introduction of Windows Phone 7.5 Mango, Microsoft have dubbed the next iteration of their mobile platform ‘Apollo’ and they’ve taken to asking their users as to what features they would like to see as the OS develops.

For starters, it’s great to see Microsoft taking this approach, if you’re in camp Android but have used iOS or WP7, you might have found that restrictive elements of both OS’s intrude on your general phone usage from time to time. That being said a more enclosed platform allows for greater security, management and control, so it’s a double edged sword.

The first iteration of Windows Phone did what it needed to, by making large enough waves that potential consumers took it seriously and were prepared to part from what they knew and dive into the unknown. However it didn’t take long for users to feel the restrictions of such a young OS.

As updates have rolled out, we’ve seen the skill set of Windows Phone steadily improve, but until now, had no real control over which features we wanted and which we had thrust upon us. Now, however Microsoft’s approach to the next incarnation of the OS, Apollo, is a far more personal one. They’ve given power to users and created a customer feedback page with the express purpose of determining, what features the users want to see on their next WP7 devices.

Microsoft want to hear what the people want

A popular request off the bat is greater language support. In the top 10 requests alone, three ask for language support (for Arabic, Thai and Persian, in case you were wondering). Other desired features include screenshot support, USB storage support, the full Bing feature set available to customers outside the US and device backup functionality, which includes application data backup, SMS/MMS backup and settings profile backup.

the top 10 requests at time of writing

To see the rankings in real-time, follow this link. You also get 10 votes to allocate to whichever ideas you think would be the most beneficial, or if you prefer you can submit your own ideas into the mix as long as you can explain them in under 25 words or less.

Of course this might just seem like an elaborate means of keeping unhappy users quiet by thinking that they can rectify their problems with the OS through this forum, however we’re inclined to fully trust the motives behind the site in this case. As Microsoft points out, ‘Please do not send any novel or patentable ideas, samples or demos which you do not want to grant a license to Microsoft’, this leads us to believe that they will take every suggestion seriously and are fully prepared to implement the ideas that score the highest. So, if there’s a feature on there you know you need on your Windows Phone device, get voting.

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