Microsoft Ditches "Series" In Windows Phone 7Microsoft Ditches "Series" In Windows Phone 7

After several years of calling their platform Windows Mobile, Microsoft changed it to Windows Phone 7 Series when it was officially announced at Mobile World Congress in February. Now it will simply be called Windows Phone 7.In a Twitter post earlier today, the @windowsphone account posted the following message:

I am glad to see this happen. I thought the "Series" tacked on to the end was a bit cumbersome, and other than using the full moniker the first time in a blog post, I never bothered with "Series" again and I've rarely ever heard someone, besides a Microsoft employee, actually say the full name out loud. I assume that series was to indicate there would be a variety of devices and configurations at some point, much like Office 2007 System connotes there is much more to it than a single version.

Personally, I think Microsoft should consider dropping the "Windows" name, and maybe even the "Phone" name too. Unlike previous iterations of the platform, WinPho 7 bears almost no resemblance to the desktop product Windows, regardless of the underlying Windows CE core. It actually looks more like the Zune than anything else. Microsoft should consider a new name entirely for their mobile platform. They did that with their music platform Zune, though I am sure Windows Portable Music Player was on the shortlist when the device was being named.

Pick a word, make one up, or borrow one from ancient mythology, but give the consumer something to remember, and don't associate it with Windows. I seriously doubt that will happen though. At least Microsoft is getting the message that an 8 syllable name is just too much. That gives us reasonable assurance that we won't see "Windows Phone 7 Series Second Edition Professional" anytime in the future.