So basically a lot of bling and nothing else...
I'm not impressed, not in the very least.
Now, before I continue let it be very clear that I'm quite happy with my Omnia W and unlike some other WP7.5 owners on several Windows Phone fora I have no intention what so ever to suddenly get rid of my phone. IMO that's plain out stupid; when I picked it up I knew exactly what it could do, its current features are all I need so... Why bother ?
But that doesn't mean I'm not quite disappointed but most of all heavily under impressed with Microsoft on this front. If this is how they're trying to win the mobile market then they're doing a horrible job IMO. No; I'm not referring to this "update" which basically only consists of a lot of cosmetic changes, one I'm most likely going to skip entirely.
I'm referring to all the commotion with the introduction of Windows Phone 7 concerning the hardware; How Microsoft, in a certain way, lied to us. Well, not really lying of course but they sure gave out a lot of impressions which now turn out to be hardly as important as they claimed. Because when it came out Microsoft set very strict minimum requirements which any hardware should meet if its manufacturer wanted it to be a Windows Phone. Sure, I know all those requirements got adjusted in no time after, that's not the point.
The point being is that with their reputation on the Windows platform (buy Win7 in 2007, keep on using it until 2018 with continuous updates easily) they set a tone with all those requirements. Something which now turns out to be completely bollocks. Also the various statements on how they felt sorry about having to drop Windows Mobile completely, but now they would do better.
The way I see it WP7 is now basically dropped completely as well.
Why is it that Apple users can run later versions of their mobile OS on older hardware and Microsoft users cannot, even despite all those hardware requirements? It makes no sense. It would have made sense if Microsoft wouldn't have started getting so uptight over their precious minimum specifications.
Still... I would be pleasantly surprised if Microsoft would now provide a free developer unlock for WP7.5 users so that we can at least build our own software for it. But... I'm afraid that's most likely wishful thinking. After all; on the mobile market its money first, users second...