Microsoft’s taking an interesting stance with Windows Phone 7, almost positioning it as a means of dealing with your digital commitments faster, in order to get back to real life.

From a differentiation standpoint, it’s an interesting position to take. Digital gadgets are hugely disruptive technology, and a lot of people increasingly suffer from ‘info guilt’ regarding unread information, be it email, Twitter and Facebook updates, RSS feeds or articles waiting in Instapaper.

Microsoft’s emphasis on glance-oriented tiles seemingly promotes efficiency, and the interface is quite elegant, but Thibaut Sailly nails why the reality doesn’t entirely match the aim (or at least the aim of the initial advertising):

It’s a big push notifications agregrator right in your face as soon as you get your phone out of your pocket. Not really what’s advertised.

That said, what Windows Phone 7 does provide is the at-a-glance notifications that iOS lacks. This is an area Apple needs to do some serious thinking about, because it was already lagging behind Android in terms of notifications, and now Microsoft’s offering a superior solution as well.