Microsoft to include Watson on WP7 devices

A job posting yesterday points to telemetry features like Dr. Watson on Windows Phone 7 devices. The post calls for a software engineer to help "drive up reliability, device health and battery life metrics via the use of telemetry data".

Watson (aka Dr. Watson, Sherlock) is an application debugger that comes with Microsoft platforms like Windows XP, Vista, and 7. Usually filed under "drwtsn32.exe" or "dwwin.exe", the program sends crash and bug information to Microsoft so they can fix the problem.

The job post also says that Microsoft will send this telemetry data to the wireless carrier, in an effort to "provide insight to their phones and operational quality". Any conspiracy theorists care to comment?

Given the limited support on past Windows Mobile platforms, this quality control initiative is welcome news. The idea that they will continue to try to improve battery performance after release is icing on the cake.

source: Microsoft via WMPoweruser