Originally we had hoped that Microsoft would push for a quad core SoC, but we are pretty sure the new phones will only be dual core despite the big talk of Windows 8 being ready for up to 64 ARM cores. There was also some bad news for current Windows Phone owners; you are not going to get an upgrade. Microsoft will be releasing Windows Phone 7.8 which is not much more than a facelift. So now you can look like you have a Windows Phone 8 device even when you don’t.

The event feels a lot like an Apple event from the coverage that we have seen. There is a lot of demos of things that are already available in other phones that are intended to wow the crowd while Microsoft is bragging about the number of languages they will support (over 50) at launch time (with a comparison to Apple’s iOS 6 at launch). Microsoft has also reminded everyone that there are 100,000 apps in the Windows Store. This figure is not bad, but is does fall pretty short of their two leading competitors and now that Amazon is putting up their own App Store for Android there will be even more available for one of Microsoft’s competitors.

It is interesting to see Microsoft take on Apple’s style of presentation for technology that they help to pioneer at the same time we get to hear how their devices are “copying Apple” I might not like Windows Phone 8 (well actually it is Metro that I think is the problem), but I do know that Microsoft is full capable of innovating and has done so in the past. Their biggest problem is not getting how people use the technology they innovate. We will continue to watch the coverage today and will have a round up once the conference is over.

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