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Displaying items by tag: Windows Phone

windows-phone-7Microsoft knows that it cannot compete directly in the smart phone OS marketplace. If you need any real proof of this just look at the sales numbers and the adoption rates of iOS and Android over Windows Pone in the business market. The problem is that Microsoft did not innovate fast enough as the market shifted. They had the leading product, but once there was real competition in the form of iOS and Android they failed to capitalize on it and instead embarked on a series of products that hurt them very badly dropping them down to a low of just under 2% for market share.

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tegradimeOne of the things that has always bothered us is the continual lack of improvement in the smartphone market in the US. Although we get to read about new technologies for “world” phones and drool over the latest products from companies like Samsung and HTC which sport quad core SoCs (System on Chip) under their screens when they finally reach the US market they are shadows of what people are getting in other markets.

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untitledIn our continuing coverage of Microsoft and their push to the cloud with their next generation of Windows we are hearing something that we expected people (consumers, analysts and journalists) to pick up on long ago. Microsoft has had a tradition of thinking “if we build it they will come”. This is mostly due to their heavy footprint in the marketplace. Let’s face it; Windows is the most widely used operating system in the world by a longshot while the Xbox is the most popular (in terms of sales) gaming console. The problem for Microsoft is that many consumers have bought into the push that hardware manufacturers (and yes software developers) have been touting “good enough” and the popular myth of “you can always upgrade”.

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htc-logoWill we see a compelling line up of Windows Phone products? Yesterday we had an official statement from Microsoft about who their launch partners would be for the Windows Phone 8 launch. You had Nokia, Samsung, Huawei, and HTC. This little group would all be using Qualcomms SoCs under the screens to provide the power for the new phone OS from Microsoft. At the time we thought that including HTC was a little odd since Microsoft shut them out of making an ARM based Windows 8 tablet for the launch. According to some unconfirmed information the reason was that Microsoft did not feel HTC was able to deal with supply issues with Qualcomm and other critical components for the device.

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WindowsPhoneOk so here we are with part two of the Windows Phone 8 information. Microsoft has released the list of phone makers that will be supporting Windows Phone 8 at launch (still listed as “this fall”). The list was surprisingly short with only Nokia, Samsung, Huawei and HTC on the list. HTC is interesting as they were not allowed to make a Windows RT tablet which is what Windows Phone 8 gets the majority of its structure from. In addition to the listing of phone makers, Microsoft also announced that the SoC supplier would be Qualcomm which suggests that we are looking at a controlled BOM for the first round of phones.

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WP8-BizMicrosoft has made Windows Phone 8 semi-official at its Windows Phone Developer Conference happening right now. We call it semi-official because right now Microsoft is not showing off any hardware running it. They are waiting to have that announcement later. So while the OS is out of the bag and we have some new information no one has made any specific announcements of support for the new OS.

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windows-phone-7Microsoft’s Windows Phone Developer Conference will be kicking off tomorrow (June 20-21) in San Francisco and there are those in the media that feel we might see Windows Phone 8 Officially launched. On the surface (no pun intended) this would make sense especially right after Microsoft announced their own home grown tablet yesterday. This announcement has sent something of a cold shiver through Microsoft’s partners as many feel they are no competing directly with them for sales.

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windows-phone-7Last year when Microsoft handed Nokia a very large check to help them promote Windows Phone, we joked about it wondering if Steve Ballmer really expected to see any of that money back. It was the type of moment when you can almost see the writing on the wall (that Nokia was in trouble). Nokia at the time was having financial problems and had even been blocked from transporting some of their gear out of one country they still owed money to. Microsoft saw this as an opportunity to get in with a phone company on the ground and partner with them directly. Nokia was not in any direct legal battles with Apple so there was not any worry that Apple could directly affect imports or sales of the products. Things were looking good.

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win8logoredesignedIt is no secret that we are not fond of the direction that Microsoft is moving in with Windows 8. The new operating system with its phone and touch based MetroUI is a step back from what many feel a Windows system is supposed to be. What many wonder is why this push of the MetroUI and the cloud services that are linked to it.

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windows-phone-7Someone has made a rather bold prediction about Windows Phone. According to the International Data Corp Windows Phone will grab some 14% market share between now and 2016 to become the second most used Mobile Operating system. Now it might interest you to know that this bit of insight also predicts that Android will hit its peak of market share this year and slowly decline. It will maintain the number one spot, but with only about 53%.

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