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Can Windows Phone 8 salve Microsoft?

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Earlier this week, while hurricane Sandy harassed the east coat and forced Google to release Android iv.ii and its new Nexus devices via an unceremonious blog mail service, Microsoft held an event in San Francisco that finally filled in the remaining Windows Phone 8 blanks. Following the release of Windows 8, Surface, and updates to Xbox, we now have a very solid thought of the direction that Microsoft is heading in — a plotted grade that volition bring the good transport Microsoft barging into your mobile life, whether you like it or not.

For the last couple of years, Windows Telephone has been the lame equus caballus of Microsoft'south software stable. While Windows 7 has enjoyed massive success, and Xbox continues to go from force to forcefulness, Windows Telephone 7 and seven.five have puttered forth in the wake of iOS and Android, threatening to go under whenever Apple or Google make a sudden move. Through sheer strength of will (and animal-force marketing dollars), Microsoft has mustered but 3.5% of the worldwide smartphone market.

If you've ever used Windows Phone 7.five, its diminutive share of the market will probably come as a surprise. You see, 1 of the all-time kept secrets of the mobile device domain is that Windows Telephone 7.5 is actually rather cool. While it doesn't have the flexibility of Android, or iOS's wealth of apps, Windows Phone is both slicker and easier to use. In much the aforementioned manner that iOS "but works," as does Windows Telephone 7.5. While Android certainly has more dwelling screen real estate, WP7.5'southward Start screen is much more than lively and personal. Really, unless you're a power user (and most smartphone users aren't), Windows Phone is a fantastic mobile OS.

Why has Windows Phone failed to attract users, then? No i knows for sure. The network consequence certainly plays a role — when WP7 arrived it had to start from scratch, while there were already millions of iOS and Android users recommending their respective OSes to friends and family. Ecosystem lock-in too plays a role; one time y'all've got your phone fix, and spent some money on apps, it seems foolhardy to switch to another platform. In most market inquiry, most consumers take reported that they're merely not interested in Windows Phone. Ultimately, WP7's failing adoption is probably best explained with the help of a particular comport-defecating-in-the-woods phrase: Windows Phone might be an excellent smartphone Os, merely if no one is in that location to run across it, who cares?

Introducing Windows Phone 8, the savior

Windows Phone 8, and so, is all about actually getting people to utilise it, so that they can fall in beloved with information technology and thus tell their friends and family to buy a WP8 device. To pull this off, Microsoft seems to be taking a iii-pronged approach, by providing killer features, killer hardware, and killer marketing.

For the most part, Windows Phone 8 looks and feels like WP7 — merely that's where the similarities terminate. Old apps volition be frontwards-compatible, merely the age-old Windows CE underpinnings accept been gutted and replaced with an almost-complete Windows 8 kernel and library stack. Every bit a upshot, Windows 8 Metro apps will work on WP8 with very few changes — and WP8 gains back up for apps written in C/C++ native code, too. WP8 also uses Windows viii's network code, file system, depression-level security features, and even has the same support for upward to 64 processor cores.

In terms of unique, user-facing features, there is Kids Corner (a sandbox total of kids games available from the lock screen), Information Sense (a suite of tools, including information compression, that cuts downwards on data usage), and Rooms (a concept similar to Google+'s circles, merely on a larger, more inclusive scale).

Perhaps virtually chiefly, though, information technology finally sounds like WP8 will exist able to compete with the app ecosystems of other mobile platforms. WP7 is now up to 120,000 apps, nearly of which are compatible with WP8. With WP8, Microsoft says information technology now has 46 out of the top 50 iOS/Android apps. Windows Phone 8 also debuts Live Apps; apps which tin collaborate with your lock screen — such as Facebook, which tin can update your lock screen with personalized photo mosaics.

Nokia Lumia 920, product shot, in red, yellow, and gray

On the hardware front, Windows Phone 8 is launching with potent offerings from HTC, Nokia, and Samsung, all of which have a dual-core Snapdragon S4 SoC, a good rear-facing camera, and a big, high-resolution display. As before, Microsoft is keeping a fairly tight leash on Windows Phone hardware specs, then it volition be quite difficult to find a "bad" WP8 device (though next twelvemonth, with Exynos 5 and quad-core Snapdragons on the market place, Microsoft will hopefully update the minimum spec). Windows Telephone 8 also dictates a hardware photographic camera button, which should entreatment to avid flick takers. In the Nokia Lumia 920'south case, at that place's a all-time-in-class, optically stabilized photographic camera, too.

And so there'south the marketing — oh boy is Microsoft plowing a lot into marketing. As yous may already know, Microsoft's marketing upkeep for Windows 8, Surface, and Windows Telephone 8 is somewhere in the region of $1.5-$2 billion. Most of this volition exist consumed by blanket advertising on Boob tube, websites, and in magazines — simply, in a first for the mobile Os wars, Microsoft is likewise forking out on celebrity endorsements. At an event on Monday, Microsoft wheeled out Jessica Alba to tell the world nearly how much she loves Windows Phone viii. (In add-on, though I'm sure they weren't paid as much every bit Alba, Windows Phone manager Joe Belfiore also brought his kids on stage to demo the new Kids Corner feature. Has Microsoft jumped the shark?).