Windows Phone 8
Posted: June 22, 2012, 11:41 am
Microsoft had a developer event this week and showed off some dev-facing features of the upcoming platform.
A lot of great stuff as far as a hardware maker point of view:
- Multi-core support
- SD card support for user data and apps
- HD resolutions
- Native Code support
- Much better security like full device encryption and enterprise features
- Microsoft will be starting an enthusiast program where anyone can sign up to get updates as soon as MS makes them available, no carrier barriers.
- Over the air updates
- Updated, much more configurable UI - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25DKXGKblOw
Now for the bad bits:
- None of the existing devices will be upgradable. All of them will be getting version 7.8 that features the updated UI but we have no idea what else.
- Apps built for Windows Phone 8 will not work on current devices.
My opinions:
The day of the announcement I was pretty pissed. I had figured that Microsoft wouldn't upgrade but at the very least they would figure out a way of making new apps run on older hardware where the hardware allowed. None of that.
After a few days of the news coming out I've calmed down a bit. WP7 was build on the older Windows CE and that was holding the platform back significantly. This will give Microsoft the ability to be much more nimble.
Estimations put the windows Phone install base at ~ 15-20 million units worldwide. WP8 at launch will have 0 units worldwide I'm fairly sure that devs will still target 7.8 for a while still unless they need the new features. With time this will erode but until those must have WP8-only apps come out, the closer I'll be to my renewal.
Nokia has pledged to update and add more features to 7.5 and 7.8 going forward. They haven't done wrong by me yet with the Lumia line so I trust them to do the right thing.
I'm going to consider iPhone and Android more seriously at my renewal but I'm not so badly angry about this than I won't seriously consider a WP8/Nokia phone at that point either.
A lot of great stuff as far as a hardware maker point of view:
- Multi-core support
- SD card support for user data and apps
- HD resolutions
- Native Code support
- Much better security like full device encryption and enterprise features
- Microsoft will be starting an enthusiast program where anyone can sign up to get updates as soon as MS makes them available, no carrier barriers.
- Over the air updates
- Updated, much more configurable UI - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25DKXGKblOw
Now for the bad bits:
- None of the existing devices will be upgradable. All of them will be getting version 7.8 that features the updated UI but we have no idea what else.
- Apps built for Windows Phone 8 will not work on current devices.
My opinions:
The day of the announcement I was pretty pissed. I had figured that Microsoft wouldn't upgrade but at the very least they would figure out a way of making new apps run on older hardware where the hardware allowed. None of that.
After a few days of the news coming out I've calmed down a bit. WP7 was build on the older Windows CE and that was holding the platform back significantly. This will give Microsoft the ability to be much more nimble.
Estimations put the windows Phone install base at ~ 15-20 million units worldwide. WP8 at launch will have 0 units worldwide I'm fairly sure that devs will still target 7.8 for a while still unless they need the new features. With time this will erode but until those must have WP8-only apps come out, the closer I'll be to my renewal.
Nokia has pledged to update and add more features to 7.5 and 7.8 going forward. They haven't done wrong by me yet with the Lumia line so I trust them to do the right thing.
I'm going to consider iPhone and Android more seriously at my renewal but I'm not so badly angry about this than I won't seriously consider a WP8/Nokia phone at that point either.