Having an inner
understanding on Windows Phone 8
What gets into your mind when you hear of a Windows Phone? Many do
think of Nokia Lumia Series. Yeah that’s right, Lumia phones carries the
biggest share of Windows Phone but also we have others like Samsung,
Htc, Huawei.... but how did it all start?
Windows
Phone is the Microsoft's latest attempt to make a significant dent in
the mobile market. With the release of Windows Phone 8, it marks a
significant milestone in the evolution of Microsoft's operating system
for mobile phones and this means the users now can enjoy the expanded
hardware access, the new support for high-end gaming and better OS
integration. It has not been an easy road for Microsoft, who launched
Windows Phone 7 Series that rose from the ashes and it came to the
public nearly 2 years before Windows 8. Windows Phone 7 was destined to
be the replacement solution for an obsolete Windows Mobile 6.x platform
and it did its best to disrupt the industry by offering its unique
Metro user interface and slick performance across the board.
After releasing this new OS, Microsoft has offered up a list of hardware requirements for each phone to run it.
- Basically
all WP8 devices must include the same standard set of buttons: each one
needs to have Camera, Search, Start, Power, Back and Volume Keys.
- Multi-touch capacitive touch screen with minimum of four simultaneous points
- Minimum 4GB flash memory
- GPS and A-GNSS; GLONASS is supported if OEMs decide to include it
- Support for micro-USB 2.0
- Rear-facing
AF camera with LED or Xenon flash, optional front-facing camera (both
need to be VGA or better) and dedicated camera button
- Accelerometer, proximity and ambient light sensors, as well as vibration motor (magnetometer and gyroscope are optional)
- Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor
- Minimum 512MB RAM for WVGA phones; minimum 1GB RAM for 720p / WXGA
- 802.11b/g and Bluetooth (802.11n is optional)
- DirectX graphics hardware support with hardware acceleration for Direct3D using programmable CPU
- 3.5mm stereo headphone jack with three-button detection support
All
of this features sounds promising, given that Windows Phone 7 was
frustrating cause of hardware restrictions. Following the release of
Windows Phone 8 and new hardware from Nokia (Lumia Series) it had been
able to match its rival devices and indeed has outlasted BlackBerry.
Windows
Phone has always been deliberately different, in earlier versions like
Windows Phone OS7 and its upgrades to 7.8 had lot of features missing
like no SD card support and tight control of what apps could do to
protect battery life.
By introducing WP8, Microsoft had been able
to fill up the gaps that were missing in WP7 without losing the
positive aspects of its UI like; having new look for the Start screen is
a great example of this; you still get live tiles for the apps that you
choose to pin to Start but now you can set the size for every app,
making it twice the width of a standard tile, or a tiny quarter-size
tile; you can make the tile for any app larger; that's no longer
restricted to built in apps from Microsoft and phone makers.
It
have made a big bite on the market share progress, bolstered its app
store depth, and has more or less become the accepted third place mobile
platform.
The new features embedded on the Windows Phone device
brings you closer to the people, places, and things you care about all
designed and customized in a user design perspective that’s unique on
its own. The design is tailored to offer simple refinements that makes
your phone a delight to use every day while at the same time safeguards
so as to help keep your data secure and your mind at ease.
On
Windows Phone 8, Microsoft went ahead and added over twenty different
accent colors to choose from as well. More to add salt on what users
like to be displayed with, the lock screen had been redefined to allow
the user personalize it, for example one can get the image of the day
from Bing or have a of an image from once Facebook photos, or even
choose once favourite photos on the device.
Windows Phone
ended 2012 with 2.8% global market share. It concluded 2013 with 3.6%, a
mere 28.57% increase. How about of 2014??
I am a Game & Software Developer, Tutor & Mentor.
Google+: http://gplus.to/pbosoa
