The presenter, Augusto Valdez, started by stating something to get everyone in a good mode, as we all know that WP is a very good product but it still lacks in sales. They did their own research by going to the amazon us website and look for what phones people like. The top 3 are WP and out of the top 9, 7 are.
Windows Phone 8 will release at the same time as Windows 8. The different teams are working together, collaborating and trying to get the same experience on the phone as well as desktop or pad.
So here 8 new features in Windows Phone 8
1. The latest and greatest hardware. it will support dual cores and more. It will support 3 different resolutions, the highest begin 1280X720 16:9. They will continue to support MicroSDs and even expand on that functionality by allowing you to install apps from a MicroSD!
2. IE 10. this will be the same code that runs on Windows 8 so it will have great JavaScript and HTML 5 performance. It will also include anti-phishing since that is a great problem with mobile devices at the moment.
3. Native code support. The same code that runs on Windows 8 will run on the phone. Think about the time this little gem might save you.
4. Full support of NFC (near field communication). Now the words “full support” might mean different things to different people but that is what he said. NFC is to me pure science fiction, which either makes it cool or me seem really old.
5. The most complete wallet. Well if you say so. I won’t hold my breath but if we could make way of all these membership cards and cash I would be a very happy guy. Also, the security will sit in the SIM-card and not in the hardware. That means that the security is portable and you can move your identity between different devices.
6. Nokia map technology. This means a lot of things but mostly it means offline maps. Download all the maps for lets say Amsterdam, and use them all day without roaming charges.
7. Windows Phone 8 for business
If you are using Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 there should not be any reason not to use the same apps on all your devices. This is when that shared core comes into play. Now the phone is encryptable and you can treat the phone as any other laptop (nearly) in the business, and push different apps to different phones. Perhaps also enforcing some security and restrictions.
Another important thing is that you can install applications to your phone and not use Marketplace. This is of course important to business users. (That little fact won a guy in the audience an Nokia 900 buy the way!)
8. The start screen
Once again the shared core comes into play and the extended functionalities of the live tiles on Windows 8 will come to Windows Phone 8. the picture is actually from a prototype phone the presenter used to demo features.
The old version
So what will happen to Windows Phone 7.5? Many already know that you will not be able to upgrade a WP7.7 to WP8. Mr Waldez told us that there will be a WP7.8 that will come close to what WP8 will do but not all the way.
Blog Post by: Mikael Sand