Nokia will only sell Windows Phones in North America, nothing else
Finnish mobile phone leader Nokia will be dealing exclusively in Windows Phones in the United States, according to several reports on Tuesday. The company's devices that run other mobile operating systems: S40, Symbian, and Meego, will not be sold in the North American market at all.
In an exclusive interview with AllThingsD's Ina Fried, Nokia Inc. President Chris Weber said the company will be putting all its strength into Windows Phone in North America, and that the continent is essentially "out of the Symbian…S40 business."
Windows Phone evangelist quits Microsoft, says he'll still use Windows Phone
Charlie Kindel, a 21-year Microsoft veteran, and most recently General Manager of Windows Phone developer experience, publicly posted his departure from the company to work on his "super secret stealth startup," based in the Seattle Area. For the last two and a half years, Kindel led the team that built the current Windows Phone application platform, and was responsible for much of the evangelism and outreach that accompanied the complete revitalization of Microsoft's mobile ecosystem.
There is no doubt that the last two and a half years have brought the most drastic changes to Microsoft's approach to mobile operating systems. The long-running Windows Mobile came to a screeching halt at version 6.5 when it launched simultaneously with the new "Windows Phone" brand, which at the time, wasn't even an operating system yet.
Why wait for Mango when you can get the first Windows 7 phone?
Back in May, when Microsoft announced "Mango," the first major update to Windows Phone, the Redmond company named some new hardware partners who would launch devices running Windows Phone Mango: Acer, Fujitsu-Toshiba, ZTE, and Nokia. So far, Nokia's "Sea Ray" Windows Phone Mango device has been shown, and Acer's W4 was shown off at Computex in Taipei. Tuesday evening, Fujitsu Toshiba Mobile Communications officially announced its Windows Phone Mango device, known as IS12T.
IS12T includes some impressive capabilities, including a waterproof and dustproof chassis, a 13.2 megapixel camera, and 32GB of onboard memory, and will be available in Japan beginning in September 2011. Global availability and further specs have not yet been announced.
Windows Phone 'Mango' released to manufacturing
Windows Phone 7.5, code-named 'Mango', has been released to manufacturing according to a blog entry by Microsoft's Terry Myerson, Corporate Vice President, Windows Phone Engineering.
Windows Phone transition is killing Nokia
Today's dismal Nokia second-quarter earnings results offer little good news. Apple now leads Nokia in smartphone sales, 20.3 million units to 16.7 million. The sliver of good news: Nokia will ship a Windows Phone handset this year, which probably isn't soon enough.
Nokia smartphone sales collapsed during second quarter, plummeting an awe-numbing 34 percent year over year. By comparison Apple smartphone sales soared by 142 percent. The percentages alone are sobering enough.
Windows Phone 7 users sure are satisfied
As I reported yesterday, but want to call out more prominently today, a recent ChangeWave survey found that more Windows Phone 7 users are "very satisfied" than those with Androids.
Apple iPhone users are most satisfied, 70 percent in the "very" category. Fifty-percent of Android users are "very satisfied". For Windows Phone 7 users, it's 57 percent. But there's more. The number is a huge improvement over Microsoft's past. Only 14 percent of Windows Mobile users are "very satisfied".
Microsoft releases apps to hook up Windows Phone with Windows Home Server 2011
The Windows Home Server team on Friday announced the final release of Windows Server Solutions Phone Connector, an add-in utility that lets users turn their Windows phone into a remote Windows Home Server 2011 management terminal or media streamer.
With the server-side add-in and the appropriate mobile application, the user's Windows Phone gets a hub specifically for "My Home Server" where he can view alerts, initiate backups, manage user access, or view and access content located on the server.
Windows Phone devs get access to 'Mango' today, beta 2 of SDK
Windows Phone 7 is just about one year old, and is about to receive its first major update with "Mango," also known as Windows Phone OS 7.1. In anticipation of the release of Mango, Microsoft has rolled out Beta 2 of the Windows Phone developer toolkit which takes advantage of the new features included in the soon-to-be-released Windows Phone 7.1.
Since there are purportedly more than 500 feature updates in Windows Phone Mango, there are naturally a huge number of new tools in the SDK that open up new capabilities in apps.
Why Nokia picked Microsoft: Windows Phone 7's 20,000 apps and counting
That number might not seem like much compared to the gazillion apps at Android Market or Apple's App Store, but those 20,000 apps answer a question on many techies' lips this week: Why didn't Nokia pick MeeGo? Windows Phone Marketplace passed the 20k threshold about a month ago.
The N9's unexpected launch on June 21 was one of the most perplexing mobile phone announcements in recent memory. The N9 is a stunning piece of hardware that runs smart-looking software -- MeeGo 1.2. But Nokia has all but abandoned MeeGo and Symbian, which despite market share declines is still the most widely used mobile operating system on the planet. The N9 had lots of gawkers drooling over its sexiness but disappointed that with MeeGo there's no point.
Nokia's first Windows Phone device: 'Sea Ray'
It may be the worst thing to tell a crowd: "put away your cameras." But that is exactly what Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said speaking to a meeting of company employees this week in debuting a "super confidential product:" Nokia's first Windows Phone 7 device.
Codenamed "Sea Ray," the device looks much like the Nokia N9. Elop did not specify specs of the Windows Phone version, but the N9 specs are as follows: a 3.9-inch AMOLED display, scratch-resistant glass, 8-megapixel camera, and NFC capabilities.
Make your Android mobile look like Windows Phone 7
Apple's iOS devices may have something of a stranglehold on the mobile market, but for anyone that has tired of the iPhone and iPad's dominance, the ever-increasing range of Android devices is something to be welcomed. Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 brought a new player to the arena and, as is customary with operating systems, there have been endless comparisons between Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7. Launcher 7 is a free utility for Android users who like the way their device works but are taken in by the look of Windows Phone 7.
The app is a combination of a skin and a launcher tool, and it closely mimics the Windows Phone approach with its interface. The app breaks the screen up into a series of tiles that can be used to house all manner of shortcuts. The main screen provides access to common features such as the dialer for your phone, displays information about your inbox and much more. As you would expect, the function and look of each of the tiles can be completely customized.
IDC should stop swelling Steve Ballmer's head for things he hasn't done
Is Microsoft's contract with analyst firm IDC up for renewal? Hey, the software giant's fiscal year ends June 30, so it could be. What else, other than group insanity, can explain IDC predicting, again, that Windows Phone will be No. 2 in smartphone operating systems come 2015? It's -- get this -- the second time IDC made such a prediction in less than two months. I guess the first time wasn't enough to get the contract signed.
Mighty Suspicious Timing
Acer shows off Windows Phone Mango handset, MeeGo tablet
Taiwanese PC maker Acer took a rather sudden hit last April when Gianfranco Lanci resigned as CEO of the company, saying it should have been focused on competing with HTC and Apple in the mobile space instead of with HP in the PC space.
At the Computex trade show in Taipei, Acer this week has shown off its scattershot approach to covering the mobile device market, which will include, among other things, a 10" tablet running Intel's MeeGo operating system, and a Snapdragon-powered smartphone running Windows Phone 7 "Mango."
If Windows Phone fails, Microsoft can still profit from Android's popularity
One year ago, Microsoft announced it had signed a licensing deal with Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC where Microsoft would receive royalties for every Android phone HTC made.
This week, a report from Citigroup analyst Walter Pritchard said that royalty fee amounts to $5 per Android phone.
Do you want the skinny on Windows Phone 'Mango' development tools? (video)
The sad reality is this: Public relations people outnumber journalists, and companies like Microsoft resort to giving more access to PR staff than they do us. Why not, particularly for interviews? The internal company interviewer takes full control of the messaging and keeps it on point. I don't like the approach, but that doesn't mean every interview is devoid of value.
The one above is good example, where Microsoft's Brandon Watson interviews Microsoft's Andrew Clinick about Mango development tools from a platform perspective. The video is one of a series. Also available: Mango development tools related to search and communications.
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