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Windows Phone 8 Details

Windows 8 isn't just great for PC clients, tablets and servers -- there's also a SmartPhone version on the line. Of course what would an unreleased product be without a code name? Instead of just calling it Windows Phone 8, Microsoft refers to it as "Apollo."

While Apollo may have been the Greek God of the sun, the name is not all positive. Do you really want to name your next product in a market where you are already losing after a doomed spacecraft? How about Titanic or Mount Vesuvius instead?

Always the optimist, Microsoft is packing this new OS with tighter integration with its tablets and PCs – it's trying to turn the phone into a client for your base computing device. Of course, the phone OS will use the Metro interface, which could be as ubiquitous as windows and dialog boxes in years to come.

The integration is largely based on shared components. If the phone OS has much the same stack as the PC/tablet client, it ought to interoperate!

Best expert guesses? This baby ships by year's end with about 100,000 apps ready to roll.
What will it take for Microsoft to take a commanding place in the smartphone world? Your best advice welcome at dbarney@redmondmag.com.

Posted by Doug Barney on 02/06/2012 at 9:51 AM


Reader Comments:

Sat, Feb 11, 2012 kevin kansas

I own a wp7 com day one last November and kicked the iPhone 4 I owned to the curb remember the I carry from apple in 1992 it was revolutionary and changed the word and Microsoft was doomed it was a monitor with a keyboard attached and u could carry the monitor anywhere that became obsolete when Toshiba 3 inch thick satellite came out and the I pad is doomed also Microsoft moves at a turtles pace as a big company normally does but when the tablets roll out you'll see the I pads fall the way of the revolutionary I carry of 1992 the phone is awesome I only have a few apps on it and it takes 20 apps on my old iPhone to do what it does and about 10 on my android tablet I'm typing on right now I will be first in line to buy a windows tablet

Tue, Feb 7, 2012 Chris

What will it take for Microsoft to take a commanding place in the smartphone world? -A Time Machine to go back in time and remind themselves to not forget about the mobile market for so long.

Mon, Feb 6, 2012

I own a WP7 and it does pretty much everything I want. There are a couple of things that would make it better such as VPN ability. But other than that it does most everything I need for my business and personal. There are a few key apps missing, but that will come in time and has nothing to do with the OS itself. I'd be interested to know what others feel the OS itself is lacking.

Mon, Feb 6, 2012 Roger

What your article is telling is I would have to wait another year to get a smartphone by MS. Even it the best phone in all world and I just signed a 2 year contract I would never switch. MS and phones will not make it. Unless they give away the phones to get market share.

Mon, Feb 6, 2012 Jim Payne Dallas

I agree with Troy's comments. I think that Doug you may have had a bit of a misstatement there to refer to Apollo as a "doomed" spacecraft since really was really a program and part of a class of vehicles. Maybe too much time around the Apple FUD fumes from his young ones' Macs, etc., eh Doug? ;-) I would say that getting to the moon and back more than a half a dozen times and actually landing on the moon and returning six times is pretty damn successful in my book, not to mention the Skylab missions, and the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Frankly, the entire Apollo program was an amazing feat and a measure of success that few in history have ever equaled and I claim that few will ever repeat. So, to me Apollo signifies excellence, adventure, success, and courage. It’s the paragon of success. If anything Microsoft could be setting itself too lofty a goal to actually match the inference that the term Apollo brings to somone like me.

Mon, Feb 6, 2012 Troy

Just a couple of notes, although I think this is a very good story overall I'm a bit bothered by the analogies. First of all do you really want to refer to the entire NASA Apollo program as a 'doomed spacecraft'? I will concede the terrible loss of three astronauts on the launch pad could carry the moniker, but save Apollo 13 all of the rest of the missions were amazing feats! Even Apollo 13, the 'successful failure' showed the ingenuity and bravery of the three astronauts and the creativity and dedication of those in Mission Control. If it were me I would not dismiss the Apollo program, the ONLY program to put humans on the surface of another Solar System body as a 'doomed spacecraft'. Oh, one other note. Titanic and Mount Vesuvius are not the correct relationship. The iceberg is to the Titanic as Mount Vesuvius is to Pompeii. So it would be better to list the Titanic and Pompeii, not the Titanic and Mount Vesuvius. 

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