For Windows Phone 8, Microsoft has finally stopped teasing and on Tuesday unveiled the new operating system and compatible handsets just hours before they went into the shops.
The big news is that it works and works well. Considering that this
is a phone running a descendant of Windows NT, this is remarkable.
Windows 8 Phone is solid, stable, and greatly improves on the tortuous
task-switching that plagued the previous pre-release versions.
Predictions of broken software compatibility between Tango (the
codename for updates to Windows Phone 7.x) and Apollo (Windows 8 Phone)
were greatly overstated: Windows Phone 7.x apps run just fine on the
latest OS, although an upgraded multitasking Skype isn't available in
the Store just yet.
The bad news? Well, it isn't so bad - it's more an opportunity
missed. So much effort went into pushing Apollo out of the door in time
for the Christmas season, and ensuring there were no show-stopping bugs,
the device looks very much like it did a year ago. The leap from
version 2.0 to 3.0 normally includes adding out a lot of feature
requests. Apple added cut-and-paste to iOS 3, for example, which had
been a deal-breaker for many, and greatly improved the iPhone email
client. But once you're past the home screen, the bundled Windows Phone
applications in WP8 look very much like they did a year ago.
Improvements we might have expected have been held over.
All in all, Windows Phone OS is now a strong contender, but there's no
room to rest on any laurels. The out-of-the-box apps on rival phones are
simply much more fully featured, and Microsoft needs to bring out an
upgrade sooner rather than later - say early Q2 - to keep up the pace. ®
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