Microsoft has reportedly sent Windows Phone 8 off to manufacturing, setting the stage for a proper unveiling and official launch in the coming weeks.
The past couple of weeks have seen some major developments in the Windows Phone 8 space. Earlier this month, Nokia officially unveiled its Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 smartphones, to mostly positive fanfare. The glossy exteriors and loud colors on some models can be a little funky, but the powerful hardware inside the devices and handy features like wireless charging are sure to win over a few potential consumers. Oh, and since we’re talking about Nokia, I guess it’s OK to point out that I was spot on with my prediction last month when rumors initially began to surface regarding the next-gen Lumia, but I digress.
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Yesterday, HTC also unveiled its upcoming flagship Windows Phone 8-based devices, the HTC 8X and 8S. Like Nokia’s products, HTC’s 8X and 8S sport some powerful hardware under the hood and generally attractive designs, though I’m not one for bold, colored accents on my smartphones. Regardless, with dual-core processors, up to 1GB of RAM, nice cameras and screens with a resolution up to 720 on the 8X, HTC Windows Phone 8-devices stand up well against competing products. Heck, even the as-yet-to-arrive iPhone 5 lags behind the HTC 8X in many ways.
The HTC 8X sports a Qualcomm S4 1.5 GHz, dual-core SoC and a 4.3” 720P display, with Gorilla Glass 2
While we’ve seen a number of its Windows Phone 8 partners (and competitors) making noise recently, we haven’t heard much directly from Microsoft. News recently broke, however, that Windows Phone 8 has reached the RTM milestone. That means those rumors of a late October/early-November release for Windows Phone 8-based devices are most likely correct. If Microsoft wants to piggyback some Windows Phone 8 hype onto the huge marketing blitz that’s sure to come when Windows 8 ships to retail on October 26, launching Windows Phone 8 a few days later certainly makes a lot of sense.
Whether or not consumers are going to care is the big question. Windows Phone 7 was praised as a good mobile OS, but it has obviously failed to gain any real traction, at least in the U.S. Windows Phone 8 is a different animal, though. It’s arriving at a time when Microsoft has fully embraced mobility and has even tailored its next major PC operating as such, perhaps at its own peril. Microsoft has also incorporated the NT kernel into Windows Phone 8, which changes the development landscape dramatically, and its hardware partners are clearly riding the bleeding edge. Windows Phone’s app ecosystem has also seen some solid growth in recent months, Surface has generated plenty of buzz, and more Microsoft stores, which can be a great asset for educating consumers, are opening soon.
The pieces seem to be falling into place for Microsoft. With the right push and a warm reception for Windows 8 (which is still a long shot at this point), Windows Phone 8 could be poised from some real success moving forward.
