Microsoft Corp plans to bring its Windows Phone software to 23 new countries and put the operating system on less expensive smartphones, part of an effort to win back market share lost to Google Inc and Apple Inc.

Microsoft will kick off the expansion by opening mobile- application stores in China, Thailand, Venezuela and the 20 other nations by the end of the month, with phones arriving around the same time, said Terry Myerson, who oversees the company’s Windows Phone business. That will bring the total number of markets Microsoft serves to 63, letting it target 60 per cent more buyers, he said.

The company aims to close ranks on Apple, the No. 2 provider of mobile-phone software, and set up a showdown with Google’s market-leading Android operating system, which runs on hundreds of devices. Even with the latest expansion, Microsoft will struggle to live up to a prediction by research firm IDC that it will leapfrog Apple by 2015.

“It’s a great forecast — I wish all I had to do is press a button and say, ‘Make it happen,’” he said. “We’ve got some great strategies to get there, but it’s not a gimme. We’re a challenger in a market against two established competitors.”

Google and Apple aren’t as entrenched in emerging markets, which provides an opportunity for Microsoft, said Al Hilwa, an analyst at Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC. Global smartphone sales will top 1 billion units in 2015, with China as the biggest single market, the research firm estimates.

Still, Microsoft will have to move quickly in developing economies, where cheaper Android phones are gaining a foothold, Hilwa said.

Fleeting chance?
“That opportunity may be fleeting in that we are seeing a lot of Android phones come down to the low end,” he said. “They need more phones, more carriers, more prices, more languages.”

Rather than make phones itself, Microsoft supplies its software to Nokia Oyj and other handset manufacturers. Those partners are working on phones with Microsoft’s latest operating system and will show models today at the Mobile World Congress show in Barcelona, Spain.

The models will go on sale “pretty soon,” Myerson said, declining to comment further until partners make specific announcements. The company added app stores in Argentina, Indonesia, Malaysia, Peru and the Philippines earlier this month to help support the phones.

Cheaper production
Microsoft also has adapted Windows Phone software so that it requires half as much memory and runs the cheaper 7X27A chip from Qualcomm Inc. That should help manufacturers cut their costs by about 30 per cent to 40 per cent, Myerson said. New Windows Phones could cost as little as $100 to $200 to make.

In the US, those savings are unlikely to be passed along to consumers, Myerson said. In emerging markets, though, the changes should lead to cheaper phone prices.

“For Windows to be relevant and exciting to consumers in these countries, we need to be at the price points they buy consumer electronics at,” he said.

Phones based on the new software and cheaper hardware are slower for certain uses, Myerson said. A small number of apps also aren’t yet running on the new products, though Microsoft is working to fix that, he said.

The effort is particularly important in China, where many phones cost about $100 to $150 to make, Myerson said. The country is poised to pass the US as the biggest smartphone market this year, with Android ranking as the most popular software, according to IDC.

Not in love?
“What Microsoft is counting on is there are a lot of Android users, but there aren’t a lot of Android lovers,” said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Stamford, Connecticut-based Gartner Inc. “They think they can convert those people.”

Microsoft also is working to persuade more carriers to offer prepaid Windows Phones — an approach that’s popular in emerging markets. Myerson plans to discuss that topic this week with America Movil SAB, the biggest mobile-phone carrier in the Americas.

For now, the new software won’t work on handsets that cost less than $100 to make. Still, Microsoft might be able to address that segment someday, Myerson said.

“We want to maintain a consistent level of quality,” he said. “In the fullness of time, price points come down.”

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/telecom/Microsoft-plans-to-roll-out-Windows-Phone-software-in-23-countries/articleshow/12059365.cms

Just the other day, I wrote on one of the outlying issues with Windows Phone: hardware. More specifically, specifications. In truth, the hardware is quite nice on most Windows Phones. The main Windows Phone OEMs are also major Android manufacturers, and devices on both sides of the fence are on par with one another in terms of materials, build quality and size range. Specifications, on the other hand, are literally years apart.
Like I explained before, though, better specifications aren’t necessary for better performance. Performance on Windows Phones, across the board, is just fine, despite the seemingly underpowered processors and small amount of RAM. But when it comes to appeal and misguided opinions (presumptions, really) based on clock speeds and the number of cores a phone’s processor might have, specs are everything. Nine times out of 10, a customer who knows nothing about phones, mobile platforms, their respective performance or mobile processors will choose a phone with bigger, better, more future-proofed specifications. That means, 9 times out of 10, Windows Phone loses the battle.
Sure, specs could use some improving, solely for more appeal. But I don’t mind the software too much, and performance is already exceptional. Nonetheless, I cannot force myself to use Windows Phone. Even if a “champion device” or a Windows Superphone were to grace shelves, I could not buy into Windows Phone in its current state. Buy why, exactly?
The current interface is painstakingly boring
Notifications are terrible
Next to no customization
I’ve stated before that I think Windows Phone is boring. That’s no secret, and to be honest, I think that’s what Microsoft was shooting for considering their initial marketing campaign stated that Windows Phone was going to save us from our phones. When you consider their market share (currently only 5.2 percent in the US), though, it’s clear that not many people want to be saved from their phones. They want something fresh, exciting and fun to use. In its current state, Windows Phone is fresh, but it’s neither fun or exciting to use.
I honestly like the change of pace Microsoft introduced with Windows Phone – I love the fact that it’s not closely related to anything else out there. I love the largely typographic interface and simplicity of everything. And I really love the software keyboard.
When I first get a new phone, I enjoy taking some time to setup my phone and truly make it mine. But unlike my Android devices or even my iPhone, I do not spend hours setting up my home screen. There’s not much to setup at all on Windows Phone. There are only two main views on Windows Phone: an alphabetical list of all apps on the phone and your basic tile view. In the tile view, the only things you can currently change is the color of the tiles (or system-wide highlight color) and their order. Apart from that, you can only change the lock screen wallpaper and toggle the background color between black and white.
Like I said, I like the direction Microsoft is headed. And in it’s defense, Windows Phone is still in its infancy. (Android wasn’t much to look at in its early days either.) But I see the Metro UI as a huge waste of space and kind of … tacky. All I ask for is more customization options, like being able to change the color of each individual tile, changing the background to any color of choice, being able to resize tiles (from extra small to the current large tile size), etc.

I hate to make this comparison (I’m sure it will start a flame war of some kind), but a great example of a more useful and more pleasing tiled interface to look at is the newest version of Android Market. There is a lot of helpful information on each tile, a plethora of colors and pictures and the entire display is used, instead of the space-wasting, two-column tile interface of Metro UI.
All things considered, I can get over a boring interface if need be. But possibly the biggest area Windows Phone is missing the mark is notifications. My phone is my lifeline, and I need my notifications to be there in the event I overlook or miss something. On iOS, there is Notification Center and there are little, annoying (in a good way) bubbles popping up all over the interface. On Android, I have a pull-down notification shade where everything unread is kept, and little reminders for those notifications are kept in the status bar at all times. And on Windows Phone? As new notifications come in, they alert you just fine. But if you don’t act on the notifications immediately, they’re reduced to numbers on the respective tile and they blend with everything else on the interface. In other words, if I miss something on the first go around, the chances of me ever realizing it are slim. Existing, unread notifications need to be improved. There needs to be some central location I can go to and deal with all of my unattended notifications.
Windows Phone is off to a great start, and I’m actually rooting for Microsoft on this one. But if I’m ever going to consider using their platform as a primary (or even secondary) mobile OS, they’re going to need to make some radical and unlikely changes in their upcoming updates.
I know a lot of you Windows Phone fans out there will disagree with me on a lot of this. If you want to contest me and defend your favorite platform, volunteer for the Ultimate Fanboy War. In the meantime, tell me how you would change Windows Phone. Would you add more customizations to the interface? Or do you find it perfect, as is?

Source:http://www.phonedog.com/2012/01/05/how-would-you-change-windows-phone-software/