10/31/2012

Windows 8 phones out to stand apart from rivals


SAN FRANCISCO —
Microsoft set out to win over iPhone and Android gadget devotees with Windows 8 smartphones, new devices that emphasize individualism and unify digital lives in the Internet cloud. The global rollout of Windows 8 phones, set to begin in Europe this weekend, is the final piece in a Microsoft operating system transformation aimed at harmonizing the technology titan’s software and hardware for mobile lifestyles.
Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said, It has been for us an exciting and energizing few days, while unveiling the slick new smartphones at a media event in San Francisco. Windows PCs really are the best PCs ever and today we are bringing phones into the Windows family with Windows 8.
Microsoft launched its latest generation Windows operating system, hit the market with Surface tablet computers and opened scores of temporary pop-up stores that have drawn crowds interested in Windows 8 devices. Windows Phone 8 is the final component in Microsoft’s new equation and shares a user interfaced based on tiles that can be personalized with people’s pictures, applications, games, music and more.
Microsoft corporate vice president Joe Belfiore said that Microsoft was out to re-invent a smartphone experience that has for years basically consisted of a locked screen that opens to rows of icons. We decided not use that tired old metaphor and came up with our own way that puts people at the center of the experience.
Microsoft’s online shop is stocked with more than 120,000 applications tailored for Windows 8 phones and the number is growing. Analysts have long contended that hip, fun, or functional apps are crucial to the success of smartphones.
Microsoft partnered with Facebook to optimize a Windows 8 version of the leading social network’s application that includes serving up slide shows of personal pictures to handset lock-screens. A live apps feature allows for sports scores, messages, images or other data to be streamed to an ever-changing lock-page on phones, a demonstration showed. A Twitter application was also tailored with Windows 8, and a specially designed Skype app is in the works, 
Ballmer touted the ability to personalize Windows 8 phone screens with apps, images and data to make devices “uniquely yours” by “pinning” tiles. He also highlighted how people Microsoft’s Internet “cloud” storage service SkyDrive could be used to synch everything from Word documents to music across phones, personal computers, and Xbox 360 videogame consoles.
Ballmer also provided glimpses at “killer hardware” that included Nokia, Samsung and HTC handsets with big screens and sleek lines.
Windows 8 smartphones will roll out around the world in November and December.

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