Windows Phones gets a lot of Bling

 Sprint HTC Touch Pro™Today the twitterverse is occupied with news of skype releasing apps for iphone. Well, that is old news for Windows Phone users: http://skype.com/download/skype/windowsmobile/

But today, Microsoft Phones are getting a lot of bling.. Here’s some of the bling it is getting:

  1. MySpace now enables use of Silverlight on their site
    With its rich media capability is going to be a big help to all the musicians and actors on myspace :).. Tomorrow, the SDK to develop this application will be released on the CodePlex Open Source site.
    In addition, Windows Phone will also be getting an app for Myspace users soon. In fact, plan is to enable Windows Phone users to experience other  social networks right from their Windows phone, including Facebook and Windows Live.
  2. Windows Marketplace for Mobile
    Windows Marketplace had been announced earlier (to be available later in the year) and today they talked about few additional things. Marketplace will be available as an Windows Phone application on Win Mobile 6.5. Customers will have the option to purchase applications on Windows Marketplace for Mobile with a credit card or have charges appear directly on their phone bill. In addition, people will be able to return an application after purchase within 24 hours for a full refund. Microsoft also announced today that developers will now be able to deliver updates to their applications for free throughout the application lifecycle.
    It costs USD 99 for developers to onboard an app in the Marketplace and they get to keep 70% of the revenue generated from their apps. 
    Microsoft announced it partnership with a lot of companies (representing the top-selling categories of mobile applications) who will be onboarding their apps to Marketplace including EA mobile, Accuweather, Resco, Spb Software
  3. New Themes from professional designers
    Microsoft has announced new partnerships with the Design Museum London and Council of Fashion Designers of America to will offer a variety of free designer themes for Windows phones.
  4. Make your own theme
    A new Theme Generator will be made available to personalize Windows phone. The Theme Generator will be available at http://www.windowsmobile.com later this year. The theme generator will enable Windows phone users to select pictures from their PC to set as background images, as well as choose colors to personalize their navigation bar, scroll bar and highlighted text. Once finished, their personal theme will be sent to their phone.
  5. Windows Live for Mobile and Hotmail
    A new version of Windows Live for Mobile will be available for free download this week for customers in 25 languages. Windows Live for Mobile includes mobile versions of Windows Live Hotmail, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Contacts, Windows Live Spaces, Microsoft Live Search and enhanced photo upload capabilities.
    This will be available for Windows Mobile 6.x phones at http://wl.windowsmobile.com on April 2.

Come to think of it, Microsoft is embracing all the good things it has learnt from the mobile developments in the past and incorporating them at a rapid pace. However, lack of low end phones still continue to hinder its wide scale adoption. Now would someone offer me a Rs. 10,000 Windows Phone?

Comments

amit said…
Low cost phones come with lower quality hardware & then the performance sucks big time.

Take HTC Touch Viva for example, it costs Rs.15000 & then it gives 128MB RAM out of which only 64MB is available for apps. It has a 201Mhz processor only & 256MB ROM out of which not more than 150MB is available.

Phones like HTC Touch Diamond/Pro/HD etc with 256MB RAM, 500+ Mhz processor etc cost above Rs.20000 and these are the phones that give fast & smooth performance.
March 31, 2009 at 9:53:00 PM GMT+5:30
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