Andy Lees has given several interviews with various media companies over the last week and has announced some significant developments that will be coming to the Windows Phone platform/ecosystem at some point in the future.
In an interview with the Seattle Times Lees spoke about the competition to Windows Phone and went on to describe Android as “chaotic” and the iPhone 4S as a missed opportunity. Microsoft don’t often talk about competitors directly so Less must be feeling very confident about Windows Phone, and rightly so I’d say.
In an interview with Bloomberg Less spoke about incentivising Microsoft’s partners to sell Windows Phones at retail locations either through carriers own stores or directly through OEMs. Lees didn’t describe what the incentives might be but said that the recent deal with Samsung will see the OEM spend more on marketing and that HTC has also pledged to push Windows Phone more. Then there is also the partnership with Nokia.
Lees also had an interview with All Things D where he spoke about what future hardware could be supported in Windows Phone such as LTE and dual core processors. He went on to say that Windows Phone will only support them when they the LTE chips are smaller and less power hungry and when the OS actually requires more power in the processors. Lees said that Windows Phones with the current generation of single core processor will often appear faster than other dual core powered devices.
Below is a list of the announcements from the three interviews, the first list is of things that will be coming soon and the second list is of more long term additions to Windows Phone.
Soon
- Windows Phones for less $100 will be on sale by the holiday season
- Windows Phone with dual LED flash will be on sale by the holiday season
- Nokia’s first batch of Windows Phone will be on sale
- Retail channels will start to improve for Windows Phone
Next year
- Windows Phones will support LTE if the hardware is good enough
- Windows Phones may support dual core processors next year, if the OS requires it
- There may or may not be a minor update to Windows Phone before the next major version
- “Market share to rise starting in the first quarter of 2012”
- “A steady crop of new phones due out over the course of 2012”
- Retail channels should be hugely improved
- Windows Phone will account for 11.5% of the smartphone market, according to analysts
“The stars are really starting to align for us,” Lees said; those stars seem to be creating a pretty bright future for Windows Phone I’d say.
