All these features have been long rumoured and even longed requested and it is great to see that Microsoft has made them all available. Some would argue that these features are long overdue and that Microsoft should have worked on these a long time ago but I think the most important thing about when these features were released is that they are out before Google announced it’s G Drive service. It’s like that the services will be very similar and it seems that from reading the rumours there wont be anything particularly innovative with G Drive. For what its worth DropBox is currently the closest competitor to SkyDrive and it’s debatable which service is better, however Microsoft does provide a chart to help highlight which is better.

So with an increasing amount of competition how is Microsoft going to keep improving SkyDrive? I have a few idea already.

First up I think Microsoft needs to release an Android app. There are more people using Android than any other mobile OS, however I do see that there might actually be iOS users who are interested in using SkyDrive, there might be many users of Android who aren’t bothered about cloud storage at all. Once SkyDrive does come to Android it would then have official support on all major platforms, something Microsoft would be keen to trumpet.

The second thing I think that needs to be done is to offer excellent music and video capabilities through SkyDrive. Currently there is excellent support for Office documents both through being able to view only documents and also through being able to access the Office Web Apps. Additionally there is a great picture viewing experience through SkyDrive and the ability to view only photos. I feel that music and videos are the next logical file types that should be well supported with a great player and the ability to just view the music or video files stored on SkyDrive. I also think, and have done for some time, that Microsoft should offer a seamless way for users to play music from SkyDrive in Zune (or whatever it’s replacement is going to be). You can be sure that

Next up are more controls for the desktop apps; I get that Microsoft is trying to keep the apps as simple and easy to use as possible but there is quite a major issue in the way that the apps currently work. Once installed the apps download everything from SkyDrive to the user’s PC but if people can have 125GB of storage and only have a small SSD then they are going to have an issue. Instead I think Microsoft should allow user to choose which folders should be downloaded to the PC, it will save space and for some people reduce the duplication of files on their PC.

An other idea, but this would require the previous idea to be a prerequisite, is to allow users to have more than just 125GB of storage. There will be people who would be happy to just have absolutely everything stored on SkyDrive so they don’t need to worry about any of their files. When thinking about how Windows 8 syncs users’ settings across all their PCs it would be great if it was also possible to have all of a user’s files also shared so on whatever PC they were on they could have the same experience. It would great if Microsoft offered 1TB of online storage for users who were willing to pay and I bet there would be a fair few people.

One final idea I have had but it’s one that I am less inclined to expect to see is for an Xbox app. As people will no doubt use SkyDrive more and more there could well put music and videos on the cloud storage. Users are likely to want to access these files from their Xbox to watch/listen to them on the big screen so it would make sense that Microsoft would offer a SkyDrive app for them to access their files; it could be a platform that only Microsoft could put a cloud storage app on.

Have you got any ideas of what could be next for SkyDrive?

There are many potential reasons why this might be the case, maybe due to hardware demands of the upcoming Windows 8 based version of the phone OS, maybe demands from carriers, etc, etc. I don’t want to get bogged down in the whys and wherefores as I don’t know and I’d only be able to offer some uninformed speculation. Instead what I am more interested in is the current state and position of Windows Phone 7 with regards to the impending release of Windows Phone 8.

Assuming that Windows Phone 8 will require new hardware then what will happen with the Windows Phone 7 software and devices? You might assume that it will just disappear from retail and that is probably true for a lot of the world but considering Microsoft has just spent a lot of time and effort in lowering the specs of Windows Phones and allowing them to run on lower-end hardware I can’t see Microsoft dropping the OS in about 6 months.

Instead, I think we are about see a significant, yet constructive, fragmentation of the entire Windows ecosystem.

If Windows Phone 8 is based on Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7 apps can run on Windows 8 then I think what we see here is the future of the Windows ecosystem. A single runtime and app environment that will also make its way over to the Xbox within the next few years. There is likely to be the same minimal hardware specification for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 (ok, screen size and things will be different). This will be Windows everywhere and will be a seamless experience for developers and consumers to create and use apps.

But I also think Windows Phone 7 will remain, perhaps under a new name, for lower-end hardware aimed squarely at the emerging markets. Apps for Windows Phone have already been fragmented with there being a difference in the apps that can run on the regular hardware and those that can also run on the lower-end hardware allowed by the Tango update. This fragmentation can be seen with the new Skype app as it wont run on devices with 256MB RAM but only the more common devices with 512MB RAM.

So with all this information and speculation I think that Microsoft will offer 2 significant Windows Phone app ecosystems over the next year or so; Windows (Phone) 8 and Windows Phone 7 (including the Tango subset of apps). The Windows Phone 7 ecosystem will be a subset of the Windows Phone 8 ecosystem.

The key difference is that the Windows 8 based version of the phone OS will have high hardware requirements, such as dual core processors, where as the current Windows Phone 7 OS will remain for lower-end devices. I think this will enable Microsoft to offer ecosystems and devices to a wide range of customers and at a wide range of price points. I believe Windows Phone 7 will be for the emerging markets where cheaper devices are needed where as Windows Phone 8 will be focused more on the developed world.

I doubt users in the UK will be able to buy a Windows Phone 7 device this time next year as they will all be Windows Phone 8 devices, however that could well be the opposite in some markets around the world.

I expect that developers will be able to make “Windows apps” which will all run on Windows 8 by default and with a minimal amount of work on Windows Phone 8 too. However, I imagine there will be quite a lot to consider to offer the same app on Windows Phone 7 which will wont have access to such powerful hardware. I don’t imagine that relatively there will be many apps for the Windows Phone 7 as developers will be looking to make full use of the hardware available in Windows (Phone) 8. That’s not to say that there wont be any apps for Windows Phone 7 hardware, there will be well over 100,000 apps for the OS when Windows Phone 8 is released.

There are two significant reasons why I think Microsoft would pursue such a course of action the first is that there is a lot of money and market share to be made in the emerging markets. Windows Phone 8 hardware might just be too expensive for Microsoft to successfully compete with Android in those markets and so they will want to offer an OS that can run on cheap hardware. The second reason for offering an OS focused on the lower-end devices is Nokia. Nokia has been pushing Microsoft to make Tango so that they can make cheaper hardware to sell and I imagine they don’t want to stop doing that anytime soon.

I imagine that the future of the Windows app ecosystem is a series of subsets as shown below.

It’s clear that the Windows Phone app ecosystem is fragmenting and I think that is it only going to continue to do so going forward but I don’t necessarily think it is going to be a bad thing. What I think it will do is make Windows Phone available to a massive audience. Microsoft will continue to limit the effect of this fragmentation by specifying what hardware OEMs can use to make their Windows Phones and this can of fragmentation shouldn’t really be a problem. After all iOS is fragmented too as the iPhone 3GS can do everything that the the iPhone 4S can do. Android on the other hand has no measures to negate the effect of fragmentation which is why it is such a mess.

The fragmentation should allow for cheap hardware where it’s needed but offer high-end hardware where its wanted.

I’m don’t see myself buying a Tango Windows Phone and I expect to get a Windows Phone 8 device fairly soon after they are available as I will want the more powerful hardware that they will offer therefore I don’t think I will be affected by the fragmentation of the Windows Phone ecosystem. I think for most people the effects of the possible fragmentation will be minimal.

The beauty of this potential scenario is that an app could be made for the Tango and run on all other Windows devices without a problem but at the same time an app that required the hardware only available in higher-end hardware could make use of that.

What are your thoughts on this idea of how Microsoft might be planning to fragment the Windows ecosystem?

Update: Forgot to see that I expect Windows Phone 7 to be updated when Windows Phone 8 comes out to add more features to the OS.

Basically Microsoft dares you to challenge the Windows Phone.

The idea of the contest is for consumers to try and beat a Windows Phone in a speed test for a range of different activities. Microsoft suggest some of the activities as being “finding the last message a friend posted on both Facebook and Twitter or locating a nearby place to eat”. Microsoft have predetermined the challenges that a consumer could have to compete in.

If a challenger’s phone completes the task faster than the Windows Phone then they will win £20 cash on the spot. However, if the challenger’s phone loses out to the Windows Phone then they can take part in a “dare”. Basically Microsoft will be providing a heart pumping activity to try out such as “tackling a high ropes course or being flung into the air by a reverse bungee”. An additional benefit commiseration prize to help ease the pain of losing out is the opportunity to take a £100 Phones 4 U cash-back offer if the challenger upgrades their current phone to a Nokia Lumia 800.

If you are brave enough to Dare to Live then you can find the Windows Phone team at a range of venues across the UK over the coming weeks, check out their schedule. People can keep up to date the campaign by following @WindowsPhoneUK and the hashtag #WPDaresYou. More information can be found on their Facebook page.

Are you going to be taking on this challenge? I don’t really see how you could lose.

In addition to this fairly substantial new feature it is now possible for users to upload files up to 300MB in size, quite an increase on the limit that I believe was only 100MB before. Another new feature is that it is now possible to share files direct to connected social networks and not just Facebook, therefore users can now share to Twitter from within the SkyDrive UI.

The final new feature is one that affects Windows Phone users as photos shared from the phone via SkyDrive will use a new URL shortener, sdrv.ms, instead of the much longer skydrive.com ones that have been used previously. It does seem weird that this new URL shortener is only available to Windows Phone users but perhaps this is way of limiting the number of users of the service to test it before adding it to the full SkyDrive experience. I hope it does come to the full version of SkyDrive, it would be silly not to.

The SkyDrive team added at the end of their announcement that they “have some really big things coming soon” which is likely to be along the lines of what Liveside has been reporting.

Whilst Microsoft never mentions the rumoured “tango” update these lower specs form a lot of the work that has taken place in the update. Although it’s still not clear if current devices will receive the “tango” update.

In lowering the system specs of Windows Phone Microsoft has enabled the devices to be sold in a new markets and in fact the company reckons that this has increased the potential market size for Windows Phone by 60%. Alongside the lower hardware specs Microsoft has also been working hard on tailoring the Windows Phone experience for local markets to increase the appeal of the phones around the world in the new markets. There is new language support for Malay and Indonesian and technology to allow Windows Phones to work in China. Windows Phone Marketplace is now available in 5 new markets and will be available in 23 more new markets over the coming months

The lower specs for Windows Phone are a less powerful processor, the Qualcomm 7x27a SoC, and reduced RAM, now only 256MB. Microsoft promise that despite the hardware’s lower capabilities they have worked hard on optimising the software so even the lower spec’ed hardware will offer the same smooth experience as the more powerful devices.

As part of the software optimisation to get Windows Phone to run well on lower-end hardware Microsoft has also been able to ensure that most apps within the Marketplace will also run on these devices. That is not something that all mobile ecosystems can say. To ensure the best experience possible on lower-end hardware the Marketplace will indicate if an app is likely to require better hardware than the device has.

To take advantage of these new lower specs Nokia has announced the Lumia 610 which will be priced much lower than previous Windows Phones at only 189 euros.

Microsoft has released an updated set of developer tools for Windows Phone to take effect of some of the new improvements with Windows Phones so that developers can tailor their apps to the lower spec’ed devices. This updated version does not offer a “go live” option but Microsoft say that the final version of the tools will be released next month that will offer that feature. It’s likely, then, that next month will be when Microsoft outline more about “tango” and perhaps even release an update for current Windows Phones.

One additional thing to note is that in several posts from Microsoft about the future of Windows Phone states how “2012 is shaping up to be a great year for the whole Windows family” and that Windows Phone is leading the charge. I wonder is this hints at some of the potential cross over rumoured for Windows 8 and Windows Phone Apollo.

You can read more about the news from Microsoft in Joe Belfiore’s post, Terry Myerson’s post and download the new dev tools.

Skype for Windows Phone Beta* supports the most important Skype features you’ve come to know and love. And you will be especially thrilled by the clean and simple Skype experience that the Metro user interface delivers on your Windows Phone. It has never before been so easy to connect with the people you care about most.

The Skype app offers the ability to make free audio and video calls which can use a variety of data connections to communicate over, including 3G, 4G and WiFi. The app also offers other popular Skype features such as making calls to landlines and mobile phones. The other features the app offers are one-to-one and group chats along with the ability to update a user’s a profile and access account information.

Watch a video of how the app works.

The Skype beta app will only run on Windows Phone 7.5 or higher and the app has been tested on several Windows Phones including the Nokia Lumia 800.

Skype has said that they want to know users’ feedback about the new beta app and also want users to contact them on Twitter; either at @Skype or via #SkypeMWC. Download the Skype for Windows Phone beta app now.

You can download the app from the Windows Phone Marketplace.

The first piece of information is a fairly small piece but perhaps one that will be welcomed. In Tango Microsoft apparently plans to tweak the design of the media controls in Windows Phone so that it takes up less room on the screen. In the first release of Windows the media player controls were inconsistently placed across the OS but with Mango Microsoft changed this problem with a revised UI for the media playback. However, the new design has received complaints that it takes up too much vertical space on the screen. In Tango the design for the media controls will appear like a notification and therefore take up less space at the top of the screen. I wonder if any Microsoft certifications could help the designers of this.

Sadly I have no images of how this looks but it’s an interesting piece of information and something I am keen to see how it actually looks.

The other piece of information about Tango is perhaps more substantial and it is that the update will supposedly allow users to create “folders” on their start screen. This will allow users to group applications together for a tidier start screen and I would guess quicker access to apps. Again I have no images to show how this feature looks, nor do I have information on quite how this works. I would imagine, though, that the “folder” tile would show notifications from all the tiles held within.

Both of these additions to Windows Phone are things that I have seen requested before so this should please some people. Obviously though until Microsoft actually announce any of this we shall just have to wait and see

As expected Androids were there in numbers to meet us on the battle ground but our allies came in with the heavy machinery. Nokia arrived with the Lumia 900 to fire off some LTE rounds in the Android general direction, this now brings us up to weapon parity with the Androids. The 900 also brings with it 4.3’ deflectors rather than the 800’s 3.7’.

Thankfully though we also had HTC on hand who provided additional LTE cover with their new TITAN II which has built upon the spec of the original TITAN. The new TITAN has much improved optical equipment offering 16MP and it even has 4.7’ deflectors.

Nokia has now mobilised its forces on the North American front after joining us on the European front only a few months ago; the Lumia 710 weaponry will be going online tomorrow. In the near future Nokia will also be backing us up with the Lumia 800 which has proved to be an extremely powerful weapon over on the European front. Nokia announced it’s arrival on the North American front with its leader announcing that “there has been a shift from the Battle of Devices to a War of Ecosystems”. We are pleased to welcome them to this war with us and look forward to further developments in what they are calling “Rolling Thunder”.

We were hoping that Samsung and LG were going to pledge additional resources to the operation but that support has not materialised.

Other good news came just before “Operation CES” swung into action as it appears that several very influential members of the aristocracy appear to have come round to our way of thinking.

Our economy has continued its growth reaching 50,000A a few weeks ago. We are now adding over well over 1000A a month and should be able sustain increasing growth in our economy for the foreseeable future. This kind of growth sees us matching that of the iOS at the same point in their campaign.

Until next time sir, when I hope to be in a position to tell you about our plans for “Codename MWC”.

"The shroud of the dark side has fallen. Begun, the Ecosystem War has."

I don’t just want to reiterate the great news coverage that can easily be found across the internet so I thought I’d do something a little different. If you want to know more about Windows Phone and other Microsoft news from CES I’d recommend that you read the Verge, Engadget, Neowin or Liveside.

The Geek Tech Blog is also reporting that the device is expected to arrive in Q1 2012 which is line with pretty much all other rumours about the device. It is thought that the Lumia 900 will the be the flagship device for Nokia in the US when it launches there which is thought to be very soon after CES which is held in early January.

It remains unclear what else the Lumia 900 could bring, there have been rumours that the next version of Windows Phone, codename Tango, will bring support for LTE which the 900 might take advantage of. What with an expected demo and announcement from Microsoft about the new features of Windows 8 and it looking increasingly likely that Nokia will announce a new Lumia at CES I can’t wait for the event to start. It’s not often I look forward to CES, in recent years very little of significance has been announced at the show.

By the way, sorry for not having posted recently, I’ve been very busy with university studies. However, I do have a couple of editorial pieces I want to write over the next few days.