Microsoft Announces Windows Phone 8

Windows Phone 8, the successor of Windows Phone 7 finally announced by Microsoft at Windows Phone Summit Event held on June 20. After giving a data showing that 7 of 9 top rated smartphones are running on WP, Microsoft started to explain new features on Windows Phone 8. Windows Phone 8 is the biggest update for WP platform so far.



The new OS use the same kernel code as Windows 8, making developers easy to port their apps to WP8. Now, Windows Phone also supports multi-core processor. The Maps application also improved. It supports turn-by-turn navigation and offline maps. Microsoft claims that WP8 will give you the best wallet experience. The UI still use metro design, but it has been modified. WP8 supports variable tile size, the gutter on the right is removed, and it provides more color choices for the tile. IE 10 is also installed on the phone. Microsoft also says that WP8 is "ready for business".



Unfortunately current devices running on Windows Phone 7 won't be updated to Windows Phone 8 because hardware limitations. But Microsoft announces Windows Phone 7.8 for those smartphones, which has similar user interface to Windows Phone 8.

With the announcement of this opearting system, we will get more interesting battle in smartphone OS.