Windows Phone 7

Some speculations in the media say that Nokia and Microsoft may announce their new smartphone on August 17. The rumors are based on a joint invitation sent by the two companies Monday for a “party” scheduled for this date. The party will be held in Cologne, Germany.

The invitation does not specify what the event will be all about. It only mentions that there will be a live act, great djs, and free grub. Still, this fact gave some feed for the speculations that the event will be crowned with the announcement of Nokia's first Windows Phone 7-based smartphone.

Addressing an audience at the 2011 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC 2011) Monday Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, acknowledged that their Windows Phone 7 platform was a failure.

Ballmer was lauding the company success in other sectors saying that Windows 7 sold 400 million licenses in just two years while Office 2010 sold over 100 million licenses over the same period.

However, talking about Windows Phone 7, Ballmer noted that Microsoft simply hasn't gained any traction:

Microsoft is developing a web-based version of its Windows Phone 7 app store that would resemble leading services from Apple and Google. The Windows Phone 7 Marketplace website will come this autumn just when Microsoft is about to launch Mango, latest iteration of its smartphone OS.

In the Web Windows Phone 7 Marketplace users will be able to browse the full app catalog, view screenshots of the apps, and check out details and reviews.

Nokia discards its Ovi brand as the company is preparing to make smartphones based on Microsoft’s mobile operating system Windows Phone 7. Starting July and August some new Nokia phones will see the Ovi service rebranded as Nokia services in a transition that the company expects will continue into next year, according to a blog post. For example, Ovi Maps will become Nokia Maps.

A new forecast made by Gartner echoed similar conclusions of IDC saying that Android will be a dominant operating system with Windows Phone 7 to come on the second place by 2015.

Further the latest Gartner forecast shows that Apple’s iPhone OS will decline to the third place behind Windows Phone while RIM’s BlackBerry will come fourth that year.

This week HTC unveiled its first Windows Phone 7 handset for AT&T. The phone is dedicated for entertainment and comes with a 4.3 inch screen.

The mobile device features Dolby Mobile and SRS WOW HD surround audio and is integrated with Xbox LIVE and Zune. There is a G-Sensor for gaming and a kickstand to allow you to sit and watch video. The screen is Super-LCD WVGA.

Apart from these, the phone also has a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 512MB of ROM and 16GB of internal storage. Besides, it is equipped with 576MB of RAM. No 4G or WiMAX.

iPhone hacking blog posted a video footage that shows how you can use Windows Phone 7 interface on your jailbroken iPhone. The author "Wyndwarrior" called his invention iOS7. Users eed the Backboard app from Cydia to install the theme, so it requires a jailbroken iPhone. One of the main advantages featuring Windows Phone 7 interface is that it has active elements and widgets on the main screen.

Last week Microsoft said that in the most recent quarter the company had shipped over 2 million copies of its upgraded operating system Windows Phone 7. A senior product manager Greg Sullivan in a story by Bloomberg cited results of Microsoft's internal surveys of customer satisfaction and brand awareness. "Customer satisfaction for the product is at 93% and brand awareness has jumped 22 points to 66% since it was released," the story reported.

Many users are posting complaints across the Internet that their Windows Phone 7 devices are eating up mobile bandwidth data which is driving a lot of people to shockingly high bills. On Paul Thurrott's WinSuperSite one user wrote that he had to put the phone into airplane mode because he was near his 2GB data limit, and copious amounts of data were being used even when idle. Thurrott himself replied that he had noticed increases of data.

According to Russian tech blogger Eldar Murtazin the two companies Nokia and Microsoft are in talks over an alliance to make Nokia-branded phones on Windows Phone 7 operating system.

Murtazin reported that Nokia secretly met with Microsoft over the past month for discussing expanded cooperation. The blogger speculates that this is not a cooperation based on better Microsoft Office products for Nokia phones, but about creating a whole line of Nokia-branded smartphones running the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system.

A new poll of global consumer by GfK revealed that smartphone users have little brand loyalty with only Apple coming well as 59% of iPhone users are inclined to repeat their purchase.

Separate Nielsen study shows that smartphone users occupy 29% of the US market with the forecasts saying it will reach 50% by the end of next year. But it's the only market segment that makes any money, with RIM and Apple reckoned to corner over 80 per cent of the profits to be made.

Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Marketplace was found to be more consumer-oriented than Windows Marketplace for Mobile (6.x) in a new research conducted by app store analytics provider Distimo. The analytics agency studied for a month the mobile applications industry and compared the two Redmond’s platforms among other things.

The data for the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace was specifically collected from 1 November until 22 November 2010, in the United States only.

Availing of the stir created by the launch of the new Microsoft’s OS for mobile phones Google decided to be among the first to release its app for Windows Phone 7. Meantime, Windows Phone 7 devices come with Bing as a default search engine.

Many observers believe that Google is unlikely to make great success with Windows Phone 7 as users often tend to apply the default. Even on PCs people use Google more out of their habit than out of preference over Bing.

According to the latest stats from Millennial Media, 2011 will be a significant year for Android operating system as developers are gearing up to focus on it. The statistics diagrams included in the State of the Apps Industry 2010 Report show that 600 professionals stated that their top priority will be Android platform, a good news for Google, while Palm is the last of the OSs that interests developers.

The shelves with Windows Phone 7 handsets are getting empty faster than the phones are supplied to the stores. While Orange decided to please consumers with £20 HMV vouchers as they are waiting, HTC and Samsung handsets are selling out as they fast as they can be shipped to the stores.