Archive for: microsoft
Microsoft has just released some official Windows Phone 7 stats. The stats look very impressive and it seems they are gaining on a lot of other platforms.
Numbers:
- 11,500 applications
- 7,500 paid applications
- 36,000 developers
- 1,200 new developers being registered every week
Windows Phone 7 has shown some great growth, but the are still a long way behind iOS with 300,000 applications and Android with 100,000 applications.
“We recognize the importance of getting great apps on our platform and not artificially inflating the number of actual apps available to customer by listing “wallpapers” as a category, or perhaps allowing competitor’s apps to run on the platform to increase “tonnage.” We also don’t believe in the practice of counting “lite” apps as unique quality content. (…) Finally, we don’t double and triple count apps which are submitted in multiple languages.,” he explains in the blog post.
[Windows Phone Developer Blog]
Microsoft is getting ready to push out a new dashboard for Xbox 360. Today Microsoft has opened up testing for specific users and anyone can signup to test out the new dashboard.
There are a couple of caveats: you need to be a US resident, and you need to have an Xbox 360.
Microsoft’s Major Nelson also says being a paid Xbox Live Gold subscriber will help your cause too, so bear that in mind when signing up.
If you are selected you will also receive a free copy of Halo: Reach.
So click here to signup.
Microsoft has really been on a roll with Windows Phone 7, but I would really like to see a Windows Phone 7 platform, without the phone!
Microsoft has convinced Nokia to adopt Windows Phone 7 and it seems like more and more app developers are moving over to the platform. I really think that Microsoft could start to use Windows Phone 7 in the same way as Apple are using iOS on all of their devices.
When can I see a Windows Phone 7 device without a phone?
The new iPod Touch has been a great product for Apple and has really pushed them forward in the world of music players. Since Microsoft recently announced they would be no longer making Zune music players, why not create a product dedicated to the Windows Phone 7 platform, but specifically for a music player and app tool?
Foxconn parent company Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd has announced a great climb in profits. Hon Hai had a turnover of around NT$152.9 billion (US$5.2 billion) in the shortest month of the year. Over the first two months of 2011, Hon Hai’s revenues sit at NT$339.1 billion ($11.5 billion), a 31.5% increase over January and February 2010.
Foxconn has seen a great rise in revenues due to Apple’s iPad 2 and Microsoft’s Kinect, which are both manufactured by Foxconn.
I find the revolving door of technology crazy at times. With IE9 only being launched only yesterday, IE10 rumours are already upon us. It is being rumoured that IE10 will be launch at the same time as Windows 8 (which would make a lot of sense).
Win7China claims to have a solid source that has released the information, and in the past this source has been on the money. If Windows 8 launch dates are correct, then IE9 will be a little over a year old when its expected that IE10 takes over.
There has just been another leak of a Windows 8 image. This image comes courtesy of Winreview.ru. There is a subtle difference including new min, max and close buttons, a flatter styling (to better align with Metro) and a few other nuances.
So far from an aesthetical point of view there isnt much difference between Windows 8 and Windows 7. However, it is still very early days and im sure there are a lot more releases to come.
Windows 8 is expected to RTM in 2012 with the latest rumor suggesting an early January 2013 retail availability.
Recently Nokia partnered with Microsoft to start releasing handsets on the Windows Phone 7 platform. It was expected that the first release batch would happen in 2011, but it seems as though we probably wont see any Nokia Windows Phone 7 devices until 2012.
Nokia India has confirmed that it is currently working on a 12 month time frame to release the first Windows Phone 7 devices.
Nokia had to make some serious changes, because they seem to losing marketshare and also losing in the platform wars, with Symbian just not performing against the rest.
There have been a lot of reports this morning about Microsoft having no plans to update the Zune player indefinitely. Microsoft never seemed to be able to make any headway with the Zune, despite having great software.
Im sure that the software from the Zune will be moved onto other platforms, but the hardware is no longer.Microsoft have been trying to achieve the same hardware success as Apple, but are still yet to release a product that can penitrate the market (except for the Xbox 360).
Microsoft told Winrumors the following:
“We have nothing to announce about another Zune device – but most recently have introduced Zune HD to Canada via Zune Originals store and remain committed to supporting our devices in North America. We are thrilled by the consumer excitement for Zune across many new platforms, including Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360. Our long-term strategy focuses on the strength of the entire Zune ecosystem across Microsoft platforms.”
Microsoft and Bing have just partnered with Rovio and Angry Birds. Bing will have search integration between the game and the search engine.
Angry Birds will also feature search integration with Bing providing over a hundred clues to speed you through the levels and help squash the porcine thieves. Featuring Bing Image Search, Bing Maps, and Bing Shopping, the videos show Angry Birds fans how they can advance in the game, featuring the lovable Angry Birds characters.
For some reason Angry Birds has over 200 millions of minutes played by gamers all across the world. Thus, Microsoft is very happy to get that dedicated user base interacting with Bing in any way shape or form.
Microsoft will be launching their major upgrade of Internet Explorer on the 14th of March. Internet Explorer 9 has a lot of great features and improvements that were long overdue.
The key improvements in Internet Explorer 9 are:
- Speed improvements
- Better integration with Windows 7
- Jump Lists
- One Box for URLs
IE9 release candidate has already been download over 2 million times, so it seems like the world is liking the new Internet Explorer.
