Microsoft MWC talks about new opportunities: expanding WP8, evolving Win8

Computer store news: During the World Mobile Communications Conference (MWC), Microsoft Joe Belfiore and Nick Parker held a media event in Barcelona to introduce Windows and Windows Phone platforms. Development momentum and opportunities.

The author: Joe Belfiore (Windows Phone director)

As many of you know that I was & ldquo; Windows Phone the people & rdquo ;. In the past few years, I have been working with my colleagues to manage the Windows Phone product team. Our mission is to make Windows Phone a successful platform. Recently, my work has changed, not only to pay attention to Windows Phone, but also to the user experience of future versions of Windows 8 and Windows. On February 23, Nick Parker and I had the opportunity to have a conversation with global media and analysts attending the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We shared the latest news about Windows and Windows Phone and announced a new chapter in the global expansion of Windows Phone.

Windows Phone: High-speed growth last year

Let's start with Windows Phone.

In recent years, we have achieved steady growth with our "highly personalized" smartphone experience and the superior equipment provided by hardware partners HTC, Huawei, Nokia and Samsung. With the joint efforts of all parties, Windows Phone has consolidated its position among the three major operating systems and has an impressive milestone:

• 2013 year-on-year growth of 91% Think of it as the fastest growing operating system. (IDC, February 2014)

• European market share exceeded 10% & mdash; more than doubled in 2012. (Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, January 2014)

• The most important thing for me is that customer satisfaction has improved — even our competitors have to admit this fact!

• The Windows Phone app store currently has more than 240,000 apps, has reached a critical mass, and is still growing fast – an average of 500 apps a day.

Last year was an unusually busy year because we made three updates to the Windows Phone platform. We continue to expand the scale of the platform (by adopting new chipsets, supporting new operators or countries, and adopting more screen sizes) and bringing some outstanding features to customers (for example, Nokia Lumia's 41 million) Pixel camera and advanced camera function).

New Windows Phone Hardware Partner

Our partner is the growth engine for Windows. In addition to outstanding partners such as HTC, Huawei, Nokia and Samsung, we announced today in Barcelona that we are working with nine new Windows Phone partners: Foxconn, Gionee, JSR, India Karbonn, India Lava ( Xolo mobile phone), Lenovo, LG, Shanghai Longqi and ZTE. According to IDC, all Windows Phone partners account for 56% of the global smartphone market.

This is good news for mobile phone buyers worldwide. In addition to some well-known brands in mainland China, India and Taiwan, seven of the world's top ten mobile phone OEMs are working together around Windows Phone, so there will be a series of new devices with different screen sizes and price points. . Of course, we are committed to achieving this device diversity without compromising the consistent Windows Phone experience that users love and that are designed around you.

You may not be familiar with the names of certain partners, but they are leading the development of the global smartphone market. They use their knowledge of local markets, channels and customers to bring competitive products to the market. They are important partners and will help Windows Phone expand into new emerging markets.

Windows Phone Support for New Hardware

In order to attract more device manufacturers to build Windows Phone, we have increased the flexibility of hardware support and simplified the process of manufacturing Windows Phone. Therefore, we announce:

We have added support for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 and 400 series chipsets and offer options to support all major cellular technologies, including LTE (TDD/FDD), HSPA+, EVDO And TD-SCMA. In addition, we also support virtual buttons and dual SIM cards, which are what our partners want their devices to have. A big benefit of these new features is that many hardware vendors will be able to make Android and Windows Phone phones using the same hardware.

• To simplify the manufacturing process of Windows Phone phones, we launched the Windows Hardware Partner Portal today to enable our hardware partners to access the necessary tools and content to effectively build and promote their Windows Phone phone.

We also work closely with Qualcomm to help manufacturers around the world expand their product portfolio quickly and easily, and build Windows Phones through the proven Qualcomm Reference Design (QRD) program. Making the reference design more convenient for manufacturers is an important step forward for Windows Phone. As the reference design speeds time-to-market, ABI Research has noted that the smartphone industry is turning to reference designs and expects shipments of reference-designed smartphones to exceed 400 million in 2014.

Evolving Windows 8

As part of my new job, I also talk about Windows for tablets and PCs, and some of our recent developments.

We are committed to making Windows the best platform for our partners to build great devices. Today, this means a variety of different screen sizes, input methods, connectivity needs and usage scenarios. Most importantly, we want this experience to be natural to our customers; we want it to be both familiar and tailored to the specific equipment. We want your employees to meet your needs anytime, anywhere, and hope that it will work flawlessly on the hardware built by our global partners.

There is no doubt that we are betting on Windows 8 and taking the first step towards this future. We are optimistic about touch and mobile, and we are telling customers what a new touch interface means to them. We are convinced of this direction, and our future will continue to build on Windows 8.

In response to feedback from customers and partners, we launched Windows 8.1 in less than a year. We will continue to improve and improve Windows to provide an efficient and enjoyable experience for all users of a variety of devices. In addition, as you will see, we will continue to accelerate the release pace and continue to add value to all of your Windows devices.

In the coming months, we will continue to deliver our innovations and advancements through the upcoming Windows 8.1 update that will be released in the spring. There are a few things that are especially exciting for me, and I want to share it with you in advance.

• We will enable our partners to build lower cost hardware and a superior Windows experience at a competitive price.

• We are improving the user interface to naturally connect touch and traditional desktops, an improvement that is especially useful for users who prefer to use the mouse and keyboard. We have a number of UI-specific improvements that will continue our full-featured touch experience while making keyboard and mouse users feel more familiar and convenient. We still love and believe in touch, but these changes will make the operation of the mouse and keyboard smoother and more convenient, you will love it!

• We are enhancing support for enterprise customers with a number of tweaks, especially in Internet Explorer 11 browsers that have greatly improved IE8 compatibility, which is especially important for enterprise web applications. In addition, we are expanding the manageability of mobile devices and simplifying the deployment process.

More News

When it comes to our corporate customers, we are working hard on a major update to Windows Phone that will add some important features for consumers. In addition, we have increased our investment in developing enterprise customer capabilities, including VPN, S/MIME support, enterprise Wi-Fi, extended mobile device management and certificate management. We hope to provide this update to our customers this spring, bringing great value to developers and consumers, and launching several new phones as they enter the summer.

2013 was an exciting and busy year, and both our industry and Microsoft itself have undergone tremendous changes. At the opening of the Mobile World Congress, I was very excited about the various high-tech technologies; but what excites me more is the solutions that we will launch for our customers, partners and developers in the coming months. stay tuned!