In a post on the Windows Phone Blog, as part of the announcement of the new Nokia Lumia 925 device, Microsoft revealed some of the features that will be part of an upcoming update to Windows Phone 8.

Dubbed “GDR2″ to stand for the second General Distribution Release of the OS, this update is planned to be made available “this summer”. We know that unlike iOS, where everyone gets the OS updates regardless of carriers, Windows Phone updates are subject to carrier approvals. Hence, the date of the release is obviously not fixed.

So, what’s new in the release, which would be about the size of the previous update, dubbed “GDR1″ and codenamed Portico? Given the incremental nature of the update, it is not expected to have major changes to the OS. Instead, in addition to many fixes and improvements, the following features have been made public:

• Bringing back support for FM radio. While this naturally cannot be counted as “new”, it is in fact an additional feature being added to the OS.
• Data sense, the feature that allows Windows Phone users to save data usage by compressing and cloud-processing browsing sessions, will see an expanded carrier support. Currently, it is only available on Verizon Wireless. It is a pity that the feature is carrier-dependent because it is so useful and customers should be able to use it without carrier interference.
• Select, download and pin tunes from Xbox Music and improvement in accuracy of song info and metadata. This is such a random feature to call out, but I guess they thought it important enough to highlight.
• Support for CalDAV and CardDAV in order to continue support of Google’s GMail-related services like Google Calendar and Google Contacts.

In addition, Nokia have outlined what will be a firmware update that presumably rides on top of GDR2, called Amber. This update will bring some of the imaging technology improvements and new experiences which will come presintalled on the Lumia 925. This includes Smart Camera which takes 10 shots of 5MP within a short burst of time and keeps all of them for as long as you need it. Doing so helps you apply some of the effects included with the “lens app” like Change Faces, Action Shot and Motion Focus. Additionally, Smart Camera can be made the default launcher when the physical camera button is pressed on the device.

The key now is to see how Microsoft rolls out the GDR2 update and how dependent the update is on carriers. GDR1 was rolled out relatively pain-free although it did launch first on AT&T in the US and then spread to the rest of the world. Let’s hope the total time for the rollout shrinks a bit this time around.

One can only hope, right?

When Windows Phone 7 was launched, it included the ability to automatically upload pictures you take on the phone to SkyDrive. This was a great feature because technically, you don’t need to sync your phone to your PC and you have the peace of mind that in case your phone is lost or damaged, at least your digital memories are secure. Only, there were a few problems:

• The uploaded pictures were resized to a very small size. As a result, these were not true backups of the pictures.
• Videos were not included at all.

Windows Phone 8 improved this feature by adding more granular control over the automated backup. With Windows Phone 8, you could choose to automatically upload “good quality” over cellular network if you wish and “best quality” only over Wi-Fi. Additionally, Windows Phone 8 added the ability to automatically backup videos to SkyDrive as well. Although in case of videos, “good quality” and “best quality” both require a Wi-Fi connection. This was all good, except that this feature was not available in all the markets that Windows Phone 8 was available and as a result in markets where it wasn’t available, you couldn’t automatically upload best quality photos even over Wi-Fi.

This was such a silly omission that many customers (including yours truly) switched the region on the phone to US just to have this feature available. Until now. On May 8, Microsoft announced on their Windows Phone Blog that full-resolution photo and video backup was going to be available worldwide over the next few days. This is a great addition, and as the blog post seems to indicate, this restriction was more to ensure SkyDrive was able to scale properly than anything else. The re-imagined SkyDrive service is only about a year old even though the service itself is much older. With the number of photos we take on our phones exploding, and with the higher resolution cameras on smartphones, one can imagine that this feature would put immense pressure on SkyDrive as a service.

Windows Phone photo backup – Before

Windows Phone photo backup – After

While this could have been communicated better, I do feel this is a feature that is better late than never. Microsoft has heard loud and clear how many of their services are US-focused and that in order to advance the ecosystem they will need to expand their availability geographically and that too, quickly. This is hopefully the first step in that direction, and one can only hope that Bing, Xbox Music, Xbox Video, Podcasts, etc. quickly follow suit.

Following a rather mysterious tweet — teasing something big enough to warrant a sleepless night – Corporate VP of Windows Phone Program Management and Design Joe Belfiore finally spilled it: Pandora has arrived on Windows Phone.

On top of this, consumers in the US will be able to enjoy a completely ad-free experience in the app throughout the rest of 2013. While the rest of the world will miss out on this perk, Belfiore did state in a followup tweet that “we’ll try to find something else fun in a few days” for non-US users. To grab Pandora, just head on over to the Windows Phone Store (if the link isn’t working just yet, give it a bit of time, it’s still fresh.)

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Pandora, it is an Internet music streaming service which specializes on making song recommendations to users based on a number of factors, including musical attributes — taking advantage of the Music Genome Project — user feedback, listening history, and more.

Nokia announced a fun little exercise this week with an intent to get Instagram’s attention. It is called 2InstaWithLove and it involves a Windows Phone app which applies a vintage polaroid filter to a picture and allows one to tweet it out with the hashtag #2InstaWithLove. That way, at least what Nokia is hoping, Instagram will see the enthusiasm among Windows Phone users along with the quality of photos that Windows Phone cameras are able to take, and perhaps be nudged into making an app for the platform.

You see, Instagram has stayed away from Windows Phone for 2 years now. Earlier, when the app was an iOS exclusive and despite solid traction that Android was able to generate, the service stayed away from Android. Since then, the app has made it to Android and now Windows Phone fans do feel left out of the social network. Even though there are many, excellent apps available that do the same things that Instagram does, it is not the same because of the social network involved when one signs up for Instagram.

I personally do not care about the app or the service since I normally share the pictures I take on Twitter if they are publicly shareable, or on Facebook within some of my family groups if they are not publicly shareable. I still desperately want the app to be available on Windows Phone because for a lot of people who plan to switch, it is actually a deal-breaker if the platform does not have some of the key apps and Instagram is one of the top “key apps”. For the platform’s sake therefore, I do really wish that they release the app so it removes the hurdle for people who are tired of iOS or Android and/or people who really like Windows Phone but are hesitant to give up their apps.

As for this experiment, I don’t think it will do much in terms of swaying the company either way. If anything, it may end up annoying the company. Now, I know that revolutions have been sparked via Twitter, but in this case a few thousand tweets is not going to justify the cost of building and maintaining an app. The Instagram team has consistently talked about being lean and being laser-focused on their work and adding a third platform would certainly need the cost-benefit analyses versus a Twitter campaign, to get approved.

I remain hopeful that the app will come sooner rather than later, especially now that Instagram is part of Facebook and could get some funding for building the app.

Some screenshots from the app, from its Windows Phone Store website:

This week saw a surprise new app show in the Windows Phone Store. Disqus, the popular commenting system used by many sites, made its app available for Windows Phone. The surprising part is that it is actually a Windows Phone exclusive at this point!

They have said that they do want to make iOS and Android apps but have no plans at the moment. Let that sink in for a bit. A popular service has made a mobile app and it is not on iOS or Android, but it is on Windows Phone. On top of that, they clearly state that they don’t have any plans to make iOS or Android versions.

Windows Phone enthusiasts have been used to such things happening to them for most of the buzz-worthy apps. Typically, “cool” apps launch on iOS, and increasingly they launch on iOS and Android. Rarely do these apps make an appearance on Windows Phone, and even less likely that it would be simultaneously with iOS and Android. So, Disqus is a unique service for sure.

Now, before Windows Phone fans get excited and try to make a single event a trend, this has happened because one of the Disqus employees is a huge Windows Phone fan. This person took it upon himself to build an app for the platform and given how companies allow and encourage such activities nowadays, it was no surprise that it became an official app for the company. Kudos to the developer as well as the company.

The app itself is very nicely done, and it focuses on the community aspect of the service versus being a commenting app. Disqus as a service is of course not just a dumb commenting system, but they envision it to be used for discovering engaging discussions about a variety of topics. With a social network-style “follower” model, it allows its users to contribute across the internet. The point being, one may not be following all the websites pertaining to a certain topic but via Disqus there is a good chance you may be able to find a vibrant community for the topic of your interest.

Here are some screenshots of the app (taken from the app’s Store website):

Microsoft’s Windows Phone team seems to have switched to a “shut up and ship” mode after getting a lot of heat with past announcements and promises that did not pan out, or were too far away from actual releases.

However, Windows Phone executive Joe Belfiore, in a series of tweets has done quite the opposite. He has promised some updates that fix some issues, and also some new features. Now, of course he would be doing this only because he is sure of those things happening, but the fact that he said it without giving a timeframe, means he is not sticking to shutting up and shipping.

First, a tease about some apparently important apps that he is using which are going to be made available to the public soon. This came after WhatsApp and Twitter announced new versions of their apps, catering to Windows Phone 8.

Then, Belfiore responds to another person and talks about Skype’s integration with People Hub that requires an app update from Skype. Again, naturally, he did not reveal when it would be happening.

Joe Belfiore Skype integration in People Hub

Later he goes on to address the issue with “Other” category on Windows Phone occupying an unreasonably large space on the on-device storage. Belfiore says it is being addressed and will be improved in upcoming updates. He also suggests a workaround, although to be honest, that workaround is removal of a key functionality which is auto-uploading pictures (and videos) to SkyDrive.

Joe Belfiore “Other” storage issue

Finally, Belfiore responds to yet another customer about the issue facing Windows Phone 7.8 devices where some or all live tiles fail to update. He says they have identified an issue and are working on a fix.

Joe Belfiore Live Tile issue

These tweets are actually quite welcome to Windows Phone customers, especially the enthusiasts who crave information of any kind about future releases. With the team going largely on mute, such mini updates are definitely welcome.

In a blog post on the Windows Phone Developer blog on February 25, Microsoft provided some more momentum numbers with regard to Windows Phone Store and developer opportunity and announced several new incentives for Windows Phone developers.

First, some key numbers from the blog post:

• Quoting a ChangeWave Research report, they said Windows Phone customers are more likely to be “very satisfied” with their phones than Android customers. (53% vs 48%)
• A 75% increase in app downloads, presumably since Windows Phone 8 launched (presumably because they don’t say what is that number a percentage of, strangely).
• A 91% increase in paid app revenue, again presumably since Windows Phone 8 launched.
• “1 billion transactions”, and I am unclear about what a “transaction” is.
• Increase in apps downloaded per user to now 55 apps per user.
• 15,000 apps that specifically target Windows Phone 8.
• 130,000 apps in total, in the Windows Phone Store.
• Windows Phone 8 SDK downloaded 500,000 times since it was released back on October 30, 2012.
• These numbers are in addition to some others that have been announced earlier, like increase in dev registrations by 40,000 in the 90 days since Windows Phone 8 launched, 4x increase in Windows Phone sales, and crossing 10% market share mark in several countries (per IDC).

Some updates for developers, including partnerships:

• A Dev Center app (in preview), which provides developers with key information about their apps like downloads, crashes, payments and key metrics. The app also shows reviews translated for the developer, and of course has a live tile with downloads and crash reports updated regularly. Finally, this app provides a way for the developer to share their app link directly without having to go to the Store and share.
• Special offer for Box.net: Free account with 25GB of space instead of 5GB, and one Enterprise seat.
• Buddy: Free Buddy account with up to 1 million API calls per month (up to 6 months).
• Photon Cloud: Free account (500 CCU plan) for 6 months.

These updates are separate from the developer-related announcements that Nokia made, with the opening up of key Nokia innovations in location, music and imaging, for developers to access directly.

These announcements, combined with a strong momentum for Nokia Lumia and other Windows Phone 8 devices, shows that Microsoft (and Nokia) are in it for the long haul and have no intention of letting go. They will pour money into the developer ecosystem, and provide any and all kinds of help in order to ensure developers remain attracted to the platform. Both the companies are known to be extremely developer-friendly, and with the fight for the third place in full swing with the launch of Blackberry 10 OS and devices, these are great moves made by both the companies.

Are you a Windows Phone developer? What keeps you attracted? Do these benefits help, or you would like to see more?

At a keynote on February 25 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Nokia showed off phones which show their intent to go after the lower-end of the market and therefore, rapidly gain market share.

Two of the phones are Lumia Windows Phones, which is what this post will focus on. The other two are feature phones which have been priced extremely low (Nokia 105 is priced at €15, and Nokia 301 at €65) but providing a lot of value for first-time phone buyers and customers in regions where smartphones are not yet the de facto choice.

Back to the Lumias: Nokia announced Lumia 520 as well as the Lumia 720. Both these phones are Windows Phone 8 smartphones and come in a variety of colors as we have to expect out of Nokia now.

The Lumia 520 is clearly an entry-level smartphone, much like the Lumia 620. However, the Lumia 520 is priced even lower than the Lumia 620, at €139. Even though it is low-priced, the phone comes with a bunch of features that are borrowed or straight away replicated from the higher end Lumias like the Lumia 920. Some of these features include “Lenses” for the camera like Cinemagraph, Smart Shoot and Panorama. The phone comes with 8GB of on-board storage (twice the norm for entry-level devices) and support for up to 64GB of expandable storage via micro SD card.

Also included in the phone is the super sensitive touch display which allows precise touch gestures including with gloves on. This feature was limited to the high-end phones until now. Of course, like all other Lumias, the phone comes with Nokia Music, and the suite of location-based apps like HERE Maps, HERE Transit and HERE Drive. All this on top of a dual-core processor at 1GHz, and a 4″ IPS LCD screen.

The Lumia 720 is a midrange device but it boasts of solid specs to make it a no-brainer choice for many. The most attractive feature on this phone may be the camera, which has a great aperture of f/1.9 which is even better than the current flagship Lumia 920. It has a great, wide-angled front-facing camera to make video calling experience much better than other phones. It has a 4.3″ ClearBlack Gorilla Glass screen along with 8GB on-board storage with micro SD support for expanding the storage. Like other Lumias, it also comes with the standard Nokia apps. At €249, this phone is also priced extremely competitively for markets which don’t necessarily always jump to the highest-end phone.

These announcements may seem lukewarm in markets where 5″ phones at 1080p resolution and 32GB on-board storage is expected, but after kicking off the migration to Windows Phone 2 years ago, Nokia has clearly set itself up for aggressively gaining market share. In many countries and regions, Windows Phone has started breaking the double digit market share, and with the most growth expected out of first-time smartphone buyers, the Lumia 520, 620 and 720 make a lot of sense. Customers get to experience Windows Phone 8 with all its goodness (and presumably, upgradability), along with many really useful apps and services from Nokia. There is some momentum in favor of Nokia and Windows Phone and the best way at this time for Nokia to take advantage of this momentum is to get in early where customers care about price first, brands next.

Some may say there are too many Lumia models in the market, but I do think they have differentiated the range very clearly with their pricing (and therefore, feature set). What I don’t know is why would Nokia continue pushing out their Windows Phone 7.8 devices like the Lumia 505, 510 and 610. Maybe with the Lumia 520, 620 and 720 in the market, they may decide to slowly move all their customers (i.e., carriers) over to Windows Phone 8. Let’s hope so, for the sake of developers who now will have a real hard choice to make — support their app on both Windows Phone 7.8 and Windows Phone 8, or not.

I was disappointed a little with the announcements because I am one of those who would have loved to see some high-end devices also announced, but at the same time I am really excited with the announcement of these devices because it will help grow the user base which will help maintain and increase the momentum. I am a Windows Phone user and the last thing I want to see is being cast off into irrelevance as a platform.

What did you think of the phones? Let me know in the comments! Meanwhile, official videos for the two phones:

Lumia 520

Lumia 720

Several sites are reporting that Intel has posted a job opening on LinkedIn for Windows Phone engineers at their Bellevue site right by Microsoft’s headquarters. There is much speculation about what this means for Windows Phone, and the possibility of seeing Intel-based Windows Phones.

While it is certainly a good thing (for Windows Phone) to expand to more chipsets in order to cover a wider range of devices, and given that Windows Phone 8 has Windows 8 kernel underneath, there is absolutely no surprise that there may be a project on-going to actually make Windows Phone devices based on the x86 architecture.

In fact, as some have pointed out on Twitter, the Windows Phone 8 emulator may actually be the Windows Phone OS running on x86 already. Hence, the linking of this job opening to the possibility of an x86 Windows Phone is not that exciting. However, I was thinking about that weird gap between a Windows Phone device at about 4.5 to 4.8 inches, and Windows 8/Windows RT which starts at 10 inches. As the iPad mini and Android tablets including Kindle Fire have shown, the market does like tablets at the 7-8 inches screen size. Windows does not have a device at this size, neither with Windows Phone OS nor with its big brother(s) Windows 8 and Windows RT.

Hal Berenson – x86 Windows Phone tweet

What if the project is actually to make Windows Phone run on x86 and besides phone, actually make a decent “Windows” tablet at 7 or 8 inches? Microsoft representatives have said in the past that 8 inches does not make too much sense for Windows 8 because snap mode may not work too well. Although snap mode can be disabled on devices, wouldn’t it be better to see the Windows Phone OS scale up to a larger screen? I certainly would be interested. In fact, there are many who believe that Microsoft should have gone ahead with Windows Phone as the OS for their tablet devices, and left Windows 8 for “PC” form factor.

This project at Intel (and I am sure many similar projects around the Microsoft partner ecosystem) may be more than just an x86 phone. Windows Phone phablet may actually happen with an x86 chipset

What’s your take?

Research In Motion has finally got some buzz going in its favor with the impending launch of its latest Blackberry operating system and devices. The launch, on January 30, will add another viable player in what seems to be a clear duopoly among mobile players – Apple and Samsung. iOS and Android have virtually sucked the air out of the room with their market share of smartphones.

Having said that, if Blackberry’s only hope is to take market share from Windows Phone, I believe they would be setting themselves up for failure from the get go. There are many reasons for why I believe so.

• Windows Phone market share: First of all, Windows Phone has not really taken the world by storm. Among various mobile usage and sales measurement reports, we have seen Windows Phone market share being reported as anywhere between 3% and 5%. That is virtually zero, especially for a platform planning to dominate the market. If anything, Blackberry 10 should target iOS and Android.
• RIM’s traditional market: RIM has traditionally sold well to CIOs, especially with their very secure platform and very IT-friendly management options for devices. Windows Phone has not penetrated the enterprise market at all. RIM would be better off focusing on their existing IT customers and make sure they are happy with the upcoming platform, devices and services.
• BYOD and IT adoption of the iPhone: Many “Blackberry shops” like banks and other financial institutions have switched over from Blackberry to iPhone. This is more of an employee-driven movement than a pure CIO play. The reality is that CIOs have started losing their grip on tightly managing the procurement of employee mobile devices. Today’s enterprise sees employees telling their CIOs about which devices to support. CIOs on the other hand have started warming up to iPhones because iOS has come a long way in becoming enterprise-friendly and “secure”.
• Anti-Apple factor, and the Android phenomenon: Traditionally, Blackberry users have resisted using the iPhone for a variety of  reasons like the lack of QWERTY keyboard, or being “too limited” due to the walled garden called the iTunes App Store and such. As a result these Blackberry users have switched over to Android when they gave up their dear device. Blackberry 10 devices will have to contend with the Android phenomenon, which now is reportedly activating more than 1 million devices a day.

In some ways, yes, RIM’s immediate competition will in fact be Windows Phone 8 because Microsoft has beefed up its enterprise offerings in Windows Phone 8. However, RIM should keep their eyes on the bigger prize and that is stemming the enterprise buyer (CIO) from switching to iOS and appeal to “pro” users who have moved on to Android.

Granted, Windows Phone 7 was missing a ton of features as compared to the competition, but the fact that a new and different operating system was unable to make any dent in the market does not bode well for RIM. With its market share dwindling, it not only has to come out of the gate with killer hardware and smooth software, it also has to rev up the developer ecosystem so all key apps (at least) exist on the platform. All that would only be good for “launch day”. The most important phase for RIM will be the period after launch where it would have to sell devices to consumers and enterprise, so the developer momentum starts/continues. We have seen most mobile companies stutter and fail in that aspect, so it will be very interesting to see how RIM does, and more importantly, how the market reacts to RIM.

I am eager to see RIM succeed because the duopoly that is Apple and Samsung does need some stiffer competition, but I am not sure if the customers want to have more than two choices. The market share in the past several quarters seems to point to the fact that two is enough.