One such service is OpenXLive, and they are doing pretty well, boasting of 3000 games, 430,000 installations, and more than 100,000 daily users.

They have recently updated their Windows Phone SDK to version 0.9.8, which brings the following new features:

1. Supports the login with SNS accounts which involves Facebook, Twitter and Sina Weibo.
2. OpenXLive Push Notification Hosting service added. Quite a few developers want to add the notification pushing service in their applications but they are not able to make it happen as they do not have their own server supports. OpenXLive provides the service of Push Notification Hosting and developers can push the notifications from OpenXLive Server
3. UI Framework in Silverlight is upgraded with more background pictures and the supports of both landscape and portrait mode
4. There is game creation guide added into Visual Studio 2010 and developers then can use their own start page.

The service is free to developers and users, and is clearly a great addition to any game with a leader board.

Read more about the latest announcement at Openxlive.com here.

The Samsung Focus 2 will be hitting stores in US on the 20th at the low price of only $49.99, which is pretty good for an LTE equipped smartphone.

PhoneArena managed to get an early hands-on and unboxed the handset. They note the handset comes with limited accessories, but does include a stereo headset, something which has become increasingly rare recently.

They also note the Super AMOLED continues to impress and that the smartphone is a "compact and clean looking device", in part thanks to its ‘Pure White’ color offering.

See more shots of the handset at PhoneArena here.

Via windowsphonedaily.com

Worldwide Smartphone Sales to End Users by Operating System in 1Q12 (Thousands of Units)

Source: Gartner (May 2012)

Gartner has released their smartphone market share estimates for Q1 2012, and now, 5 months into the new year, they do not reveal much new.

Total Windows Phone and smartphone sales have remained flat from Q4 2011 to Q1 2012, with 2.7590 million handsets sold in the holiday season, and 2.7125 million handsets sold in Q1 2012. Market share numbers remained static at 1.9%.

Of particular interest is that Nokia shipped around 2 million Windows Phones in Q1 2012, and with only 2.7 million Windows Phones sold that quarter, it suggests Nokia now holds around 66% share of the Windows Phone OEM market.

The numbers also show that Android has now become the operating system to beat, which is rather good news for Windows Phone, given that the quality of the Android ecosystem is rather poor to start with, making it not too difficult to create a compelling alternative.

Of note to regular readers is that Gartner’s numbers agree pretty well with our own projections based on Facebook Monthly Active Users, which at present predicts that sales will remain rather flat into Q2 also, but also that with around 12 million handsets in circulation Windows Phone is building a a sustainable market which should help reward developers who support it, and set a reasonable foundation for  Windows Phone 8 in the near future.

Source: Gartner numbers via Telecomlead.com

The full Kantar WorldPanel market share numbers for the 12 weeks until April 15th have now become available, and they confirm what we suspected yesterday; that Windows Phone 7 is rapidly overtaking Blackberry sales in major markets, including USA.

The numbers show in US Windows Phone held 3.6% market share in the 3 months leading to mid-April beating the 3.2% of RIM sales.  Windows Phone is of course on the way up, near doubling from 1.9% a year ago to 3.6%, and that was before the full Nokia Lumia 900 push.

Germany saw a slower fade by RIM, dropping from 2.4 to 2.1% year on year, while Windows Phone share did double, from 2.9% to 6.2% year on year.

Lastly, even in Windows Phone’s less successful markets, Australia, where market share only increased from 1.4 to 1.6%, and it seems Windows Mobile handsets (likely for enterprise) still outsell Windows phones, Windows Phones still held a higher market share than RIM, which only achieved 1%.

Also of note from the numbers is that for those who have joked that Windows phone is not even outselling Bada, that OS seems to be fading rapidly all over the world also, leaving Windows Phone, with iOS and Android, as the only growing ecosystems, making it once again a pretty safe bet to say the 3rd ecosystem has arrived after all.

See the full Kantar numbers after the break.

Via TechCrunch.com

Thanks Arun for the tip.

The handset is currently out of stock at AT&T, and will likely remain that way at least in the short term.

Given the situation, which was of course not caused by Microsoft, who is more than happy to license its patents  (unlike Apple) it does present a double opportunity for Windows Phone 7 handsets in the country.

Firstly, obviously devices which are actually on the shelves are more likely to be sold than smartphones which are not available at all.  AT&T can also obviously not promote a handset they do not have to sell, leaving more scope for the Nokia Lumia 900.

The second one is somewhat less obvious, but even more important – as HTC also makes Windows Phones, which are not affected by the ban, one of the few alternatives left for HTC US it to increase their promotion of their Windows Phone 7 handsets, like the HTC Titan II and HTC Radar, which would of course be somewhat of a turn around for the company.

Do our readers think this incident will result in a resurgence of HTC’s Windows Phones in US? Let us know below.

Via The Verge.com

Microsoft’s Windows Phone website posted a letter sent to CEO Steve Ballmer from a Apple fanboy on his newly purchased Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone device. Read it below.

From: Scott G.
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2012 1:50 PM
To: Steve Ballmer
Subject: Apple fanboy loves his Windows phone

Mr. Ballmer,

Hopefully this will get to you. Your team deserves credit for producing an excellent product in the newest version of Windows Phone. Yes, I am writing from my MacBook Pro. And I have been a fairly loyal Apple customer over the years. However, I recently bought a Nokia Lumia 900 and intend on keeping it. For full disclosure, I was sure to make sure it could be returned after a dismal experience with an Android phone.
My reasons for switching are:

Call quality. I actually use my phone as a phone. That concept seems to get lost in many product reviews. One of my employees actually thanked me for getting rid of my iPhone as it was so much easier to hear me. I apologize for the tedium but it means a great deal to me and my business.

Simplicity. My family owns five vehicles, including two Fords with Sync. The 4S didn’t support all functions in any of them. My Nokia 900 was flawless out of the box. It was refreshing to have something that just worked. I cannot afford to have my primary means of communication be a science experiment.

No junk software. Speaking of science experiments, I also tried a Motorola Razr. Software that cannot be deleted and restarts itself? A company with questionable privacy rules. Software that terrified my poor in-laws? I guess if you like spending your day tinkering with your phone, it’s pretty cool. Maybe it beats playing with your Star Wars dolls?

Simplicity again. Everything after set up has been painless as well. Adding apps, setting up email accounts, etc. I thought the iPhone was good. Your set up was actually smoother and took less time. Same for Wi-Fi, in-car Bluetooth, etc.

Speed. The 900 doesn’t seem to lag the way the iPhone did at times. Everything seems to execute quickly. That I don’t think about it is probably the best compliment.

Live Tiles. It’s a minor thing but the Metro tiles are pretty cool. I just like the look.

Best regards,

Scott G.

Source: Microsoft

Read more at Microsoft News

It seems the Windows Phone Red Pocket went down a storm in Hong Kong, such that the Microsoft Hong Kong has decided to branch out to some more Windows Phone “fan” accessories.

Above is the "Simply Faster Windows Phone Portable Electronic Fan", which will display the words "Windows Phone" and "Simply Faster",  which echoed with the "Smoked by Windows Phone" campaign in Hong Kong using built-in LEDs.

Microsoft Hong Kong will be distributed the device at road shows later this week but if you are not lucky enough to enjoy the Hong Kong summer you can still request one of a limited number of fans via welovewp.hk.

The Windows Phone fan site ( ) will be announcing details of the give away later, and readers can be notified of that information by liking their Facebook page here.

Read more at welovewp.hk here.

Read more at Microsoft News

Microsoft Research has released three different Face manipulation apps in Windows Phone Marketplace so far. Face Mask, Face Touch and Face Swap are the apps you can now find it in marketplace. Now, Microsoft Research has released an SDK that developers can use to process Face images, etc,.

The Microsoft Face SDK provides many state-of-the-art algorithms to process face images, such as face detection, alignment, tracking, and cartooning. The SDK makes it easy for developers to create interesting, face-related Windows Phone applications.

I expect some cool apps from Windows Phone developers using this SDK. Download the SDK here.