windows phone

Windows Phone takes China by storm–already 7% market share, ahead of iPhone

May 17, 2012 | By Surur

When Microsoft announced at the launch of Windows Phone Tango handsets in China that passing the iPhone in China was just an interim goal on the way to overtaking Android, it did seem rather grandiose.

It seems Microsoft was right however, with Michel van der Bel, COO Greater China Region at Microsoft saying that a mere 2 months after the launch Windows Phone 7 handsets already had a 7% market share in China, ahead of the 6% of the iPhone there.

"We have only just begun," he noted, saying he expects the synergies between Windows 8 tablets and Windows Phone will power even more growth.

“Our smartphone and tablet-pc are hybrid, making them suitable for the consumer, but also easy to insert within an existing company infrastructure. This will allow us to better anticipate the consumerization of IT than many competitors. "

IDC had predicted Windows Phone would ovetake iPhone in China, but only next year.

They expected Windows Phone would take 7.5 percent of the China market this year, trailing the 12 percent share of Apple’s IOS and Android’s 70 percent, but by next year, Windows share was expected to rise to 15 percent, surpassing Apple’s 13 percent.

Android still dominates the Chinese mobile market with a market share of around 69 percent.

In terms of the app battle, Bell admitted that Windows Phone was behind. "We indeed still have a battle. There are currently working at our R & D Department 2,500 people in China. We will invest heavily in there, "said the COO.

Windows Phone recently ovetook the iPhone in Russia also, making for a trend we can certainly appreciate.

Via emerce.nl

Thanks Christophe for the tip.

31

Keep Track Of Your Contacts With Friend Tracker For Windows Phone

May 17, 2012 | By Pradeep

Friend Tracker For Windows Phone allows you to keep track of your contacts who added, removed, etc,. You can track your contacts on various services like Facebook, Windows Live, etc,. The developer of this app is also looking to add more services like Twitter to this app.

App Description:

Who added me? Who has removed me from his friends? Who changed its name?

This application is there for that! Tracked facebook, windows live, outlook contacts, etc… All without the need to login you.

The application also allows to view statistics on your number of friends very easily.

Features:
- Live tile
- Statistics on the number of friends
- Scheduled agent

Download it here from the marketplace.

1

Bloomberg Front Office Trade Analyzer App Now In Windows Phone Marketplace

May 17, 2012 | By Pradeep

Bloomberg Finance released their “MLB Front Office” Draft Kit 2012 app for Windows Phone last month and now they are back with Front Office Trade Analyzer 2012 just in time for the 2012 baseball season.

App Description:

Trade smarter and win your league! Easy-to-use tool for building and analyzing fantasy baseball trades. Syncs directly with CBSSports.com, ESPN or Yahoo! to provide customized advice based on your fantasy league’s settings and your roster. Recommends specific trades and demonstrates how they affect your stats.

Bloomberg Sports’ Front Office 2012 Trade Analyzer offers powerful algorithms to tell you whether a trade is good or bad for your fantasy team. Straightforward recommendations tailored to your fantasy team will ensure that you never make a bad trade again. View suggested trade ideas to improve your team. Use local market news to stay up-to-date on every player. And when you have built the perfect trade, open your fantasy provider and make an offer that can’t be refused. Drag-and-drop player cards to create your trade.

MAKE BETTER TRADES WITH GAME-CHANGING FEATURES:
• Sync directly with your CBS, ESPN and Yahoo! fantasy baseball leagues
• Trade ideas based on your fantasy team strengths and weaknesses
• Dynamic trade meter to see which side is getting the better deal
• Interactive chart shows how the trade will impact every scored stat
• Trade evaluations driven by advanced, proprietary algorithms
• Player cards with key stats, local market news and historical performance

It costs $1.99 and you can download it here from the marketplace.

4

Apple Fanboy’s Love Letter On Nokia Lumia 900 Windows Phone

May 16, 2012 | By Pradeep

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

23

Official The Register App Now Available In Windows Phone Marketplace

May 16, 2012 | By Pradeep

The Register is one of the largest technology publication on the internet and its official app is now live in Windows Phone Marketplace.

App Description:

The Register
Biting the hand that feeds IT

With more than 6 million readers a month, The Register is the one of the world’s biggest online tech publications.

It has news desks in London, San Francisco and Sydney to make sure you get the news you need on the tech market wherever and whenever it happens. And it has columnists who’ll give you an interesting take on the implications.

It has an active community of IT Pros from across the world, who discuss everything from cloud to chips, systems design to sys admins, Virtualisation to Vatican bloggers, Latvian hackers to liquid crystal solid-state raygun turrets.

For an original slant on the world of technology, you could do worse.

The Register. It’s where tech lives

Download it here for free from the marketplace.

4

Xbox LIVE Deal Of The Week: Bullet Asylum

May 16, 2012 | By Pradeep

bulletasy

Bullet Asylum game from UberGeek Games is now on sale under Xbox LIVE Deal of the Week. It now costs $1.99 down from its regular price of $2.99. Its a game combined with good visuals and game play.

Game Description:

Annihilate invaders with a wall of firepower in this insane arcade shooter.

BulletAsylum delivers over-the-top action, melding classic gameplay with next generation visuals and mechanics. With an insane amount of firepower at your fingertips, vibrant graphics, and an all-you-can-shoot buffet of alien hordes to destroy, BulletAsylum will blow you away.

Featuring:

- Multiple unique game modes, including Arcade, Survival, and Architect.

- Dozens of upgrades; because bigger guns are better guns.

- Several game modifiers; change the rules – change the game.

- Leaderboards; Show your friends just how much better than them you are.

- Achievements; 200 Gamerscore up for grabs

Find it here from the marketplace.

0

This Week’s Xbox LIVE Title geoDefense Swarm Now In Marketplace

May 16, 2012 | By Pradeep

This week’s Xbox LIVE title geoDefence Swarm is now live in Windows Phone Marketplace.

Game Description:

The Thinking Man’s Tower Defense Returns! Introducing geoDefense Swarm, the sequel to the critically acclaimed geoDefense.
geoDefense Swarm takes all the dizzying vectorized visuals, vexing challenges and highly kinetic addictive gameplay from the original, and changes the equation – instead of defeating creeps along a pre-defined path, geoDefense Swarm challenges you to use your creativity, building mazes for the creeps to navigate across obstacle-laden open levels.NEW FEATURES

- Classic ‘Open Field’ Tower Defense Gameplay
- 30 Levels, Each With its Own Unique Challenges
- One ‘Endless’ Level in Each Difficulty Group – the Creeps Keep Comin’!
- geoDefense Swarm is OpenFeint Enabled – Featuring Online Leaderboards
- New Tower, new Creep, new Challenges!

With the ability to compete for the high score with friends on the leaderboards and exclusive Xbox LIVE achievements, this is a tower defense game like no other!

The game costs $2.99 with free trial available. Find it here from the marketplace.

0

US Charity drops Blackberry, moves to Windows Phones, saves money

May 15, 2012 | By Pradeep

Feeding America, US’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, has announced that it has moved its operation from Blackberry to Windows Phone, saving money, time and increasing user satisfaction.

The company considered Android, iPhone and Windows Phone prior to the move, but found Windows Phone complemented their use of other Microsoft solutions including Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft Lync Server 2010 best.

“Windows Phone provides a level of integration with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007 and Lync Server 2010 that are not available with the iPhone, iPad or Android,” said Kevin Lutz, vice president of Technology at Feeding America.

The company found it saved money on costly annual server maintenance expenses and also found a 24 percent reduction in cost per device and increased productivity.

“With Office Mobile built into Windows Phone, employees were able to be immediately productive,” said Andy Isztok, director of Service Delivery at Feeding America. “The Office Hub in Windows Phone is great for quickly getting to PowerPoint presentations, Word documents and Excel spreadsheets — regardless of whether they’re stored on your phone or in the cloud on Windows Live SkyDrive. More and more employees are also discovering Microsoft OneNote Mobile; they love how it uses Windows Live to give them access to their OneNote notebooks on their phones, on their PCs and on the Web.”

Feeding American runs more than 200 member food banks, which serve all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico and distribute more than 3 billion pounds of food and grocery products each year.

The move away from Blackberry has been part of a strong trend which has seen RIM’s market share drop from 9% to 3% in USA over the last 12 months, and which may have helped Windows Phone pass the Canadian company in market share for the first time, according to Kantar WorldPanel.

Fox Sports Local App Now Available From Windows Phone Marketplace

May 15, 2012 | By Pradeep

Fox Sports Local app helps you to discover the sports venues, allows you to connect and engage with other fans, access live scores and news on your Windows Phone devices.

App Features:

Find Venues
• Find a venue that subscribes to FOX SPORTS using your GPS location or search by postcode or suburb
• Get the address and contact details of the venue as well directions on how to get there
• Check-in when you’re at the venue, or even tell your friends when you’re going to be there via social networks so you can all meet up later

My Local
• Register your details, save your favourite teams and venues, call a cab and upload a profile photo
• Main Event
• Provides you with the ability to easily see which venues will be showing upcoming Pay Per View events

Live Scores
• Access to the FOX SPORTS Mobile site for the latest information on game times, game updates, videos and news.

You can download the app here from the marketplace for free.

2

Results From Smoked By Windows Phone Campaign In Korea(Video)

May 15, 2012 | By Pradeep

Microsoft Korea organized Smoked by Windows Phone campaign in their country and the results of the challenges are out now. As usual, Windows Phone dominated the challenge. Totally 923 people participated, and Windows Phone won against 909 people. That leads to a winning percentage of whopping 98.48%. The defeated other platform devices includes iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, Galaxy Note HD LTE, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy S, Galaxy SII, etc,. I think Microsoft should further expand this program to some new countries to spread the message about Windows Phone platform.

Thanks to Ben for the heads up.

5

Win A Nokia Lumia 900 With Six Months Of AT&T Service

May 15, 2012 | By Pradeep

Extra TV which focuses on entertainment news on television in US is promoting Windows Phone device. As part of the promotions for Mother’s day in partnership with Microsoft, they are even giving away 10 Nokia Lumia 900 devices. Along with Lumia 900 device, you will also get 6 months of AT&T service as well. Check out the link below for details.

Enter a chance to win Nokia Lumia 900 a here.

2

AboutOne Family Management App Now Available In Windows Phone Marketplace

May 15, 2012 | By Pradeep

Last month we reported about AboutOne Family Management app coming to Windows Phone devices. The v1 of the app is now live in the marketplace and the app will be updated with more features soon along with the AboutOne web app launch.

App Description:

AboutOne turns your phone into a remote control for your life, giving you fast and easy access to the information you need to take care of your family and home.

Get Organized. This award-winning app builds on your phone’s contacts so you can instantly organize memories and milestones, plus health, possessions, and education events and paperwork.

Save Time. Use your phone to quickly and easily upload receipts and other paperwork, photos, videos, artwork, and notes so this information is organized and available, whenever you need it.

Be prepared. Keep your family safe with quick access to your emergency information – both online and offline.

We’ve been featured by ABC News, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and PC Magazine, and recognized as the ultimate organizational tool.

Version 1.0 includes:
• Windows Phone contact import and duplicate management
• Online and offline family member emergency information
• Online and offline emergency contact list
• Document management for Memories, Health, Possessions, and Education Streams

Download the free app here from the marketplace.

1

Aviary Releases Its Windows Phone SDK, Popular Apps To Make Use Of It Soon

May 14, 2012 | By Pradeep

As Aviary announced few months ago, it released its image editing SDK to Windows Phone developers today.

It features,

Redesigned SDK from the ground-up to take advantage of the Metro design principles of Windows Phone
The same, easy integration process: add our editor to your project in as little as 15 minutes, with just a few lines of code
Customizable color theme
Controllable output size based upon developer preferences — you decide what makes the most sense for your app or service
… Not to mention that Aviary for Windows Phone has all the standard features as the rest of our mobile SDKs

Another good news is that popular Windows Phone apps like 4th & Mayor, Rowi, etc,. are already working on integrating Aviary’s image manipulation SDK into their apps which we may see it in marketplace soon.

Developer can download the SDK at aviary.com/wp7 and read more about it at Aviary blog.

2