I’ll be at Microsoft’s BUILD conference next week and the big news should be Windows 8 on tablets and we may even be getting a nice Samsung quad-core tablet to play around with. While Windows 8 should be sucking up most of the oxygen at the show, you have to wonder if we’ll see anything about Windows Phone.
Of course, a focus on Windows 8 could actually have a lot to do with Windows Phone, as Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang told CNet he believes that Windows Phone apps will run on Windows 8. Considering that Microsoft and NVIDIA are working hard on getting Windows 8 on ARM devices, I believe that Huang has an inside line on what to expect.
Running phone apps on your desktop may not seem amazing but you have to remember that Windows 8 will likely power a variety of touchscreen tablets and having a robust portfolio of touch-friendly apps out of the gate will be of great help to these tablets while developers get used to developing tablet-specific programs. We’ve seen phone apps blown up for tablets on the iPad and with Honeycomb and while this experience isn’t always great, it’s better to have than nothing.
Microsoft could also use the day two keynote to talk more about Windows Phone Mango. We already know about the third-party multitasking, SkyDrive integration, LinkedIn and Twitter built in, custom ringtones and more but Microsoft is promising hundreds of new features, so this could be a great opportunity to expand on those. It has already starting accepting Mango apps but this developer-centric conference could also have some more goodies and tools for app makers.
The one thing we really want to know is: When does Windows Phone Mango come out? It has promised “Fall 2011” in the past and we’ve already seen Mango phones drop in Japan, so the rest of us will have to sit tight for a little while. As for timing, this could be a perfect opportunity to announce an early-October release of Windows Phone Mango.
It’s been a tough first year for Windows Phone, as we genuinely think the platform is innovative and a fresh take on mobile computing but it has yet to really catch on with consumers – Even Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer concedes that sales are “very small.” Despite that, the developer ecosystem has steadily grown, at least one platform competitor is dead and there are still reasons to be cautiously optimistic about Windows Phone’s chances.
Whatever Microsoft announces about Windows Phone Mango, you can be sure that IntoMobile will be on top of it, so stay tuned. What would you like Microsoft to say about Windows Phone Mango at Build 2011?