Windows Phone 8 handsets skulking around Down Under

[George P Global Moderator]

Australian site WPDownUnder have it on good authority that Windows Phone 8 handsets are currently being tested in Australia. They know of at least 3 OEMs testing units there, naming Nokia, HTC and Samsung. More interesting they have the first news of what one of Nokia?s new Windows Phone 8 handsets will look like, saying it will continue the current Nokia Lumia 800/900 styling, apparently looking ?almost identical?.

It is currently strongly believed that Microsoft will unveil Windows Phone 8 on the 20th June, although that does not guarantee that handsets will be shown at the same event.

http://www.wpdownunder.com/?p=5063

[Cereal Bawks]

They better be announcing something in regards to WP8.

Considering we were promised regular frequent updates, and Mango being the last interesting event in that category, and that promised roadmap's missing since over a year, too, WP is kind of a running joke by now. I wouldn't put it past Microsoft for that developer summit still being about WP7.

[George P Global Moderator]

They better be announcing something in regards to WP8.

Considering we were promised regular frequent updates, and Mango being the last interesting event in that category, and that promised roadmap's missing since over a year, too, WP is kind of a running joke by now. I wouldn't put it past Microsoft for that developer summit still being about WP7.

We've had a number of smaller bug fixing updates since Mango, most if not everyone should be on 8107 by now. Tango is coming to with some minor updates for everyone so the cycle of minor-major-minor updates is holding true. The June 20th developer event will be about WP8, there's no point in talking about WP7 when it's development platform (silverlight and xna) are on the way out already. WinRT is the new single platform for every device that MS is going to push forward. WinRT for WP8 should be the major focus of the event. Now if they just show us prototype hardware and no soon to come WP8 devices that's a different matter and could be the case.

[Cereal Bawks]

Small bugfixes are pretty uninteresting, IMO. Considering that WP has quite some catching up to do compared to the other platforms, it's been pretty uneventful since Mango.

And yeah, there better be hardware soon after a formal announcement. Between the reveal of WP7 and actual availability were like 8 months. That's inacceptable. I wouldn't be surprised, if this plays out the same again. After all, it's what Microsoft keeps doing with all their products.

--edit: Also, for the sake of porting my most successful project, there better be support for C++/CX in WP8, because that's the only way relevant audio APIs are accessible in WinRT (the XAudio COM objects, because there's no formal capturing API in managed WinRT).

[George P Global Moderator]

Small bugfixes are pretty uninteresting, IMO. Considering that WP has quite some catching up to do compared to the other platforms, it's been pretty uneventful since Mango.

And yeah, there better be hardware soon after a formal announcement. Between the reveal of WP7 and actual availability were like 8 months. That's inacceptable. I wouldn't be surprised, if this plays out the same again. After all, it's what Microsoft keeps doing with all their products.

--edit: Also, for the sake of porting my most successful project, there better be support for C++/CX in WP8, because that's the only way relevant audio APIs are accessible in WinRT (the XAudio COM objects, because there's no formal capturing API in managed WinRT).

They haven't talked up WP8 all this time exactly because they don't want to do what happend with mango specifically, i.e. show it off back in Feb and not have it come out till Sept/Nov etc. The time between the first reveal in June and RTM should no be 3-4 months which sounds much better in the end. Also doesn't effect new Lumia 900 sales, heh.

[jakem1]

They haven't talked up WP8 all this time exactly because they don't want to do what happend with mango specifically, i.e. show it off back in Feb and not have it come out till Sept/Nov etc. The time between the first reveal in June and RTM should no be 3-4 months which sounds much better in the end. Also doesn't effect new Lumia 900 sales, heh.

It also means that Apple and Google won't be able to steal features from the next version of Windows Phone as quickly as they did when Mango was announced.

[subcld]

It also means that Apple and Google won't be able to steal features from the next version of Windows Phone as quickly as they did when Mango was announced.

agree +1