Windows Phone

Windows Phone 8 users can access 46 of top 50 apps

Windows Phone 8 is getting a big app boost, with the platform now featuring 46 out of the 50 most heavily used mobile apps.

"That's huge progress for us," Joe Belfiore, manager of Microsoft's Windows Phone program, said during a presentation today.

There are now 120,000 apps in the Windows Phone marketplace. That's pretty good for Microsoft, but it still falls well short of Android and iOS. Apple last month said its store had 700,000 applications, while Google said its Play store offered 675,000.

Microsoft has been working closely with app developers … Read more

Apple, Samsung control 106 percent of industry's profits

Controlling all of the mobile market's profits doesn't appear to be enough for Apple and Samsung anymore. Now they're actually generating more than 100 percent of the industry's earnings -- 106 percent, to be precise -- according to a report from Canaccord Genuity.

That may seem impossible, but it's largely because rivals -- like Research In Motion, Nokia, and Motorola -- posted operating losses during the September quarter, the firm said.

"With Samsung extending its overall smartphone and Android market share combined with Apple's strength in high-end smartphones, competing smartphone [original equipment manufacturers] … Read more

Meet the real Windows Phone 8: Join us Monday (live blog)

CNET's live Windows Phone 8 coverage begins here Monday at 9:30 a.m. PT. The keynote kicks off at 10 a.m. PT.

With Windows 8 launched and the holiday shopping season upon us, the time has come for Microsoft to show the world all that Windows Phone 8 can do.

Back in June, Microsoft previewed a handful of Windows Phone 8 capabilities. Some were hardware-related, like NFC, multicore processing support, and the addition of HD screen resolutions.

Others were software-based: a new home-screen look with resizable widgets and much more space for all those live tiles, plus … Read more

Qualcomm CEO says Windows legacy apps have to go touch

Older Windows programs will have to be updated to incorporate touch capabilities, Qualcomm's chief executive said. And that's something that should help adoption of the newest version of the operating system.

Paul Jacobs, speaking today during a small press roundtable in New York before tomorrow's Windows 8 launch, said there will be "FUD" -- fear, uncertainty, and doubt -- around legacy applications when Windows RT first launches, but the capabilities offered by the new system will ultimately win over consumers.

He noted that older applications will have to be updated to take advantage of the … Read more

Top 10 biggest drawbacks of Windows RT

While Microsoft is spending a small fortune promoting its next-generation Windows 8 operating system, it also has another new operating system called Windows RT, which actually powers the company's Surface tablet and a few other devices.

Superficially, the operating systems look and feel the same. But Windows RT is designed for devices running on ARM chips, which are used to power smartphones and tablets and are considered more power-efficient.

Windows RT is more like "Windows Lite" than a full-blown update to the operating system. It's Microsoft's attempt to make a controlled environment similar to Apple'… Read more

Nokia delivers Lumia 510 for emerging markets

Nokia has launched the Lumia 510 smartphone, the cheapest Windows Phone-powered smartphone from the Finnish phone giant.

Designed for emerging markets, such as India, China, South America and Asia, the entry level smartphone bridges the gap between the Nokia Asha and the top-end Lumia devices currently on sale.

Sporting a 4-inch display with a 800x480 resolution, the latest Lumia weighs only 129 grams. The device itself is powered by a Snapdragon S1 processor with 256MB of RAM and 4GB internal storage. It also includes a 5-megapixel autofocus camera, GPRS/EDGE connectivity designed for developing cellular networks, along with 802.11n … Read more

Big surprise: Bill Gates thinks Windows 8 is great

Bill Gates is giving some initial feedback about Windows 8, and it's no shocker that he thinks the operating system is pretty nifty.

The Microsoft co-founder and chairman, speaking in a video interview with Microsoft's Steve Clayton, echoes CEO Steve Ballmer in calling Windows 8 an "absolutely critical product" that combines "the best" of tablets and traditional PCs.

Gates noted that people will be "amazed at the energy" Microsoft is putting behind its new products, and he said Windows 8 "is key to where personal computing is going."

"This … Read more

Best Buy starts taking pre-orders for Windows 8 Phone handsets

With the debut of Windows Phone 8 a little more than a week away, Best Buy has begun taking pre-orders for Nokia's and HTC's flagship smartphones running Microsoft's new mobile operating system.

The electronics retailer's Web site now lists the Lumia 920 for $149.99 with a two-year commitment and off-contract at $599.99. It also lists the HTC 8X for $99.99 with contract and $599.99 without contract.

The listing doesn't indicate when customers can expect delivery, saying only that the phones "will ship when available." Earlier this month, AT&… Read more

Elop says Surface Windows Phone could help 'ecosystem'

A Surface phone might be a good idea after all, Nokia's CEO said today.

Stephen Elop, speaking during an investor call, said that a Windows Phone from Microsoft would be a "stimulant to the ecosystem," according to The Verge.

"We're encouraging of HTC and Samsung and Microsoft or whomever to have devices in the market and to be making whatever investments that helps spur the ecosystem on," Elop said, according to the report.

Rumors have been circulating for months that Microsoft was going to make its own Windows Phones and possibly market them under … Read more