Although Mobile world congress will not officially start until tomorrow, there are some manufacturers who cannot wait for the official opening to unveil their new products and services. Earlier today, I told you about the new smartwatches from Samsung, the Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo. These two Tizen powered smartwatches were unveiled earlier probably to pave way for the unveiling of the next flagship Smartphone from the company.
Aside from Samsung, Microsoft also had some good news today as it announced nine new hardware partners for its mobile OS. These new hardware manufacturers include Lenovo, LG, ZTE, Foxconn, Gionee, JSR, Karbonn, Lava (Xolo) and Longcheer. All these hardware partners combined make 56% of the global Smartphone market.
According to Microsoft, the addition of these 9 hardware manufacturers means that 7 out of the top 10 Smartphone manufacturers have a foot in the windows phone platform. This is good news for both Microsoft and the windows phone fans who wanted more manufacturers in the ecosystem.
During the announcement, Microsoft also announced new hardware features that include support for Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 and 400 series chipsets. The company also said that windows phone will support soft keys, dual SIM and will allow hardware vendors to use the same hardware for both Windows phone and Android devices.
Currently Windows Phone store has more than 240,000 apps with an average of 500 apps hitting the store each day. One of these apps is the Facebook Messenger app that will be added to the Windows Phone store in the coming weeks.
What do you think about this move? Do you think it’s the move that finally gets Windows Phone to the mainstream market? Share your thought with us below.
