3 Big Names in your Windows Phone 8 – Microsoft Gears up its Windows Phone Racing Team
If you’ve already read the six reasons to choose Windows Phone 8, then good, as you now have the idea on whom these big names are. If the live tiles aren’t the envy of Android and iOS device users, then these big names inside your Nokia, HTC or Samsung smartphones surely would be.
But before I unveil those names, let’s have a short drive first inside the Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 race track.
The Windows Phones, in terms of market share, is currently on the third spot in the mobile phone OS race leaderboard. According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Microsoft sold around 34.9 million handsets in Q3 2014 equivalent to 2.9% market share. Despite of the flat performance, Microsoft is now putting their next racecar driver into intense training. His name is Threshold - codename for Windows 10. According to several tech experts watching from the stadium, Threshold is already gaining its momentum. The news also confirmed that some of Windows 8.1 drivers will be joined by Threshold anytime this year, at no cost.
This time, let me introduce to you some of the pitstop crews of the Windows Phones team. They’re here to give you a smooth but fast and furious drive with your Windows Phone 8. Remember, you’re now the driver here and these names are all geared up to help you win the race. Don’t worry as Microsoft is always at your back to give you full OS support or just a hand in refueling your smartphone with great apps.
Cortana
You know her, don’t you? Cortana is the lady who says “If I’m not, you have an imaginary friend”. Hooray Microsoft for nailing down the best comparisons of Cortana with Siri!
As your intelligent personal virtual assistant, Cortana will always be there to offer you a help. Just ask and she’ll tell. Or even if you don’t, she’ll remind you. What powers up Cortana are the smart Bing search engine and a special feature called “Notebook”.
Tell Cortana to roll the dice or flip a coin and she will. Ask Cortana the shortest and traffic-less track going to the tire shop and she will instantly reveal it to you on the map. That was she, Cortana on your Window Phone 8.1.
Snapdragon
Snapdragon is that guy from Qualcomm with red-dyed hair and always together with his 3 to 4 assistants. He is your smartphone’s powerful processor since the release of Windows Phone 8 – the Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor. In Windows Phone 8.1, Snapdragon 800 multi-core processor was also added. If you own a HTC One M8 or the Nokia Lumia 930, you will definitely feel Snapdragon’s intensity while on the road.
Who are Snapdragon’s assistants? Krait is the CPU. Andreno is the GPU that provides 720p or 1080p resolution via the DirectX API. Hexagon is the Digital Signal Processor (DSP). Venus, who rarely hangs out with the group, is a friend of Hexagon - a hardware block for video encoding/decoding.
Lumia
Aren’t you wondering why Microsoft always want Lumia in the team? You know the love story between Nokia and Microsoft, don’t you? They’ve gone in the snow cold but they’re now happily married.
But anyway, everybody knows that Nokia is a communications and information technology company with great expertise in the mobile phone business. Now that it’s an all-new Lumia brand and Microsoft is in full control, Lumia is an even sexier, smarter and lovelier colorful flag bearer of the Windows Phones racing team.
Microsoft is very supportive with all the Lumia phones. In fact, they have a Support for Lumias program wherein they provide user guides, video instructions, useful references, and off course, live chat and phone support for all Nokia Lumia or Microsoft Lumia phone owners.
You certainly know Bing, Xbox and Skype. They’re the most popular crews in the pitstop. OneDrive, formerly SkyDrive, is also on board to sync your documents. Can’t wait to see Threshold on your Windows Phone 8? He’s coming soon.
