We've finally made it into the month of October. For those of us excited about Windows Phone (and Surface, and Xbox, and...) then it's been a long time coming. It's hard to wait for the things you're excited about, right? Now that October is here, though, we are just weeks away from the Windows Phone 8 event that will hopefully provide us with whatever new features Microsoft has been hiding since their Windows Phone Summit earlier this year.
I'm really hoping that there's plenty more to get excited about, especially when it comes to Microsoft's expanding ecosystem.
But, the SDK for Windows Phone 8 has been out for a little while now, and since its release there have been two camps slowly developing. The first camp consists mainly of folks who believe that the SDK isn't the total, complete story for the next version of Microsoft's mobile operating system. While there's plenty to play around with, and new features therein that Microsfot hasn’t directly spoken about quite yet, it isn't the full picture. Some things are locked away. Hidden. Just waiting to be released.
The other camp, and one that is growing in numbers I'm afraid, is the one that's filled with people who believe Windows Phone 8 isn't going to be that big of a jump over Windows Phone 7.5. Yes, there will be new features, but nothing that will absolutely blow away anyone, let alone people waiting to see if Windows Phone can compete against the likes of iOS or Android.
It's this second camp that has me thinking about the content for this article. I know that I'm an optimistic when it comes to the mobile space, but I really do believe that Microsoft has something great in store for their BUILD conference at the end of the month. I (have to) believe that they are planning on unveiling new features that really stand out, even if they aren't necessarily "exclusive" to the Windows Phone platform.
Because I'm not sure what Microsoft hopes to accomplish if they don't add anything that stands out. Hardware only goes so far.
Some of you might be thinking I believe Microsoft's Windows Phone is going to take the king of the hill spot from Apple's iOS based on the title, but that's not what I mean. I'm actually referring to evolutionary updates. More to the point, I'm wondering if Windows Phone is going to look the same as it does right now, for the most part, five years down the line. Just like iOS does, for the most part, five years after its inception.
Windows Phone's user experience really is great, even if I can fully admit that it does get kind of boring after a little while. Especially if you're someone who likes to look at your phone. But, with that being said, I'm not sure if Microsoft can hope to make a real indention within the mobile space if they don't start adding must-have features and applications to their platform. And soon. With each new major revision of your platform, you need something to draw in new customers, as well as keep the ones who have already started using your services.
So what are the features that I think Microsoft should announce at BUILD? Well, Microsoft could build something similar to Siri, I guess. That would be a nice addition to Windows Phone. However, I don't want a Siri competitor on my Windows Phone 8 device. I actually want something similar to Google Now. While Siri is great in her own way, if Microsoft could find a way to combine Siri and Google Now, and expand on the feature list, that'd be amazing.
Here's what I want to know from you, Dear Reader. Do you think Microsoft is going to keep Windows Phone looking the same four years from now? And, if they do, do you think that will work for them, or against them? Or, do you think Windows Phone will even be around in four years? Let me know!
