- Photo: Samsung
Although Samsung’s Android smartphones, like the Galaxy S3, get all the attention, the Korean manufacturer is still committed to Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS. In fact, Samsung plans to launch a Windows Phone 8 Apollo smartphone in the second half of 2012.
Samsung on top
Against tough odds and competition, Samsung emerged as the world’s top Android phone maker, thanks to hit phone models like the Galaxy S2, or, more recently, the Samsung Galaxy Note. In fact, according to some of the latest sales statistics, Samsung isn’t just the world’s most popular Android smartphone maker, but the best selling smartphone manufacturer full stop (selling more smartphones last quarter than even Apple).
Not overlooking Windows Phone
As mentioned, the Korean company’s hit Android phone models are the reasons for this huge success, which is why its other mobile phones, including those running Windows Phone or even Samsung’s own Bada OS, get easily overlooked. However, Samsung isn’t overlooking Windows Phone, despite the fact that its earlier WP models, like the Samsung Omnia W, haven’t sold very well. Instead, the manufacturer is set to launch 3 new WP smartphones in 2012, one of which will be running the all new Windows Phone 8 OS, codenamed Apollo.
Latest OS upgrade
The confirmation regarding a Windows Phone 8 handset comes to us via Samsung Taiwan, so it’s not exactly being widely publicised. Moreover, we know very little about the phone itself, other than the fact it will be running the all new Windows 8 Apollo OS. The WP platform already went through one upgrade with its 7.5 Mango version. Later this year another Tango upgrade is expected and then finally, to coincide with the release Windows 8, Microsoft is planning on launching Windows Phone 8, aka Apollo.
WP8 Apollo details
Though little is known about Samsung’s planned Apollo handset, other than it will probably launch sometime around October this year, we do know a bit about the next-gen WP OS. For one, it will share many similarities with the new Windows 8 OS (which is being optimised for tablet use) and will also use the same kernel. Not only that, but WP8 is adding additional support for multi-core processors (which means we can expect to see quad-core WP handsets), NFC radio, microSD card storage, as well as for enhanced encryption used by businesses. These features were leaked in a video and have since been more or less confirmed.
Poor WP sales
Samsung has seen incredible sales figures, in the many millions, for its Android phones like the Galaxy S2 or, recently, the Galaxy Note. With Windows Phone, on the other hand, the situation is completely different. Take Nokia’s Lumia phones, for instance, which were said to sell the most of any WP handset model. These smartphones only sold 2 million over the past quarter, which was less than Samsung’s Galaxy Note sold on its own during the same time.
WP future in question
HTC and Samsung WP smartphones, meanwhile, must have done far worse than the Nokia Lumia models. Nevertheless, both makers continue to support Windows Phone (probably because of payments on Microsoft’s part) but if poor sales continue, then they might eventually abandon the platform. It’s undoubtedly welcome to have more competition in a market dominated by both Android and iOS, but Windows Phone, despite not being totally dead in the water, still has long uphill battle ahead of it in order to get firmly established.