After a leaked Windows Phone roadmap, there are a few blogs speculating about what a Windows "Superphone" means and whether or not it's necessary.
Here's my take. I think Microsoft wants to unify their operating systems.
Windows Phone was the first "Metro" experience, but it runs on an old CE kernel and the stack above that is Silverlight (and XNA). Metro is huge. It's the first really new user interface Microsoft's shipped since Windows 95. Metro makes classic Windows and even iPhone and Android feel ancient -- the same old square icons on a desktop we've all been using for the last several decades.
Windows 8 brings Metro to the desktop, laptop, and tablet world. This world, though, is built on the NT kernel, with the WinRT API above that. Sure, you can build Silverlight-like apps in Windows 8 Metro, it might even be trivial to port your WP app to Windows 8 Metro, but you can't easily go the other way.
So, what can Microsoft do about this? Well, it's easy, move Windows Phone onto the NT kernel, and carry over the bulk of the WinRT API. This would make developing your Windows app for any form factor, from desktops to phones, a very easy task. Throw in some nice Visual Studio and Blend templates for re-shaping your app to fit the various form factors, and you've got something really compelling.
The problem with that? Well, today's Windows Phone hardware probably isn't sufficient to drive an NT+WinRT OS. Enter "Superphones."
Superphones, I'm guessing, are the first generation of Windows Phone that run on the NT kernel and support the WinRT (or at least enough of it for most apps.) Note the Apollo release timing is not far from the expected Windows 8 release. Put that together with the recent news that the Windows Phone chief was put in charge of a "a new role working for me on a time-critical opportunity focused on driving maximum impact in 2012 with Windows Phone and Windows 8", and there might be something to this.
So, what do you all think. Am I crazy? Would "same API" across all devices be a worthy Microsoft goal? An achievable one? And what about X-box? Could Microsoft pull off the hat-trick, and unify all of their major platforms under a Metro front end? No doubt that's a tall order, and there are three CPU architectures to deal with. But Microsoft is a big and wealthy company.
Posted by: Ferdinand | December 28, 2011 1:49 PM
Tango Q2 2012 * "Products with the best prices"
That won't work. Price is compelling, but the world already has an iPhone. Duplicating that model has been limiting to the success of Windows Phone. Hopefully the "superphone" will open up the platform a bit.
Posted by: Omega X | December 28, 2011 1:52 PM
I have read such speculations before...
Is it worth it? My estimate is no. It will put hefty cost on hardware requirements, and if you look on top desktop and top mobile phone applications, you will see that those are very different applications. So, why would be joint development a compelling cause? Obviously games are exception, but XNA covers both Windows phone and Xbox already.
And even now if you develop for WPF, you have mostly compatible UI (I guess it won't get any more compatible than that), and if you develop in .net, you mostly have compatible code. So, real trouble now is only for C++ developers.
Anyway, IMHO opinion, Microsoft is becoming conceptual company - it is driven by concepts, and everything that looks conceptual employes will sell well to Ballmer. And they are totally forgetting practical side and living people, except on conceptual level. You know what I mean, like link your posted on Maximizing shareholder value... Someone needed to create some concept to prove that he is smart and even sold that to many (as it is really looks smart and it is hard to say the opposite), no matter that it causes catastrophe... But this is that just inside the company.
Posted by: Ivan Ičin | December 28, 2011 3:51 PM
I hope the batteries do quality with very little going on
Posted by: tesbih | January 5, 2012 8:11 AM
Since they presented the first preview of Windows 8 Metro, I was pretty sure things were going this way - Windows being unified across PC and phone (and everything else that might enter the scene, like e.g. tablets). I also agree with you on Metro making other interfaces look old and being a huge new thing. And don't forget that their message clearly was that Metro apps will run in HTML and JS, and also other signs sound like Silverlight is being phased out and "the web stack" gains a lot of traction inside MS. All those developments are surely interesting. The only question is how successful the strategy will be.
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Posted by: Marybelle Cristal | February 21, 2012 12:58 AM
I thought MS had already stated that unifying the platforms was their goal? This 'superphone' sounds like a laptop in a smartphone formfactor. As long as they invent a battery that's 300% better than we have now I see no problems with that.
When can I buy a phone with an i5?