There are a lot of naysayers out there when it comes to the Windows Phone platform, but as Robin pointed out a couple of days ago many haven’t really given the OS a fighting chance. Some of it has to do with the fact that people often equate cost with quality, and most Windows phones are (at the moment) rather inexpensive.
But Redmond apparently has plans to get some higher-end devices on the market next year.
According to WinSupersite’s Paul Thurrott (who has yet to formally reveal his sources, but promises the news is legit), Microsoft and its partners will release at least three new LTE-capable Windows phones in the first half of 2012.
The Nokia Ace, HTC Radiant, and Samsung Mendel will all run on AT&T’s 4G LTE network during the first half of next year, the Ace specifically hitting shelves on March 18. Thurrott also claims that the Nokia Lumia 710 (which does not run on any 4G LTE network) will head to Verizon in April of 2012, three months after it hits T-Mo shelves in January.
Past that, we know very little about the new LTE Windows phones. Will they run Mango? Tango? WMPoweruser’s leaked road map of what is supposed to be Microsoft’s update plans leads us to believe that Apollo won’t make its way onto the market until late 2012, but it’s unclear whether or not the incremental Tango update will be included on this next batch of phones.
Either way, it’s good to see Windows Phone catching up to Android when it comes to LTE support. And if things go as we expect them to, iOS may be the last to join the 4G LTE party.
Windows Phone 7 is the successor of the Windows Mobile 6.5 mobile operating system in development by Microsoft, scheduled for release by October 2010. Microsoft’s goal is to create a compelling and predictable user experience by redesigning the user interface, disallowing partners to modify or replace it, integrating the operating system with other services, and strictly controlling the hardware it runs on.
Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured. Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market. Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and...
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