Samsung steals march on Nokia with first Windows phone

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Samsung Electronics became the first handset maker to announce a smartphone using Microsoft's latest mobile software, making its surprise, hurried announcement just days before the highly anticipated launch of Nokia's version.

The brief announcement on Wednesday at a Berlin electronics show comes amid expectations that smartphone makers may turn increasingly to Windows devices after a U.S. jury decided many of Samsung's Google (GOOG.O) Android-based phones infringed Apple Inc (AAPL.O) patents.

"It looks like a good phone, and seems like a pre-emptive announcement ahead of Nokia," said Sid Parakh, an analyst at investment firm McAdams Wright Ragen, of the Samsung phone.

"Microsoft or Windows never got their best teams, never got their best designs, just because Android was doing so well. With the change in the legal environment, there's a case to be made that Samsung will likely shift some of those resources to broaden out or diversify their own exposure."

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/30/uk-samsung-microsoft-nokia-corre-idUSLNE87T01420120830

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

1. Nokia Lumia 900 has been out for nearly half a year...

... running Windows Phone 7.5, soon to be 7.8 update. A fantastic design and phone. Checked out my neighbor's new Nokia Lumia 900 and all I can say is, "WOW"!

It is only currently offered with AT&T packages.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Stuff differs over here in the UK

Prolly available on all networks here.

[Submariner]

3. I've had my Lumia 900 for a few months now

and it's a great phone. Nice big font so I don't have to put on my reading glasses to navigate around and use all it's functions.

[dipsydoodle]

5. Yes but the one mentioned

is Windows 8.

[sofa king]

4. Looks like a "paper launch."

This happens a lot in the computer hardware industry, and it won't surprise me to see just enough Samsung phones make it to reviewers in a polished beta state so that the imaginary new competitor can be compared favorably against the actual product from Nokia.

It's a dirty trick, because in that industry the engineering sample that is "paper released" is usually a generation ahead of the finished product which the sample is trying to fizzle.

Then the paper launch product is unavailable to retailers for weeks or months (because it is not actually complete or being produced in volume), and it sometimes shows up so totally changed that the originally reviewed engineering sample bears little resemblance to the months-late completed product.

One of the most famous examples of a disastrous paper launch was the Intel Pentium III 1.13 GHz chip. Even the engineering samples couldn't handle the ridiculous voltage and heat requirements, and it repeatedly failed in testing. Intel pulled the 1.13 and instead turned their attention to an even more disastrous product, the Pentium IV. (Edit: some versions of the 1.13 eventually made it into laptops--laptops notorious for overheating and even partially melting, without enough battery power to watch a full DVD.)

The failed paper launch of the 1.13 and subsequent mis-steps effectively gave AMD the performance lead in the industry for several years. Intel wound up spending millions in marketing to try to shout down the truth, bribing Dell and pulling a bunch of other crap with considerable success, but AMD still exists today because Intel effed up that paper launch.

[longship]

6. Can hardly wait for my first Samsung BSOD. nt

[defacto7]

7. You guys sound like something????

We hate Apple.... so we will buy a Samsung (Micro$oft) because it's a vote against Apple.

Well, I hate Apple and Microsoft so... I just won't buy a smartphone I guess.

Hmm, that logic does sound familiar????