Windows Phone 8 Finally Launches with Wide Support

On Monday in San Francisco, Microsoft has the launch event for Windows Phone 8, the latest version of the company's 2-year-old smartphone platform. It's Microsoft's newest attempt to regain a foothold in the smartphone market. This new version Windows Phone software comes with broad support from smartphone makers, cellphone carriers and app developers as the software company tries to position new Windows gadgets as strong alternatives to Apple and Android devices.

Windows Phone 8 is the successor to Windows Phone 7, which launched two years ago but has had little traction in the market. Windows Phone 7 wasn't much of a competitor to iOS and Android in large part because it ran on uninspiring hardware, but Windows Phone 8 will help fix that by supporting current Qualcomm processors, along with high-resolution screens and the latest wireless specs.

                    

Back in San Francisco on Monday, Microsoft transformed an area of a civic-center auditorium into a temporary swanky, chill lounge, complete with mood lighting and lit wall panels echoing Windows Phone’s live tile colors. Microsoft executives touted the fun of the new phone, emphasizing how users can personalize it to what’s important to them.

                     

“People all over the world are about to fall in love with Windows Phones,” Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at the Windows Phone 8 launch event in San Francisco on Monday.

Windows Phone 8 (WP8) is elegant, personable, and different. It absolutely shines for those who use their smartphones for a lot of calling, texting, and Facebooking, and especially people who connect to Microsoft anything—whether that's Outlook, Hotmail, Exchange, Skydrive, Office 365, or Xbox. If iOS bores you and Android intimidates you, Windows Phone will likely dazzle you.

                      

One light spot of the software les in the Kids Corner, which lets you lock down parts of the phone when you hand the device over to a young one dying to play "Angry Birds" or "Fruit Ninja." You can determine what apps you'd like your child to have access to and configure it so they can't get into your email or Twitter account.

In addition, Microsoft said it will also catch up in offering third-party apps. There are 120,000 applications available for Windows Phone, but some apps that are popular on other systems are notably missing from Windows Phone because it can be hard to get developers interested in writing programs for a small number of smartphones. Belfiore also announced the Pandora app will come to Windows Phone Store 8 in 2013 and that it will include a year of free music with no ads.

                      

The new software will run on more powerful phones with flagship models coming from Nokia, Samsung and HTC. Together, they’ll launch eight Windows Phone 8 smartphones before the year is out, starting this weekend overseas and later in November in the U.S. Samsung officials believe that Windows Phone 8 devices like the HTC 8X and the Nokia Lumia 920 will do a better job facing off against the iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S III in the new round competition.