Microsoft to launch New Lumia Phones, Surface Pro 4

Microsoft's next range of consumer gadgets will be unveiled at a mega event later this year.

According to news site WPDang, Surface Pro 4 and Microsoft Band 2, plus a pair of new Lumia handsets, will form the basis of the October event that will almost certainly see multiple new pieces of hardware.

The Surface Pro 4 will be the main focus of the event, which will once again be dubbed the tablet that can replace your laptop and Microsoft is expected to pack it with an ultra powerful Intel Core 'M' chip that will threaten the likes of the Apple MacBook Air.

Alongside this, the Lumia 950 and 950 XL can be expected to finally arrive following many months of leaks with both Smartphones ready to handle the long-awaited arrival of the Windows 10 Mobile OS.

That's not all. Further whispers are pointing to a couple of surprises on the hardware front for the event that could indeed mean a slimmer version of the Xbox One and even the long awaited arrival of the Surface Mini.

Microsoft launches Lumia 430, cheapest Windows Phone

It’s just another budget Smartphone to its Lumia range. Microsoft has launched Lumia 430, which is priced at approximately Rs 4,400. It is the most economical Smartphone in the Lumia series. 

The dual SIM Smartphone has a 4-inch WVGA (480x800 pixels) LCD display and sports a 2MP primary camera along with a VGA secondary camera. 

Powered by 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor and 1GB RAM, Lumia 430 offers 8GB of internal storage and can support micro-SD cards of up to 128GB. 

The Smartphone, like other phones in Lumia series, comes with 30GB of free OneDrive cloud storage. 

Lumia 430 runs Windows Phone 8.1 and packs a 1500mAh battery, which is replaceable. 

Available in two colours: Bright Orange and Black, the phone offers support for 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. 

Microsoft unveils Lumia 640, 640 XL Smartphones

Microsoft's mobile unit has unveiled the Lumia 640, a budget Smartphone that will be compatible with 4G networks.

Available in single- as well as dual-SIM variants, the new Lumia 640 Smartphone has a 5-inch HD screen and runs on a 1.2GHz quad-core processor and 1GB RAM. The Smartphone will come with Window 8.1 operating system at launch, but will get Windows 10 update later this year.

The all-new Lumia 640 has an 8MP rear camera with f2.2 lens, while the Selfie camera only has 1MP resolution. The battery capacity of the Smartphone is 2,500mAh and it comes with 8GB internal storage, with micro-SD card support up to 128GB.

The company has also announced its Lumia 640 XL version, which has a bigger 5.7-inch HD screen, 13MP rear camera, 5MP front camera and 3,000mAh battery. The remaining features remain the same as those of Lumia 640.

The company has also announced to release Windows 10 for Smartphones by the end of 2015, with more Smartphones running on the upcoming OS in the pipeline.

Nokia unveils cheaper Windows smartphone Lumia 610

Nokia has unveiled a new, cheaper smartphone using Microsoft's Windows Phone software, in an attempt to reverse its declining market share.

Nokia last year dumped its own smartphone software in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone to step up its fight against rivals such as Apple's iPhone, but the move has so far had limited impact due to the high prices of phones using it.

Nokia said its new Lumia 610 model would carry a price tag of $250, excluding subsidies and taxes, when it goes on sale next quarter.

"The 610 takes Nokia's Lumia portfolio to an encouraging new price point in its pursuit of cheaper Android rivals," said Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight.

Nokia also announced a global version of its high-end Lumia 900 phone at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona.

It also unveiled a new top-of-the range cameraphone 808, which comes with a 41 megapixel camera sensor, and three more basic models.

Wall Street and industry analysts say that though the latest Windows phones could be worthy competitors to Apple's iPhone and top-of-the-range Android handsets, the devices lack unique qualities to make their sales take off.

AT&T to sell Nokia Lumia 900

AT&T has said it will sell a Nokia smartphone running Microsoft's Windows Phone software. The device represents Nokia and Microsoft's best chance yet to break Apple and Google's hold on the U.S. smartphone market, the world's most lucrative.

Nokia Corp. CEO Stephen Elop joined Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer in unveiling the phone at a press event in Las Vegas ahead of the International Consumer Electronics Show. The presence of both CEOs was a sign of the importance the companies place on the device.

The phone, the Lumia 900, will use AT&T Inc.'s new "LTE" wireless data network, for faster downloads. It's a slab-like touch-screen phone in the vein Apple Inc.'s iPhone. The companies said it will be available "in coming months." However, they didn't reveal the price.

Finland based company, Nokia, is betting that it can reverse its sinking fortunes by switching to Microsoft's new phone software, and Microsoft is paying it billions to do so.

For Microsoft, the partnership with Nokia is a chance to break into smartphones, which are dominated by Apple and Google Inc., through its Android software. Other phone makers have also put out Windows phones, but sales have been slow.

T-Mobile USA has said it will sell a more modest Lumia model starting Jan. 11. It's the fourth-largest U.S. carrier. AT&T is the second-largest, after Verizon Wireless.

Nokia to use Symbian and Windows together

Nokia has said it will continue to sell smartphones using its legacy Symbian software for a long time after its first phones using Microsoft's Windows go on sale. Symbian is due to be replaced by Microsoft's Windows Phone over the coming two years under a plan announced in February, raising concerns Nokia could drop Symbian phones - which have lost market share, but generate strong profits - too early. "We will be selling Symbian-devices long after Windows Phone devices from Nokia have already started to appear," said Purnima Kochikar, head of developer relations at Nokia. Nokia has promised to introduce its first models using Windows Phone platform at the latest in 2012. Nokia didn't specify how long it would continue to offer Symbian. Earlier this week research firm Ovum forecast that Symbian phones will continue on some markets into 2016. Kochikar said coming Symbian models would focus on strong integration of services, as well as have faster processors than so far in the Symbian product line. "Over the past weeks we have been evaluating our Symbian roadmap and now feel confident we will have a strong portfolio of new products during our transition period - i.e. 2011 and 2012," Kochikar said. "They will also include improvements in hardware performance such as GHz+ processing capabilities and faster graphics speeds," she said. Nokia's current top models, the N8 and the E7, use 680 MHz processors, while rivals top models already use 1 GHz and faster processors.

Microsoft losing the Mobile World War

One would expect a company of Microsoft's caliber to make a better showing in the mobile OS market, considering its resources and experience. Nevertheless, Microsoft held 8 percent OS market share as of January, down 1.7 percent from October 2010. In comparison, Android gained 7.7 percent, while iOS gained only 0.1 percent, losing its second-place lead in October. RIM and HP/Palm lost for the second report in a row; RIM fell 3.5 percent in October and 5.4 percent in January, while HP/Palm's WebOS fell 1 percent in October and 0.7 in January.

Microsoft's mobile market record is poor, but not because the platform is bad; Microsoft is legendary in the IT world and has more OS experience than any other company does. Nevertheless, it is still smarting from the abject failure of the KIN cell phones, the Windows Mobile 6.5 disaster and the now-failing Windows Phone 7 OS.

Hoping to come back and expand its reach, Microsoft and Nokia announced their partnership, an impossible road for Microsoft since Nokia has almost zero U.S. market share and does even appear on ComScore reports. Even if Microsoft were to dominate Nokia sales, it could only hope to gain in a few areas where Symbian dominates.

No matter how one looks at it, the story is the same: Microsoft is losing the mobile battle. Windows Phone 7 is failing to attract the sales Microsoft originally predicted; in fact Microsoft lied about these predictions to make them sound better. While it's a decent system, it is nowhere near good enough to challenge Android.

Microsoft has one of the most innovative research centers in the world. Microsoft developed a good smartphone OS with Windows Mobile 2003. With so much time and experience on its side, it's hard to justify Microsoft's mistakes, lack of urgency and failed recognition by management of just how important the mobile market place was then.

Microsoft is facing the growing trend of users shifting from desktops to smartphones and tablets for Internet access, but not making the switch to Microsoft devices. The year has yet to play out and things may change, but it is difficult to imagine Microsoft gaining enough to overcome consistent Android gains.

T-Mobile to offer new Microsoft phones

T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, has announced that it will support Windows Phone 7 software and plans to reveal details of phones based on the Microsoft Corp software at an event on Oct 11.

AT&T Inc, the No. 2 U.S. mobile service, also plans to make an announcement about phones based on the Microsoft software at the event hosted by Microsoft.

New Windows 7 phones are expected in stores in time for the holiday shopping season.

At the event, T-Mobile USA, the U.S. No. 4 mobile network, is expected to announce a Windows Phone 7 device made by Taiwan’s HTC Corp, according to a person close to the matter who asked not to be named.

HTC is a long-time Microsoft partner but has recently been heavily focused on making phones based on Google Inc's Android software. It said it would make new Microsoft phones, but declined to give any further details.

The launch of Microsoft's new phone software is being seen a test of the world's largest software company's ability to catch up with rivals Apple Inc and Google, which have vaulted past it in the fast-growing market for smartphones.

Microsoft to bring Xbox Live to Windows Mobile

What if you could play all your favorite Xbox Live games on your mobile phone? You may soon be able to do just that, if a job listing from Microsoft offers any clue.

Based on recent job postings on Microsoft's site, it appears that Redmond is making moves to bring Xbox Live to Windows Mobile devices. The competitive differentiating capability may be available when Windows Mobile 7 debuts in late 2010.

Microsoft posted the listing on its Connected Entertainment job site on Dec. 23. The job title is Principal Program Manager - LIVE Entertainment for the Xbox Live product. The post outlined how Microsoft is connecting players via the Live services on new devices beyond the console.

"We need a Principle Program Manager who can help drive the platform and bring Xbox LIVE enabled games to Windows Mobile," the post said. "This person will focus specifically on what makes gaming experiences 'LIVE Enabled' through aspects such as avatar integration, social interactions, and multi-screen experiences."

The Mobile-Gaming Landscape
Could Microsoft be setting out to compete with Nokia and Apple on the mobile-gaming front? Microsoft would have some catching up to do, but with the popularity of Xbox Live, the software giant could make strides quickly.

Games continue to dominate Apple's App Store - there are currently nearly 950 games available. Apple has sold more than 30 million iPhones and iPod touch units, keeping pace with Nintendo's Wii video-game console. The iPhone opened up a new world of gaming potential for mobile devices that some call the smartphone games 2.0 market. According to media research firm Screen Digest, the iPhone accounts for 10 percent of the U.S. mobile-gaming market. For Nokia's part, the N-Gage is a made-for-mobile games service available in compatible Nokia Nseries and other S60 3rd Edition devices from Nokia. N-Gage aims to make it easy to find, try, buy, play and manage high-quality mobile games as well as connect to friends and other players in the N-Gage Arena, Nokia's mobile-gaming community. But Nokia is not making the same headway as Apple.

Microsoft's Mobile Opportunity
Market researcher DFC Intelligence predicts the global market for mobile and portable games will reach $11.7 billion by 2014 - and Apple will get most of the pie. Games sold for the iPhone and iPod touch could grab as much as 24 percent of the portable game software sales, DFC reports. That could change, though, if Microsoft gets into the game with its Xbox Live services.

HTC unveils Touch Diamond2 and Touch Pro2

High Tech Computer (HTC), the largest maker of handsets that run Microsoft Windows Mobile software, unveiled updates to two of its most popular smartphones ever, the HTC Touch Diamond2 and HTC Touch Pro2 handsets.

The sleek new handsets are both 3G touchscreen devices. While the Touch Diamond2 is a consumer smartphone designed to compete with Apple's iPhone 3G, the Touch Pro2 is geared towards business people and could be a hit with its speaker phone function.

Both handsets continue the Touch line's tradition of attention to design and detail. They are both metallic in color, mixed with chrome and black and are designed to make people stop and ask -what is that?

HTC improved both handsets by a large measure over their predecessors, starting from the screens, which are much larger, more visually stunning and more responsive to touch commands.

The software inside - a customized version of Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 with a new version of HTC's TouchFLO 3D - has also seen major improvements.

Two new features are Push-Internet, which enables the handset to download favorite Web site information at specified times so users don't have to wait for the sites to download. The handsets also have so-called unified communications so people's contact books and most recent conversations are right on hand no matter what form they came in, either from a phone call, SMS or e-mail.

The new Touch Diamond2 has several advantages over the original Touch Diamond. The Diamond2 sports a larger screen at 3.2 inches, compared to 2.8 inches for its predecessor. The overall handset is still slim at 13.7 millimeters thick and small enough to fit easily into your pocket.

The larger screen offers two noticeable benefits right away. The touch function works much better than on the older model and HTC's 480x800 wide-screen VGA resolution is stunning.

The Touch Diamond2 also boasts a 5.0-megapixel camera with mechanical auto-focus, a bid to make cameras in handsets work more like regular digital still cameras. You can snap pictures much faster due to the mechanical auto-focus, according to HTC.

The Touch Pro2 carries a 3.6-inch touchscreen with the same WVGA resolution as the Touch Diamond2, but even thought the screen is nice, it isn't the best physical feature on the handset.
The best feature is that it doubles as a speaker phone for conference calls.

The Touch Diamond2 will be available in Europe and Asia early in the second quarter of this year, with North America to be included later in 2009. The Touch Pro2 will be available globally beginning early in the summer.

Pricing information about the devices is not available yet.

Microsoft to offer online bazaar for cell phone software

According to a report by Wall Street Journal, Microsoft Corp is planning to offer new programs and services for mobile phones, including an "online bazaar" for software.

The online bazaar would be for phones which are running on Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system.

Microsoft will also soon offer its latest version of Windows Mobile, which will have a "more sophisticated interface."

From Friday, the company has started a limited release of its "My Phone" service, which synchronises information like contacts and calendar appointments on a cell phone to a password protected website.

Dell to fight with iPhone and Blackberry - set to announce Google Android and Microsoft Windows Mobiles

Dell is going to be the latest electronics maker to enter the smartphone market, following in the footsteps of Apple. Dell is reportedly entering the smartphone market. Dell would face stiff competition from Apple, Research in Motion, and Palm, among others. RIM and Apple hold 70 percent of the U.S. market for smartphones.

Dell is expected to announce two iPhone and Blackberry competitors sometime next month. The phones will run on Google Android and Microsoft Windows Mobile respectively.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Dell will introduce in February at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona two new mobile phones, set to go head to head with market leaders Apple and Research In Motion.

One of the phones will be touchscreen-only similar to Apple's iPhone, while the other is a slider-style phone with a full QWERTY keyboard, similar to the T-Mobile G1. The other technical specifications are not available yet.

Dell could launch its first device in February.