Press invites have started going out for Windows Phone 8 (WP8) launch day. The new smartphone OS will be launched on 29th October in San Francisco. It isn’t expected that all the newly developed WP8 devices we have seen will be in retailers on that day, general availability is expected to be in early November. However we should find out all about the new OS features. You may have noticed that, of all the new WP8 smartphones we have seen, journalists have been restricted to just viewing and interacting with the home screen.
It is debatable whether there will be many surprises left within the new mobile OS. People have been poking around with leaked versions of the SDK trying to see what is new behind the more adaptable, customisable and flexible Start screen, like in the video below.
Steve Ballmer won’t be short of devices to demonstrate the new OS upon as we know that there are Windows Phone 8 devices being made by Nokia, HTC, Samsung, ZTE and others. Actually HTC has claimed that it will be “the lead manufacturer used to promote Windows Phone 8 and that the Windows Phone 8X by HTC will be the flagship device used in all the marketing of Windows Phone 8 around the globe” according to Pocket-Lint. So HTC devices, especially the 8X smartphone should be prominent during the event.
Microsoft will be in a promotional frenzy as a couple of days earlier it is going to launch Windows 8 for desktops and tablets. The Thursday 25th October Windows 8 launch event, also in San Francisco, means Microsoft should be able stay in the headlines all weekend and, with the help of the WP8 launch on Monday, keep tech writers on simmer for a couple more days. Perhaps by the end of that week we will see some WP8 phones in retail and online, PAYG, SIM free and on contract.
