We all know Joe Belfiore from Microsoft, who has been really active and in touch with Windows Phone community as the face of Windows Phone. In the blog post today at “Windows Phone Blog”, not only he has talked about Windows Phone 8.1 and Windows 8.1 update 1 ,but also has revealed that Microsoft has entrusted him with broader role and he is now responsible for user experience of Windows 8 and future versions of Windows.
A lot of you folks know me as “the Windows Phone guy.” Over the past five years I’ve been co-managing the Windows Phone product team on a mission to make Windows Phone a delightful and successful platform. Recently my job changed to focus not just on Windows Phone but also on the user experience of Windows 8 and future versions of Windows. Today Nick Parker and I had a chance to talk to media and analysts from around the world attending Mobile World Congress in Barcelona—we shared some updates about Windows and Windows Phone, and we announced a new phase in our plan to continue growing and scaling Windows Phone globally.
So, great going there, Joe. Congrats!!
Now coming to one more significant announcement for the 3rd platform, Microsoft has announced Nine new Hardware partners (Should be 8 as LG anyways made some hardware earlier).
In addition to our great partners HTC, Huawei, Nokia and Samsung, today in Barcelona we announced we’re now working with nine new Windows Phone partners, including: Foxconn, Gionee, JSR, Karbonn, Lava (Xolo), Lenovo,LG, Longcheer and ZTE.
Last but not the least, now Windows Phone store boasts of 240,000 apps and growth rate of 500 apps per day. We need to give some credit to Microsoft for some of their decisions lately putting app developers at ease and expediting pace of app development and certification.
Reached critical mass in the Windows Phone Store (now over 240,000 apps) and are still growing – fast – with an average of 500 apps added each day. We’ve had key additions such as Instagram, Vine, Waze and Mint—and today, we announced Facebook Messenger will be available in the coming weeks.
And, yes Facebook messenger is also coming soon to Windows Phone!
