2013 is going to end so we thought to have a quick look on performance and improvements made by Microsoft this year. We can say that 2013 was a year for Windows and Windows Phone. Especially Windows Phone performed very well this year and it becomes the fastest growing mobile Operating System ever.
Windows 8.1:
About a year ago, Microsoft released its new desktop Operating System, Windows 8 with a whole new concept of Start screen with live tiles. However, this version of Windows brought many bugs so Microsoft released a major update to Windows 8 i.e. Windows 8.1.
Windows 8.1 brought many new features and bug fixes. Windows 8.1 brought the old Start button back but old Start menu was not brought back. When you press the Start button, it takes you to the same Start screen featured in Windows 8. Moreover, it enables you to go straight to desktop instead of Start screen when you log in. In the beginning, Windows 8.1 suffered from a mouse lag bug in many games but this issue was noticed by Microsoft and was fixed very soon. Our team made a quick comparison between Apple’s latest desktop OS Mavericks and Windows 8.1. You can check it out here. Also you can check our upgrade to Windows 8.1 guide if you are having trouble upgrading to latest Windows OS.
Windows Store:
Windows Store was introduced in Windows 8. At start, the store had less than 15,000 apps but developers put their efforts in developing for most popular desktop OS and store saw a significant growth in very little time. An average of 1.7 million apps per day were downloaded via Windows Store in time period of just 4 months.
Many popular games and apps were also released on Windows Store this year. Like, Gameloft released Asphalt 8 and Despicable Me Minion Rush for both Windows and Windows Phone. Foursquare for Windows was also released a few months ago. Moreover, Facebook released its official Facebook app for Windows 8.1 with the launch of Windows 8.1. Other popular apps including Flipboard, Twitter with multiple account support, VEVO and Bing maps are also available in Windows Store. Recently, Mint was also launched for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Moreover, popular VLC media player’s app is also coming to Windows and Windows Phone Stores.
Windows Phone:
Windows Phone is the fastest growing mobile Operating System of the year as it saw about 150% more growth than the previous year. Windows Phone has now become second most popular mobile OS in India after Android.
Nokia made a partnership with Windows Phone in 2011 since then Windows Phone OS is continuously growing. There are many Windows Phones available in the market right now. They are as hot as one can think and can compete to any other smartphone having different OS.
Nokia Lumia 1020 is one of the hottest phones this year. It features a 41MP PureView camera and is considered as best Camera Phone ever.
Moreover, Nokia released a tablet with Windows RT OS Nokia Lumia 2520. This was the first tablet made by Nokia. You can check out details about Nokia first tablet here.
A phablet was also made by Nokia this year. Nokia Lumia 1520 with 6″ screen size and a 20 MP PureView Camera is one of the hottest phablets of the year and we’ve recently reviewed it. You can check out review about Nokia Lumia 1520 to know more about the phablet.
Nokia Lumia 520 was the most popular phone of the year. Lumia 520 is a budget phone with Windows Phone 8 and it owns a market share of 30% out of total market share of Windows Phone. Nokia announced Nokia Lumia 525 as well. It is almost identical to its predecessor Lumia 520 but it doubles the RAM i.e it makes it to 1 GB so you’ll be able to enjoy every app available in Windows Phone Store right now.
Huawei is also taking interest in making Windows Phone and it has already introduced its Windows Phone Ascend W1. No doubt, Microsoft is on right track and it will beat the market share of Apple in the near future for sure.
Windows Phone Store:
Windows Phone Store is continuously growing at a very nice pace. It has now more than 200,000 apps available. The developers are adding their apps in Windows Phone Store quickly. They make their new apps available for Windows Phone as soon as on Android or iOS.
Talking about most popular apps and games, Instagram is recently launched for Windows Phone 8. This app is still in Beta and missing some important feature but after all, it is now on Windows Phone as it was one of the most awaited apps for Windows Phone.
Temple Run 2 is also made available for Windows Phone by Imangi Studios. As everyone knows Temple Run is an endless runner adventure game available for different platforms and it has gained a lot of popularity. Another endless runner Subway Surfers is also available now for Windows Phone.
Asphalt is one of the best racing games series available for mobile platforms and Asphalt 8 is the latest game in the series. This time Gameloft made sure to release Asphalt 8 for Windows Phone in right time with other platforms.
Who is not aware of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas? GTA San Andreas is also in final stages of development for Windows Phone. It is already available for iOS and Android. Final Fantasy III is also launched for WP recently.
So 2013 was a very successful year for Microsoft especially for Windows Phone. Windows Phone is still growing and we hope that it’ll keep growing and keep innovating. Let’s see what Microsoft does in 2014. Stay Tuned to TheNerdMag to get the latest stories regarding Microsoft, Windows Phone in particular.