Microsoft's Windows Phone 8.1: 3 Takeaways

Windows Phone has neither Android's overwhelming market share, nor the iPhone's stranglehold over high-margin sales. The research firm IDC predicts Microsoft's mobile OS will account for only 3.9% of shipments this year. It's basically an also-ran.

But Microsoft hopes to change that. The company just absorbed 25,000 Nokia employees, an assimilation that poses enormous logistical challenges but shows Microsoft is finally serious about mobility. The company will also soon release Windows Phone 8.1. Unveiled last month as a developers' preview, its new features include a more customizable UI, a notification center, and Cortana, Microsoft's much-hyped answer to Siri and Google Now.  

[Microsoft spared Windows XP once. Will it happen again? Read Microsoft: Windows XP Update An 'Exception.']

Microsoft VP and Windows Phone Manager Joe Belfiore conducted a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) chat on Friday to not only tout Windows Phone 8.1, but also hear participants' criticisms. His tone was enthusiastic but candid. Belfiore defended against claims that Microsoft considers Windows Phone "a second-class citizen." But he also gave the iPhone its due as a disruptive force and acknowledged some upcoming Windows Phone 8.1 features, such as its convoluted Settings screen, should be better. What did the conversation reveal about the future of Windows Phone? Here are three key takeaways from Belfiore's chat.

1. Windows Phone 8.1 will include a file manager.

"WOO HOO! SOMEONE ASKED THIS QUESTION!!" Belfiore wrote when asked if Windows Phone will ever include a file manager. Even though the feature wasn't included in the developers' preview, Microsoft evidently plans to implement it by this May.

Figure 1: Windows Phone 8.1 will feature a file manager by later this year.

Belfiore not only revealed that Microsoft will launch the much-requested feature, but also offered teases of the UI via a series of screen shots. The screen shots indicate users will be able to look through locally stored files, as well as those on an inserted SD card.

2. Cortana will probably come to Windows -- but Microsoft isn't saying so.

With releases such as the Office suite for iPads, new CEO Satya Nadella has stressed that high-value Microsoft software should move with the user across devices. Based on this reasoning, it should only be a matter of time before Cortana becomes available on Windows, if not also on iOS, OS X and Android.

Belfiore played it coy when asked if Windows Phone 8.1's personal assistant will come to Windows: "Nothing specific to announce, but Cortana herself is always telling us she's a fan of PCs herself." He did, however, reveal that Cortana, initially announced for only U.S. customers, will expand to new markets, starting with China and the U.K.

[ For more background, see Microsoft's Mobile First, Cloud First Strategy Explained.]

3. The Windows Phone "App Gap" is closing but not nearly closed.

After more than a year and a half on the market, Windows Phone 8 boasts more than 240,000 apps--respectable, but

nowhere near the million-plus in populating the iOS and Android ecosystems. App developers naturally follow users, so given its small share, Microsoft's progress isn't terrible. Even so, the app gap is far from closed -- a point Belfiore discussed during his chat.

"So--sitting in 3rd place," Belfiore wrote, "it's tougher for us to get the apps." He countered that Microsoft has made progress in the last couple years, pointing to not only the addition of high-profile apps such as Instagram, but also outreach efforts with ISVs. The company also recently debuted Universal Apps, which let developers build Windows, Windows Phone and the Xbox apps from mostly the same code.

Figure 2: Microsoft's Joe Belfiore introduced Windows Phone 8.1 at last month's Build conference.

Some chat participants stressed that when popular apps finally come to Windows Phone, they're usually neither as fully featured nor updated as often as their iOS and Android equivalents. "Right now we're MOSTLY focused on continuing to GET the key apps--although lately with more of these present, we've shifted a bit towards improving the current ones," Belfiore wrote. He characterized the development of the Windows Phone ecosystem as a "marathon, not a sprint."

He said Facebook will launch an improved Windows Phone app as soon as June, and promised the update will deliver better performance, full-width photos in the newsfeed, and a revamped UI that displays photos and comments at the same time. Belfiore also said Microsoft will soon release an improved version of Skype, and that the company is "talking" to makers of the popular Snapchat app about a version for Windows Phone.

Belfiore also broached Microsoft's sometimes-icy cross-platform relationship with Google. He noted that Google's apps are "high on our 'want list,'" but qualified, "Unfortunately, the apps are Google's and I can't say when they will act." He added, "You should ping them! (often!)"

Could the growing movement toward open-source hardware rewrite the rules for computer and networking hardware the way Linux, Apache, and Android have for software? Also in the Open Source Hardware issue of InformationWeek: Mark Hurd explains his "once-in-a-career opportunity" at Oracle.