Rumor has it that Nokia will announce its Lumina 900 smartphone today at CES. Not that big a deal, since lots of phones are being announced, and it’s running Microsoft operating system. Nobody wants that. That’s usually how the story goes for poor, oft-neglected Microsoft. What a sad, little wallflower. But something might be different here. Critics not only like the design of the new Windows phone, they’re gushing over it and comparing it to (gasp!) Apple.
The release of the iPhone was the impetus that spurred designers at Microsoft to develop something entirely different from any operating system that it had worked with previously.
From the New York Times:
While the customers’ verdict is still unknown, the group that developed Windows Phone has already profoundly affected Microsoft itself, influencing work on other consumer products. The next major version of software for PC’s, Windows 8, will look a lot like Windows Phone, which Microsoft hopes will help it work better on tablet devices. A Windows Phone-like makeover was also part of the new software update for Xbox, which along with Kinect is one of Microsoft’s few consumer hits.
Whether or not sales follow acclaim remains to be seen, but this could be a sea change for everybody’s pudgy uncle of a tech firm.