Windows Phone 8: Microsoft's linchpin to close the circle

Four years ago Microsoft presented Windows Phone, the heir to Windows Mobile destined to compete with Apple and Google, which, at that time , they began to sweep the mobile market with iOS and Android. Many thought they saw in it a want and I can't of the software giant, but time has put the mobile system in the position it deserves. To the point of acquiring the role of helmsman of the new Microsoft. Not only is its mobile system, Windows Phone and its style formerly known as Metro, are the current essence of Microsoft

Such is the force with which the mobile system broke into the company that has served as the basis for completely modifying the world's most widespread operating systemSmall joke when we talk about hundreds of millions of users around the world who have grown up and have been educated technologically with the Windows operating system. That's how important Windows Phone is. It is, neither more nor less, the image of the new Microsoft.

In this role, Windows Phone 8 is one more step in improving the system There are no revolutionary changes in mobile anymore, what What comes now is to refine the experience and unify it with the rest of the ecosystem. The conference has not brought big announcements, the constant improvements that each new version adds are enough. Windows Phone 8 is no longer here to change anything, it is there because it has to be, together with Windows 8, at the center of the experience that users of Microsoft products will share .

The Consumer Dilemma

Apart from advertising slogans, the truth is that in Redmond they have every reason to consider their product as unique and different. There's nothing comparable to Windows Phone on the market, just like there's nothing comparable to Windows 8 on the market anymore. They are something unique and different, and this, like almost everything, has its advantages but also its drawbacks

For those who embrace the Windows ecosystem, Microsoft's new systems are a technological panacea. The consistency that the company has achieved is to be admired. In a few years they have built a new way of interacting with all types of devices and have managed to make it similar in all of them. Nobody has achieved such a level of coherence in their ecosystem so far, neither Apple with its closed but separated system between Mac OS and iOS, nor Google with its attempts with Android and ChromeOS.Right now, Microsoft is the one with the most complete and integrated ecosystem of all Who knew it years ago?

But the problem comes for those who are left out. Windows is the most widespread operating system, the one that we will continue to acquire with our computers, the one that we will have in front of us in our jobs. But if our mobiles are no longer Windows Phone, our tablets are no longer Windows RT, what happens to all that user experience?

Unfortunately, Microsoft's new model penalizes those who don't fully embrace the system The gap between new Windows systems and the other alternatives on the market is now too great. We still have the possibility to choose different options on each device, but in exchange for losing an important part of the experience. The question of whether to embrace a single system or try to coexist among several will now be more accentuated than ever

Windows Phone 8 as hook

In this situation, Microsoft must make a titanic effort to convince Windows users. All those who when they see themselves in front of the Start Screen will think that this is not their Windows may begin to wonder about other options and investigate what is best for them. Redmond have to convince all these users that staying with them is the best option In this task, Windows Phone 8 plays a fundamental role

This afternoon's conference has served to reinforce this idea. Microsoft's efforts to demonstrate the synchronization and coordination between their systems is clear proof that they want to offer us the complete package: computer, tablet and smartphone all under one style.Also adding the Xbox as an entertainment center. The possibilities they provide together are still unmatched by the competition and make the offer to join their ecosystem very appealing.

Windows Phone 8 is one of the key pieces in the future of Microsoft. We see Windows 8 as the big change for all that it means for our desktop computers, but it is the mobile version of the system that has the leverage to convince usersthat with Windows they are still at home. That Windows is everywhere now more than ever.

In Xataka Windows | Windows Phone 7 has been an experiment: crunch time comes with version 8