Windows Phone and Windows RT Merger Could Take 2 Years

[exfileme]

There's a rumor that Microsoft has a plan to merge Windows Phone and Windows RT over the next several years.

Windows Phone and Windows RT Merger Could Take 2 Years : Read more

 

[Parsian]

stupid them for not trying to do this at the beginning.

 

[bourgeoisdude]

That's five years too long. Seriously, it's time for MS to innovate and wow us again. I'm tired of hearing about what will happen in two years only to find two years later that the other two companies have surpassed them.

 

[stevejnb]

Well, I'd expect at *least* a year, as the most powerful phones out there would currently be brought to their knees by the OS. My current hope for my next phone is something with Windows RT that works as well as my Surface RT and has an HDMI output port. All of the sudden, my phone isn't just a PDA/stopgap measure, but a very functional work "computer."

As it stands, for many types of productivity, Windows RT blows Android - which I used for note-taking/paper writing/research for almost two years - and iOS out of the water. The more they refine the OS and the more form factors they get it into at reasonable prices, the happier I am. If they do take too long though, back to Android I go.

 

[Cryio]

Wait, what? I know GDR2 just launched last month but ... GDR3 in SPRING? That is too long.

 

[Bloob]

Wait, what? I know GDR2 just launched last month but ... GDR3 in SPRING? That is too long.

Win 8.1 GDR3 will come at the same time as WP8.1.

I liked MS's approach of appreciating that a tablet is more than a big phone.

 

[JD88]

Most current phones are actually far more powerful than the 1st gen Surface RT. Having said that, here's to hoping the merge will favor the Windows Phone side of things as it's not nearly as much of a resource and disk space hog.

 

[back_by_demand]

I know people are moaning "they should have done this right away" well at least they are going to do it, so quitchabitchin - good call on merging, if tablets and phones have 1 OS, (just like iOS and Android), they will hopefully still share some core components from full Windows, so WP Apps in Marketplace run on x86 Windows, (which Apple doesn't do with iOS and OSX, or Google with Android and ChromeOS). I have a sneaky feeling however that ChromeOS will eventually allow Android Apps, but I doubt Apple will ever allow iOS Apps to run on OSX.

 

[stevejnb]

Most current phones are actually far more powerful than the 1st gen Surface RT. Having said that, here's to hoping the merge will favor the Windows Phone side of things as it's not nearly as much of a resource and disk space hog.

Heh, I guess that's true. I'm using an almost two year old phone and I guess my head is still stuck in 1gb of RAM with a dual core processor. Need to pay more attention to phone specs.

Disk space is currently a problem for common SSD capacities, but, that's a problem that I suspect will diminish as time goes on, and not much time at that. Simply put, an SSD that was $500 a year ago is now going on sale for $200. This is likely to only improve and, as such, larger OS's like RT with a lot of stuff crammed into them will likely not be as big a problem as they have been with solid state drives getting larger and cheaper at a rapid pace. I'm also starting to see some companies cutting storage storage space price increases down from $100 to $50 per storage category - hopefully something that becomes more common.

I realize we look at things differently with you having a "device for every venue" mentality where I have a "one device to rule them all mentality," but frankly, keeping more of the goodies in RT is something I would like to do, rather than stripping the OS down to a relatively light phone OS. I want all of my device drivers, support for more large-display type programs, etc.

 

[AMRooke]

I had heard previously that Windows Phone GDR3 would be released Nov/Dec timeframe, with 8.1 (aka Blue) to follow in the spring . . .

 

[Asok Smith]

Meanwhile, as Microsoft radically rethinks their mobile strategy (yet again), the rest of the mobile world's trains keep chugging along, leaving Microsoft standing still in an ever receding cloud of cinders and ashes.

 

[silver565]

Credit to Microsoft though. WP is great. It's fast, slick and(I really hate to say it) "Just works".

Give me VPN features on my phone and I'll actually be 100% happy.

As long as they don't put desktop mode on my phone, I won't mind too much about the merger...

 

[back_by_demand]

Asok Smith, you do realise that WP is the fastest growing mobile OS in Europe, right? Just because iOS is entrenched in the USA with people waving the stars & stripes singing "Murica, F**kyeah", does not mean it is standing still and moves like this will only make it more attractive