WP7 Tango will allow Nokia to target midmarket
The upcoming OS update is expected to support lower specified handsets than Mango, opening up new sectors
Published: 1 February, 2012
READ MORE: Nokia | OS | Handset | Windows Phone
Microsoft will be better able to tap into the midmarket strengths of its key partner Nokia once it debuts the next update for WP7, which is expected to show up at this month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
The upcoming upgrade,WP7.6 or Tango, will support lower-spec handsets targeting prepaid segments and emerging markets, sectors where Nokia still shifts greater numbers of handsets than any other firm, though Samsung is closing on it. In its fourth quarter of 2011, Nokia's overall handset sales were 113.5m, with 19.6m of those being smartphones and 93.9m featurephones. It has pledged to target some of the larger base with WP7, as users move to upgrade from featurephones to affordable smart devices. The same goes for Symbian users, currently hotly targeted by Android.
The Tango update is reported to halve the RAM requirement of the OS to 256Mbytes, as well as sporting a revamp of the distinctive user interface to support built-in media controls. It will presumably open the WP7 platform to more basic chassis designs, as set out by Microsoft almost two years ago.
In spring 2010, Microsoft announced the controversial decision to restrict WP7 licensees to three reference designs in order to maintain uniform quality and user experience. The initial products have nearly all used the fully featured Chassis-1, and Chassis-2 allows for a slide-out keyboard. The key to Tango should be Chassis-3, or a revamped iteration of it, outlined at a 2011 developer conference. That allows for a minimum of 2Gbytes, rather than the original 8Gbytes for Chassis-1, of storage; a 3-megapixel camera; 4-point capacitive touchscreen; and four basic sensors (A-GPS, accelerometer, compass and proximity).
Another important change will be to extend the geographical reach of WP7 and its apps base dramatically, again in line with an emerging markets push and with Nokia's famed attention to local language content and services. A Microsoft executive reportedly told a WP7 developer meeting in India last week that Tango would support an additional 120 languages, tripling the current number in WP7.5 or Mango. Also expected in the new release is support for C++ native coding according to TheVerge blog.
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