Microsoft's Tango update explained in detail, widens the potential Windows Phone audience 60%
Nokia's event was pretty light on details about the Windows Phone Tango update that is coming with the Nokia 610 and other entry level WP handsets after it, like the ZTE Orbit. Understandable, since all eyes were on the Nokia 808 PurewView monster sensor.
Now Microsoft's Joe Belfiore detailed the Tango update in full swing on the Windows Phone developers blog. The best news is that it will allow WP to run smooth as silk on 256MB of RAM and low-end Qualcomm chipsets, meaning cheap yet potent handsets, since page file optimizations have been done as well.
With the introduction of new languages come 23 new countries with support for the Marketplace - Bahrain, Bulgaria, China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Estonia, Iceland, Iraq, Israel, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Ukraine, Venezuela and Vietnam. This opens up Windows Phone to 60% more potential customers, and Nokia just introduced this morning 3 models for the Chinese market, for example.
As far as app compatibility for the weaker hardware, only 5% of the 70, 000 or so apps for Windows Phone have trouble running on the new specs, and Microsoft is reaching out to their developers for tweaks that will remedy this.
Finally, there is a new SDK for developers that includes an emulator with 256MB of RAM, so devs can test their apps for the new update. Tango will start rolling out to existing handsets in April, even those with higher specs, since it is bringing some other welcome enhancements as well. Phone like the Lumia 610 and the ZTE Orbit will come with Tango out of the box.
source: WPDevelopersBlog
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