Windows Phone 'phablet' update opens door to tablets

Microsoft's new update for Windows Phone 8 added support for larger phones and higher-resolution screens, a move analysts hoped would soon put the operating system onto small-sized tablets, a market Microsoft and its OEM partners have largely ignored.

Early Monday, Microsoft announced that Windows Phone 8 Update 3 -- like many from Redmond, a mouthful -- would roll out to current customers in the next several months. While Update 3 included several additions and enhancements, the one Microsoft chose to tout first was support for larger-sized Windows smartphones.

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"The update paves the way for future Windows Phone devices with 5- and 6-inch touch screens," said Darren Laybourn, who leads the Windows Phone engineering team, in a blog post. Update 3 also supports 1080p displays with resolutions of 1920 x 1080 pixels, nearly a doubling of the current resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels.

Microsoft's update to Windows Phone came just a week before an Oct. 22 event slated by Nokia, where it's expected to unveil the new 6-in. Lumia 1520 -- a so-called "phablet" -- sporting a 1920-x-1080-pixel screen, the first for a Windows Phone device.

But while analysts acknowledged that Microsoft may gain some ground in smartphones by moving into the phablet market -- which currently accounts for about 20 percent of the total, and is particularly hot in China, South Korea and other Asian countries -- they saw more potential if Microsoft took a next step.

"Going to a bigger screen is important, not only for phablets ... but also because it paves the way to eliminate one of the stumbling blocks Microsoft has had in trying to impact the low end of the tablets market," said Jack Gold, analyst with J. Gold Associates.

That barrier, said Gold in an email interview Monday, was Windows 8, which he contended wasn't suitable for smaller -- and less expensive -- tablets.

"Windows Phone on a 'lite' tablet could compete with Android better than full Windows 8 because it is 'lighter' on resources and could be implemented at lower overall cost ... with a less costly bill of materials," Gold said.

Ben Bajarin of Creative Strategies agreed. "If Microsoft wants to be serious about the 'slate' market ... tablets smaller than 8-in. ... they need to use Windows Phone for that product," said Bajarin. "That would start to take [Windows] towards a more consumption-style tablet."

Source: http://akamai.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/windows-phone-phablet-update-opens-door-tablets-228790?source=rss_mobile_technology
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