Analysts predict Windows Phone 8 success

A range of analysts are predicting Windows Phone 8 has what it takes to go up against the other Super-phone smartphone operating systems.

Neil Mawston, executive director of Strategy Analytics, notes “Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 are major upgrades that close the quality gap with Apple, Android and RIM. Upgraded support for richer displays, speech recognition, multitasking and other features will make W8 and WP8 a stronger force to reckon with. RIM and Android look most vulnerable to attack from the new Windows platform, particularly in the business tablet segment.”

“Smartphones running WP7 have been missing some of the most innovative features and functionalities in the market that are necessary to win the heart of advanced users—– the “super-smartphone” owners in particular,” said Malik Saadi, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms and Media.
Those drawbacks kept many handset suppliers from adopting the platform, he added. Now, however, “WP8 addresses the majority of these issues and could be a game changer,” he said. “A number of vendors and developers have said they were holding off until WP8 is ready.

The new platform, he said, “is now equipped with the right tools to satisfy the market’s appetite for innovation and is a challenge to rivals like the aging Apple iOS.”

They do however note that the lack of an update for current generation handsets will be a drag, especially for Nokia.

“If consumers, operators and developers realize WP7 has only a short lifespan of a few months left, many may delay buying new Microsoft smartphones for several months and hamper Nokia’s already-fragile recovery,” Strategy Analytics’s Mawston ,

Informa Telecoms and Media’s Saadi noted that although the existing Windows Phone 7 (WP7) will be upgraded to include some high-level features of WP8, the true capabilities of this platform will sparkle only when new enabled devices are launched.”

“Because WP7 is not truly upgradeable to WP8, this could have a negative impact on sales of existing WP7 smartphones, Nokia’s Lumia devices in particular,” Saadi said. “Operators and users will hold on until the new devices are in the market this coming autumn.”

Added analyst Jeff Kagan, “Nokia smartphone sales may get much worse before they stand a chance at getting better.”

Things may rebound however with the launch of Windows Phone 8, with at least three of the four national U.S. carriers — AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon — saying they plan to offer WP8 handsets.

Read more at Twice.com here.