Windows Phone 8

Microsoft (MSFT) struck a nerve with customers when it revealed that smartphones running Windows Phone 7 could not be updated to Windows Phone 8. This will not be the case for Windows Phone 8 with the company’s rumored Blue update, however. Greg Sullivan, a senior marketing manager at Microsoft, confirmed to PCMag that the company has “an upgrade path going forward” for Windows Phone 8 devices. The executive added that Microsoft’s current mobile operating system is also powerful enough to adopt to new hardware components, something Windows Phone 7 had trouble with.

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Windows Phone has had a difficult time battling Android and iOS in the mobile space this year thanks to a glaring lack of apps. Unfortunately for Microsoft (MSFT), its Windows Phone Store falls short compared to Apple’s (AAPL) App Store, Google’s (GOOG) Play Store and even the Amazon Appstore. Microsoft is gaining ground, however, as the company revealed earlier this week that it published more than 75,000 new apps and games to its Windows Phone Store this year alone, more than doubling the catalog’s size. To put that figure in perspective, Google and Apple boast more than 700,000 apps in their respective stores, and Research in Motion (RIMM) will look to start strong with more than 70,000 apps promised for the release of BlackBerry 10.

Kantar Worldpanel’s report for November came out and much has been made of the iPhone market share surge in the United States. What I find interesting in the November numbers is just how ice cold the iPhone has gone in so many international markets, from Australia to Brazil to Southern Europe. The iOS market share showed hefty declines outside in many major markets: down 5.4 percentage points in Australia to 35.9% and down 1.6 points in Brazil to 1.6%. That’s right — the iPhone market share has halved in the most important South American market over the past year. And this happened while BlackBerry and Symbian market shares absolutely caved in. This should have been the period for Apple (AAPL) to pick up points while RIM (RIMM) and Nokia (NOK) floundered. Instead, the sky-high pricing of the iPhone models has effectively started reversing Apple’s market share gains across several major markets. More →