The company said it hopes to deliver an over-the-air software fix next month.

“We’re continuing to investigate some reports of phones rebooting and have identified a cause with our partners,” Microsoft said in a statement on Tuesday. “We are working to get an over-the-air update out in December.”

The company declined to identify what that cause was, however. Nor will Microsoft say whether the issue is limited to certain models or if it affects all Windows Phone 8 devices.

A new study shows that Windows Phone is growing, and Nokia is gaining an increasing share of that market.

Given those two trends, one might think things are just dandy for both Microsoft and Nokia.

Of course, we all know that’s not necessarily the case.

The problem is that Windows Phone share, though growing, is not growing nearly fast enough, particularly for Nokia, which has bet its company on the success of Microsoft’s phone operating system.

The study, conducted by Localytics, shows that just since January, the number of Windows Phone handsets has grown 312 percent worldwide and 273 percent in the U.S. Nokia’s share of the global Windows Phone market, meanwhile, has gone from 22 percent of the market to nearly 60 percent (and its U.S. share has gone from zero to 32 percent).

The problem is that Microsoft and Nokia’s market share, even with the growth, is not enough to support either company’s broader ambitions.

Both are counting on Microsoft’s next software update — Windows Phone 8 — to allow the companies to make some serious inroads against the competition.

The plus side of the new software is that it adds a built-in wallet, a more customizable homepage, and is based on the same Windows NT core used by the company’s desktop software. The downside is that the software won’t run on any existing phones — including the current crop of devices from Nokia, HTC and Samsung.

Details on the first Windows Phone 8 devices are expected to be announced at a joint event on Sept. 5 in New York.

The phone maker has teamed up with Duality Cosmetics for a lacquer (shall we call it Finn-gernail polish? No? Okay.) that matches the pink Nokia Lumia 900. It plans to show off the limited-edition varnish during a national tour of the Lumia Lounge, which Nokia bills as a “pampering experience that will see the unique style of the handset brought to life with nail art designed by professional manicurist & personal nail stylist to the stars Kandi Banks.”

Silly us. We would have just been happy with a device that could be upgraded to Windows Phone 8.

Thanks to Mashable for bringing this important story to our attention.

Disillusioned with repeated delays to RIM’s next-generation BlackBerry 10 operating system and the company’s ebbing smartphone market share in the U.S., some are throwing up their hands and turning away from the platform.

To wit, a new survey of developers by Baird Equity Research which finds dev sentiment toward BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry 7 in general at a new low. Baird surveyed 200 developers culled from a sample set of 4,300 and found that their collective outlook for BlackBerry 10 — charted on a 10-point scale from poor to excellent — had fallen to 3.8 from 4.6 in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, their outlook for the BlackBerry 7 declined to 2.8 from 3.8.

To put those numbers in perspective, consider this: The respondents’ outlook for Google’s Android is 8.7, and their outlook for Apple iOS is 9.3. At 2.8, devs’ outlook for BlackBerry 7 is only slightly better than their view of Hewlett-Packard’s not-quite-abandoned webOS, which still managed to rate a 2.1. And at 3.8, the outlook for BlackBerry 10 is hovering in the same range as Adobe’s Flash/Air platform.

Not exactly encouraging data points. And there are others that are more ominous still.

Says Baird, “31 percent of sampled BlackBerry 10 developers said that they have shifted some or all of their work away from BB10, compared with 34 percent in Q1. This is the second quarter in which we have seen fewer responders indicating that they will shift some of their work away from BlackBerry. We believe that many developers who planned to jump ship have already made the move, leaving a BlackBerry developer base that is smaller but increasingly loyal.”

While there’s some comfort to be found in the idea of a small but increasingly loyal developer base for BlackBerry 10, two consecutive quarters of 30 percent declines in its membership is a foreboding sign indeed for a platform that’s purportedly six months away from launch.

RIM’s potential for a turnaround is crumbling before our very eyes. And it’s getting harder and harder to watch.

Baird isn’t the only research outfit charting a decline in developer sentiment toward BlackBerry. According to IDC/Appcelerator’s latest Mobile Developer report, developer interest in BlackBerry declined from 20.7 percent in Q4 2011 to 15.5 percent in Q1 2012.

RIM, for its part, disputes the notion that its developer base is in decline. Speaking with AllThingsD, a spokesperson noted that the company’s app vendor base has grown 157 percent in the last year and that its BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour has seen over-capacity registration in almost every city. RIM also called attention to its recent announcement that more than three billion applications have been downloaded from BlackBerry App World, something we covered here last week.

A few other quick observations from Baird’s survey:

• 71 percent of developers surveyed said the announcement of Windows Phone 8 three weeks ago increased their interest in the platform, while 64 percent said they were enthusiastic about Microsoft’s new Surface tablet.
• 78 percent of iOS developers expect Apple to eventually launch an HDTV.
• 62 percent of developers surveyed said that most of their tablet-specific downloads come from Samsung; 23 percent said Amazon’s Kindle Fire was their top device for downloads.

UPDATE: Alec Saunders, RIM’s VP Developer Relations, responds at length to the Baird survey in a new post to the company’s Developer Blog entitled, Bleeding Developers? Far from it.

(Charts courtesy of Baird Equity Research)

A Windows Phone ice sculpture at Wednesday's Windows Phone Summit

Microsoft on Wednesday confirmed that any Windows Phone that customers buy in the next few months won’t run the next version of its operating system. Although there are some good reasons for that — Windows Phone 8 is tied to a number of new hardware features and other big changes — the move could nonetheless create yet another headache for a company already fighting a serious migraine.

Microsoft is promising a more modest update for current phones — Windows Phone 7.8 — that will at least allow existing customers to get Windows Phone 8’s more customizable start screen.

But it remains to be seen how the announcement of Windows Phone 8 — several months before the first devices are ready — will impact sales of the Nokia Lumia and other Microsoft-based phones.

Clearly sensing the potential for problems, Nokia posted this statement on its U.S. Twitter account Wednesday afternoon: “We will bring the elements of WP8 to Lumia 900 that aren’t tied to the new hardware.”

Nokia also said it plans to upgrade a number of its own Windows Phone apps in an effort to keep interest in its current devices. The company’s camera, maps and music programs will all be updated starting in the coming days; the company will also debut a new tool for tracking one’s data, text and voice usage.

“The message we have to get through to consumers is this thing is a great value today,” Nokia SVP Kevin Shields told AllThingsD just after Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 announcement.

Even after Windows Phone 8 debuts this fall, Shields said that plenty of apps will continue to be written that will work on Windows Phone 7 devices. Microsoft hasn’t gone into all the details, but developers will have the option of creating programs that run on old and new devices, creating apps with some features only for Windows 8 or creating apps to run only on the new operating system.

Shields said the company sees more legs for Windows Phone 7 — perhaps even after the new operating system comes out.

Although Microsoft has talked about the long-term potential of Windows Phone 8 to help the company get to lower prices, the operating system initially demands more resources than its predecessor — a challenge for Nokia, which badly needs less expensive Windows phones to help reach the markets it used to hit with Symbian devices. The company will also, of course, be among the first with Windows Phone 8 devices.

Another big change is that Nokia’s core Navteq mapping technology is being brought into Windows Phone 8. Shields said that Nokia is committed to making Windows Phone a success and one way it can help is by ensuring that Windows Phone has the best mapping and navigation technology of the smartphone platforms. In particular, Nokia’s mapping technology will give Windows Phone 8 offline maps and turn-by-turn navigation.

While that is good for Windows Phone as a whole, those had been specific selling points for Nokia. Shields said that Nokia will build on top of those elements with other features. One example of that is Nokia City Lens, the company’s augmented reality mapping app.

Key partner Nokia will be among the first phone makers with devices, of course, along with HTC, Samsung and China’s Huawei.

Going forward, devices will get update for at least 18 months, Myerson said. That could help ease the fact that Windows Phone 7 devices can’t be upgraded to Windows Phone 8.

“We care very deeply for our Windows Phone 7.5 customers,” Windows Phone boss Terry Myerson said, announcing the Windows Phone 7.8 update that will bring Windows Phone 8′s start screen to existing phones. Nokia’s Kevin Shields also announced new features coming to its existing phones, including a way to send content to televisions and other devices, an update to its music and maps applications and a tool for monitoring data use.

A camera update from Nokia will add a “smart group shot,” a self-timer, a panoramic app and other features.

Myerson said Windows Phone 8 will support 50 languages and apps available in 180 countries.

Microsoft is planning an update for existing devices that will bring one key feature of Windows Phone 8 — the more customizable Start screen. That update, known as Windows Phone 7.8, will be available for the current crop of Windows Phones from Nokia, HTC and Samsung.

The main reason the new software won’t run on older phones is that most of the new changes are related to support for new kinds of hardware that don’t exist in the current generation of phones.

By contrast, apps written for Windows Phone 7 will run on both current and future phones. That’s because even though Microsoft is changing the core of the operating system, it has never allowed programmers to write natively for Windows Phone 7.

However, apps written for Windows Phone 8 won’t necessarily run on the older devices, meaning that those with older devices may soon see cool apps that they can’t use.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

Features:
The biggest change, at least under the hood, is the move to use the same operating system kernel and components as Windows 8.

Other features announced on Wednesday include support for multicore chips, a built-in digital wallet hub and improved multitasking to support things like background video calling and navigation. Nokia’s Navteq map technology will be built in, adding support for offline maps and turn-by-turn navigatoin.

A modest revamp of the home screen will allow users to scale any app’s live tile to one of three sizes.

Timing:
Microsoft said to expect the new software to show up on new phones starting this fall.

What We Still Don’t Know:
Microsoft shared some details, but left key things unanswered including many of the consumer-oriented features of the operating system, not to mention which chips will be supported and just what the other hardware requirements will be.

And, of course, we don’t know what the devices using the software will look like. VP Joe Belfiore held up a Nokia-built Windows Phone 8 prototype but stressed it was not indicative of what shipping phones will look like.

Compatibility:

Although programs written for Windows Phone 7 will run on Windows Phone 8 devices, current phones can’t be upgraded to the new operating system. That said, many of Windows Phone 8′s features are hardware-dependent.

Microsoft will bring one key feature, the new start screen, to existing devices via a separate update–Windows Phone 7.8.

As previously reported, the company is set to discuss the next version of Windows Phone, code-named Apollo. The software, expected to be named Windows Phone 8, shares a common design with Windows Phone 7, but has at its core the Windows NT kernel that powers desktop and laptop versions of Windows.

Microsoft’s event is set to start at 9 am PT, and AllThingsD will have live coverage, naturally.

9:00 am: Well, they just opened the doors, so things are probably running a bit late.

Here’s the deal. I’m hearing the keynote will run anywhere from two and a half to three hours. So, while we will have live coverage, I’ll refrain from the blow-by-blow and update as interesting things get said.

In between, I’ll throw in some fun history and random musings to keep me entertained. I mean, to keep you entertained.

9:07 am: We just got a five minute warning.

9:13 am: And we’re off, with a video showing some quotes from various media about Windows Phone 7.

Terry Myerson, the head of the Windows Phone business, is kicking things off.

“We are here to preview the next chapter in our Windows Phone story, Windows Phone 8,” Myerson said.

But, of course, first we have to take a step back. Myerson is talking about the big reset three and a half years ago, when Microsoft decided to change course.

Before that point, Microsoft’s phone efforts had been much more about competing with the BlackBerry than offering a real rival to the iPhone.

9:18 am: Myerson is talking a bit about the customer approval for Windows Phone.

Seven of Amazon’s top nine highest-rated phones were Windows Phones, Myerson said.

Officially, today is being dubbed as a “platform preview” of Windows Phone 8, offering developers the information they will need to start planning.

That’s Microsoft-speak for “don’t expect all the details today.”

Onstage now is Joe Belfiore, another VP in the Windows Phone business, who notes that Windows Phone 8 is coming this fall.

The future of Windows Phone is about a shared core with Windows, Belfiore said, confirming what has been widely assumed and reported.

It’s not just the kernel, Belfiore said, but also things like Windows’ networking plumbing and other innards of the operating system.

9:21 am: For consumers, the shared core will mean more hardware options, Belfiore said, adding that the move will allow Windows Phone to scale both up and down in terms of price and performance.

Developers working on Windows 8 will have an incredibly easy transition to working with Windows Phone, Belfiore said.

9:23 am: Belfiore promises he is going to talk about eight key announcements at the core of Windows Phone 8.

“What we are not doing today is disclosing all of the end-user features,” Belfiore said.

Also, this part of the keynote will take 45 minutes.

9:24 am: First up on Belfiore’s list is the fact that Windows Phone will now support multi-core processors. He notes that the same core has powered machines with 64 cores, though Microsoft is focused primarily on dual-core support at the moment.

Windows Phone 8 will now support multiple screen resolutions. In addition to Windows Phone’s 800×480 resolution screens, it will also support two higher-definition screens, including 720p (1280×720 pixels) and WXGA (1280×768).

It will also support microSD cards for installing apps, storing music and photos as well as sharing data with a PC or another phone. Windows Phone 7 had very limited support for such cards.

9:28 am: No. 2 on his list is Internet Explorer 10, the same browser engine built into Windows 8. That means twice as much HTML5 feature support, faster JavaScript and anti-phishing features.

9:30 am: No. 3 on the list is the fact that Microsoft will allow developers to write code natively for Windows Phone 8. That’s particularly important for game developers because they like to write as closely to the hardware as possible in order to get maximum performance.

“We’re going to see some freaking killer games this year,” Belfiore said.

It should also make it easier for developers to bring apps from other platforms — especially Windows — to Windows Phone.

9:32 am: No. 4, Windows Phone 8 will natively support near field communications, or NFC, a key technology for digital payments.

9:33 am: No. 5 is a new “wallet” experience in Windows Phone 8 that Belfiore said will support storing credit and debit cards, coupons, saved deals, loyalty and membership cards and tap-to-pay secure NFC payments.

Developers will be able to plug into the Wallet hub.

“You have one place to go,” he said.

France’s Orange is the lead mobile operator partner for the wallet feature, Belfiore said, cutting to a video with Yves Maitre of Orange.

All Windows Phone 8 devices will include the Wallet hub, whether or not one’s carrier supports secure SIMs. Orange will be first.

It remains to be seen when it will come to the U.S. Microsoft says it expects to work with ISIS — a partnership of several U.S. mobile carriers, but not at launch. Support should come next year, Belfiore said.

9:38 am: No. 6 is the fact Windows Phone 8 will include Nokia’s Navteq map technology built in, which Belfiore said will add better global coverage and offline map support as well as turn-by-turn directions.

Nokia had been offering those in its phones, but now all Windows Phones will get it. (Turn-by-turn navigation will be in many but not all countries.)

9:40 am: No. 7 on the list is better support for business features, such as encryption and secure booting as well as more options for companies to distribute their own apps to their workers.

“Windows Phone 8 is ready for business,” Belfiore said.

9:43 am: No. 8 is a new Start screen. It’s similar to the start screen in Windows Phone 7 but lets you scale the size of the live tiles among three sizes.

Users will be able to choose the size of any tile, including those installed by default.

Belfiore said it will allow people to make their phones even more personal.

“No other phone can do anything like this,” he said.

9:47 am: Belfiore is now holding up a Nokia-built Windows Phone 8 hardware prototype.

He’s showing how to resize tiles. At all three sizes, including the small size, the tiles are still “live,” meaning they can show real-time information, such as the number of incoming messages.

9:56 am: Belfiore is showing a Windows 8 tablet alongside the Windows Phone 8 prototype to show similarities, not just in design, but also in how code can work across devices.

With just a few changes, Belfiore shows how a game sample “marble maze” that ships with Windows development kit can be made to run on Windows Phone 8.

That’s because the same DirectX graphics technology is now supported on Windows Phone 8.

9:59 am: Belfiore shows an ad from Wired magazine that has an NFC tag in it being scanned by the phone.

10:01 am: Here’s a summary of Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 news:

10:08 am: Belfiore is showing various Windows Phone 8 apps coming, including a Chase bank app and Words With Friends.

One key detail, while current apps will run on Windows Phone devices, current phones won’t be able to run Windows Phone 8.

Microsoft will offer the new Start screen to current devices via Windows Phone 7.8, a more modest update.

10:14 am: Belfiore shows how the Wallet app will work with the new in-app purchases feature.

10:16 am: Belfiore wraps up his keynote with a video of an app being written for Windows 8 and Windows Phone.

10:19 am: Belfiore said Microsoft is about to get more tech-y. Kevin Gallo from Microsoft’s developer platform efforts is coming onstage.

I’ll be updating less and just bringing you the highlights. Why should you have to deal with coding demos, too?

10:21 am: Gallo promises Windows Phone 8 apps are sandboxed so one will never regret installing an app.

Well, he says, you might regret buying it because it sucks or cost too much, but not because it harmed the phone.

10:23 am: Gallo is talking about a few things developers will get, including native code support for developing apps in C and C++ — languages programmers like to use, especially when writing games.

Also, he will talk about improved multitasking for two kinds of apps not well supported in Windows Phone 7: Navigation apps and video-calling apps. Video calling apps — including but not limited to Skype — will work with the main dialer app.

10:30 am: Early partners for Windows Phone include Gameloft and Big Fish, which has ported its Fairway Solitaire app.

10:39 am: Speech support is being improved, Gallo notes. App developers will now be able to use Microsoft’s speech technology within their apps.

Gallo gets in a dig at Apple, noting that Windows Phone 7 has always supported speech for launching apps, something he said Siri is just learning to do.

He demos an Audible app using in-app speech support for playing and pausing audiobooks.

“Audible, Play ‘Game of Thrones,’” Gallo said.

“Searching for St. Louis, Missouri,” the phone responds. Um, not quite.

He tries again and it works. It works better at pausing and skipping ahead a chapter.

Also, Gallo notes, Audible for Windows Phone 7.5 is now available in the Windows Phone Marketplace. (For those not familiar, Audible is an Amazon-owned audiobook app.)

10:45 am: Things are gettin’ nerdy. I’m resting the fingers.

10:47 am: Some features for businesses — support for device management software, encryption and a new “company hub” app that IT departments can use to deliver different apps and content to their workers.

11:00 am: First Windows 8 Phone devices will come from Nokia, HTC, Samsung and China’s Huawei, using chips from Qualcomm.

While existing phones won’t get the new software (but will get Windows Phone 7.8 and new Start screen), Nokia announced several software updates coming soon for its existing phoens.

Nokia will update its camera, mapping and music apps, add a tool for monitoring data use and a new way to send content to TVs and other devices.

11:05 am: Microsoft is also pledging that, going forward, new Windows Phones will get updates for at least 18 months.

11:06 am: Myerson is back onstage, noting there are now 100,000 Windows Phone apps and that Microsoft is pleased with the pace of app development.

In particular, Myerson notes Zynga’s Draw Something and Words With Friends coming to Windows Phone later this year.

11:08 am: Sounds like he might be wrapping up. Yep, that’s it folks!

The company is set to meet with developers to talk about the future of Windows Phone, a future that will at long last bring its phone, tablet and PC efforts closer together.

Today’s Windows Phone 7 shares a look and feel with Windows 8. But while some of the programming techniques are similar, the two operating systems have been based on different core operating system kernels.

Windows Phone 7, though vastly different from the Windows Mobile it replaces, is based on Windows CE, the software Microsoft once used to take on the Palm Pilot. Windows 8, meanwhile, is based on the Windows NT core that has powered every desktop operating system since Windows XP. With the next version of Windows Phone, code-named Apollo, Microsoft is expected to move the phone over to the NT core.

Microsoft has yet to talk about Apollo, but partners have spoken positively about the move both publicly and privately. Verizon, which has largely eschewed Windows Phone 7, has said it expects to do more work around future versions of the software.

Ordinarily this kind of switch would be a massive jolt to developers, but Microsoft may have fewer challenges than in past operating system transitions. That’s because Redmond never allowed developers to write Windows Phone 7 apps to the kernel. Instead, developers wrote their apps either in Silverlight or XNA — the tools used for the Xbox. That should mean that apps written for Windows Phone 7 can continue to work in Windows Phone 8.

But by moving to an NT kernel, Microsoft should also make it easier for desktop developers to bring their apps to the phone and for new developers to do work that can smoothly operate across all of Microsoft’s different devices.

The next step for Windows Phone is critical. Although the design of Microsoft’s phone software has been well received, the operating system has yet to enjoy the kind of sales traction that Microsoft would like. Indeed, its market share has gone down in the last year.

Microsoft is set to make its case to phone developers at a Phone Summit event in San Francisco. AllThingsD will have live coverage just ahead of the event, which starts at 9 a.m. PT on Wednesday.

Apple will get first crack with its Worldwide Developers Conference, which runs next week at downtown San Francisco’s Moscone Center. Next up is Microsoft, which plans to outline the future of Windows Phone at an event on June 20.

Google, meanwhile, will have plenty of Android topics on tap at its annual I/O conference, which runs June 27 to June 29.

Research In Motion is also hoping to convince developers to invest in its forthcoming BlackBerry 10 operating system. A traveling “BlackBerry Jam” developer event made a stop in the Bay Area on Thursday.

For its part, mobile development tracking firm Flurry says that roughly seven in 10 new projects are for iOS, rather than Android. That’s largely consistent with other recent quarters.

“Among the reasons iOS appears more attractive to developers is the dominance by Apple in the tablet category,” Flurry said in a blog post on Thursday. “Not only does Apple offer a large, homogenous smartphone base for which to build software, but also when developers build for smartphones, their apps run on Apple’s iPad tablets as well. That’s like getting two platforms for the price of one.”

Flurry also said that developers continue to be able to generate more revenue on Apple’s platform. Their estimate is that for every $1 earned by iOS developers, Android developers see only 24 cents in revenue, similar to its prior findings.

“At the end of the day, developers run businesses, and businesses seek out markets where revenue opportunities are highest and the cost of building and distributing is lowest,” Flurry said. “In short, Android delivers less gain and more pain than iOS, which we believe is the key reason 7 out of every 10 apps built in the new economy are for iOS instead of Android.”

The market researcher said on Wednesday that it expects Windows Phone to be the No. 2 mobile operating system by 2016, with 19 percent of the global smartphone market, up from just over 5 percent for 2012. However, that assumption is predicated on the notion that Nokia can maintain its strong presence in emerging markets.

Android is seen dropping from 61 percent share this year to just below 53 percent by 2016, while iOS is seen as relatively steady with just over 20 percent of the market this year, and just below that level in 2016.

BlackBerry apparently continues its decline, while Symbian’s fall off the smartphone map should be complete by 2014.

“There will continue to be a market for BlackBerry OS-powered devices, despite Research In Motion’s current woes,” IDC said in its report. “This is true in emerging markets, for example, where users are looking for affordable messaging devices. However, the gulf between the BlackBerry OS and its primary competition will widen over the forecast as the mobile phone market becomes increasingly software/app-oriented and the ‘bring your own device’ enterprise trend proliferates.”

Overall, mobile phone shipments are seen growing 4 percent this year, to 1.8 billion phones. However, that’s the slowest growth rate since 2009, as growth in smartphones barely outpaces a double-digit drop in feature-phone shipments. Total phone shipments are seen hitting 2.3 billion by 2016.

“The smartphone parade won’t be as lively this year as it has been in the past,” IDC analyst Kevin Restivo said in a statement. “Smartphone growth, however, will increasingly be driven by a triumvirate of smartphone operating systems, namely Android, iOS and Windows Phone 7.”

“I think it is much to-do about nothing,” Sprint VP Fared Adib told AllThingsD in an interview on Tuesday. Customers sign up for two-year contracts, Adib said, and it makes sense for customers who want to have the latest technology get a device that will meet their needs throughout that time. People should be more concerned if Sprint weren’t doing that, he said.

“We’ve done this before,” he said. “So has every other carrier.”

Adib noted that Sprint’s LTE deployment, which will start with a few cities around midyear, will be faster than the rollout of prior technologies, including its 2G, 3G and WiMax networks.

Speaking of WiMax, Sprint may not be introducing new phones for its flagship brand, but it is now extending that technology to its Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile prepaid services. Virgin and Boost both announced plans to start selling a WiMax device from HTC. (Virgin has a variant of the Evo 3D, while Boost will sell a phone similar to the traditional Evo 4G.)

The company has said it plans to continue offering WiMax service through at least 2015.

Also on Tuesday, Sprint announced a new bundle of family safety and security applications under the Sprint Guardian banner. The effort consists of a $10 per month service from Location Labs’ Safely unit and a $5 per month security service from Lookout.

Both services cover up to five devices, which could be a savings for families that have a bunch of Sprint phones.

Adding such services can help increase loyalty to Sprint among families with multiple devices — already a traditionally loyal group and a key source of revenue for all the major carriers.

“You might change phones and plans but you don’t change carriers,” Adib said of those customers.

One area where Sprint hasn’t been all that aggressive is in introducing devices running Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system. Adib said that Sprint certainly took note of the slow initial sales globally for the first crop of Windows Phones.

Still, Adib said that the company is a longtime partner of Microsoft’s and expects to offer future Windows Phones, likely after the debut of Windows Phone 8.

“I don’t want to give you any specific dates,” he said.

But he said he is “very bullish” on Windows Phone overall and said the company has rapidly closed some of the gaps it had in terms of performance and capabilities. Adib said he has also been pleased to see the work Nokia has done in reintroducing itself in the U.S. with its first Lumia devices.

“I think we are going to continue to see that,” he said.

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So far, the launch hasn’t gone quite so well. First there was a lackluster review. Then, days after going on sale on Easter Sunday, the company has admitted to a software glitch and is offering people who bought one a $100 credit in addition to a software patch. The credit makes the phone free to buyers willing to take a two-year service contract.

Now the market research firm IHS iSuppli has taken a Lumia 900 apart and, in a report shared with AllThingsD that will be released later today, has determined that it costs Nokia about $209 to build. And, judging from the parts being used, it’s not exactly built like the most cutting-edge phone on the market.

In fact, it seems like Microsoft and wireless chipmaker Qualcomm are both making an effort to showcase how efficient Windows Phone 7 for mobile can be; at the same time, they seem to be aiming to entice other hardware manufacturers by demonstrating that a full-featured smartphone can be built using components that are about a generation behind the current high end, and therefore cheaper, says Andrew Rassweiler, the iSuppli analyst who supervised the teardown.

For example, the teardown found that the Lumia 900 uses a single-core Qualcomm chip that costs $17 as its main applications processor; a phone with similar features running Google’s Android OS, such as Samsung’s Galaxy SII Skyrocket, uses a higher-end dual-core processor that costs $22.

“It appears what Microsoft and Qualcomm and Nokia are trying to do here — and this is being driven by Microsoft more than anyone else — is streamline the OS so it can run on a lighter processing platform,” Rassweiler told me. “The point being is to undercut the higher end phones.”

The choices don’t end with the processor. The phone contains only 512 megabytes of DRAM memory, where most phones would use one gigabyte. And the trend is expected to continue, as the next generation of Microsoft’s mobile OS will require even less memory.

Another example: The Bluetooth chip. Nokia is using a slightly older chip from Broadcom, and not the latest, greatest Bluetooth part. The difference between them is only $2.50, but it serves as another example showing that Nokia is aiming to compete on price.

For Nokia, the strategy seems to be one of aiming to compete against other phones on price, while offering similar features. The Lumia is thought to sell for $450 at retail without a subsidy, or about $200 lower than Apple’s iPhone 4S, which starts at $649 without a contract, depending on model, and costs between $188 and $245 to build.

Microsoft is also thought to be helping Nokia out, says iSuppli’s Wayne Lam, who also participated in the teardown analysis. While software costs are not considered in a teardown analysis, he says Microsoft is thought to be making less than $5 per phone in licensing fees on the Windows Phone 7 operating system, far lower than the $15 per device it is said to want. That would be in line with the $3 per phone price that Nokia is thought to have paid in licensing fees for the Symbian OS it used previously, and of which it was a partial owner. “Nokia is getting a fantastic discount,” Lam told me.

One place where Nokia didn’t skimp? The gyroscope chip, which determines how the phone is being moved. It contains the same gyroscope chip from STMicroelectronics that goes into the iPhone 4S. There are, apparently, some things on which you simply can’t compromise.

Other times, products experience moderate or even sluggish first-day sales.

Rarely, though, does a product hit the market on a day when stores are largely closed.

That, however, was the case for the Nokia Lumia 900, which launched on Easter Sunday.

As a result, many of the AT&T and Microsoft stores that carry the device were actually shuttered for the first official day of sales. The product did indeed go on sale on Sunday, though — at least at those stores that were open.

No real reason was given for the unusual timing. One side benefit, though, is that little can be made of the initial sales, giving the device some time to live up to the high expectations placed on it by AT&T, Microsoft and Nokia.

The product is especially key for Microsoft and Nokia, both of which have pegged their rebirth in the smartphone market to the success of the new Lumia. The companies are investing heavily in marketing the product, along with getting it to market at an attractive price.

The phone, which aims to compete in the high end of the market, is priced at $99 with a new contract, and can be had for even less from some online sellers.

“We are working towards getting Angry Birds Space to WP7,” he told Reuters, without giving a time frame.

This follows a similar pattern for the birds, which came to Windows Phone 7 last June, well after arriving on Android and the iPhone. Rovio launched the space-themed game on Thursday simultaneously for Android, iOS, Windows PCs and Macs. Chief Marketing Officer Peter Vesterbacka was quoted by Bloomberg this week as saying that the game might not come at all for Windows Phone, but Hed’s comments indicate that it will come at some point.

Microsoft recently announced it had just passed 70,000 applications in its Windows Phone Marketplace; however, it is still not on par with Android and iOS when it comes to getting its share of the latest hits.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talks Windows Phone with Ryan Seacrest at CES

Myerson took a screenshot of the pages and included them in a memo to the entire Windows Phone team.

“We have an awareness problem,” Myerson told AllThingsD in his first extended interview since he replaced Andy Lees as overall head of the Windows Phone business in December.

CEO Steve Ballmer has praised the work the Windows Phone team has done, but also noted that sales haven’t been what he would have hoped.

“People just don’t know about Windows Phone and if it could be for them and if they should consider it,” Myerson said. “When people try it, they generally love it.”

Myerson didn’t offer a ton of details on how Microsoft will go about getting people more familiar with Windows Phone, but said that is his first objective.

“We know we need to do something new and different,” Myerson said.

Microsoft has also had a challenge getting much love from either Sprint or Verizon. Redmond was late with support for their CDMA networks and both have offered only the barest of Windows Phone lineups.

“We’re working on a relationship with both of them,” Myerson said. Asked whether the ill-fated Kin project might have soured Verizon on Microsoft, he said simply that the company needed a partnership with Verizon in which both parties see benefit. “It’s important in the U.S. that we do that.”

The big news for Microsoft at the Consumer Electronics Show, of course, was the announcement by Nokia that it is readying the Lumia 900, an LTE-based Windows Phone, exclusively for AT&T. However, Nokia and AT&T declined to comment on when the phone would arrive beyond saying it would be “in the coming months.”

T-Mobile is also starting this week to sell the Lumia 710, the entry-level model in Nokia’s lineup.

Microsoft is also working on the next major release of Windows Phone, though Myerson wouldn’t offer any details. Word on what’s in that release might not even come at next month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, suggesting that last fall’s Mango release (or a minor update to it) will be at the core of Windows Phones for a while.

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The Lumia 710, one of two models that Nokia has launched in Europe, is slated to go on sale Jan. 11 for $50 after rebate and with a new contract.

Choosing to launch with that phone rather than the high-end Lumia 800 means that Nokia could appeal to more cost-conscious shoppers. However, it also means that consumers’ first look at the new Nokia won’t be of the company’s flagship product.

“It’s the right space to launch our first Windows Phone in the U.S.,” Nokia U.S. president Chris Weber said in an interview. “It is the greenfield for us.”

Weber also put a good spin on the fact that Nokia didn’t launch any Windows Phones in the U.S. in time for the holidays.

“I think we can take advantage of the fact we are not launching in this noisy period,” Weber said, noting that Nokia will launch the product with a significant amount of advertising — including TV spots — as well as efforts to fully train T-Mobile’s sales force on the benefits of the product and Windows Phone.

As for the Lumia 710, it comes in mostly white or basic black and features a 1.4GHz single-core Qualcomm processor, a 5 megapixel camera and 3.7-inch screen.

In addition to the standard fare that comes with the Mango version of Windows Phone, Nokia’s phones also come with turn-by-turn navigation built in as well as an ESPN app that is unique to Nokia’s Windows Phones.

That T-Mobile was planning to start selling the phone was not a shocker after Nokia showed a T-Mobile-branded Lumia 710 in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission.

T-Mobile has been less agressive than AT&T when it came to the first crop of Windows Phones. Though that could be changing as the Lumia 710 will mark the second Mango phone, joining the $99 HTC Radar, which is already on sale.

“We think Windows is a great addition to the lineup,” said T-Mobile Senior Vice President Andrew Sherrard. “It’s a strategic bet for us.”

Sherrard and Weber noted that Nokia and T-Mobile have a long history together, with T-Mobile USA predecessor VoiceStream having launched service with a Nokia phone as its first device. While true, the recent past has been less rosy for Nokia.

Its most recent U.S. smartphone effort, also with T-Mobile, was the March launch of the Astound, a rebranded Symbian phone that had an awkward debut at the CTIA trade show in Orlando and met with disappointing sales.

In an August interview with AllThingsD, Weber said that Nokia wouldno longer sell Symbian phones in the U.S., focusing entirely on its Windows Phone efforts.

Earlier this month, the company released an Xbox Live app for the iPhone. On Monday, the company announced OneNote for the iPad and Lync for the iPhone. Today, Redmond announced iPhone versions of both Kinectimals and its SkyDrive online storage service.

That’s on top of an existing stable of apps that includes Bing, Photosynth and Windows Live Messenger.

While most of Microsoft’s iOS apps are free connections to existing services, the company is charging $2.99 for Kinectimals.

As I noted earlier this week, Microsoft has long faced the challenge of wanting to support its own mobile operating system, while also acknowledging that it is not the epicenter of the phone universe. The company still reserves some of its most extensive work for Windows Phone, which offers mobile versions of the full Office suite as well as a deeper Xbox Live connection than is possible on the iPhone.

Google has taken a similar approach, doing significant work for iOS alongside its Android efforts.

Terry Myerson, the corporate VP who has led engineering efforts for the phone unit, will add business development, marketing and other responsibilities. He will not, at least for now, though, get the division president title that Lees had.

Lees, who has headed Windows Phone for more than three years, will still report to CEO Steve Ballmer and focus on ways Microsoft can work across multiple types of devices from phones to slates to PCs. Although Lees will retain the title of president, it’s not clear who will report to him in the new role.

“I have asked Andy Lees to move to a new role working for me on a time-critical opportunity focused on driving maximum impact in 2012 with Windows Phone and Windows 8,” Ballmer said in an internal memo seen by AllThingsD. “We have tremendous potential with Windows Phone and Windows 8, and this move sets us up to really deliver against that potential.”

Ballmer noted at the company’s analyst meeting in September that Windows Phone sales haven’t been what the company had hoped. Despite positive reviews, Microsoft has yet to gain significant market share with Windows Phone.

However, as one might expect in a corporate memo, Ballmer had praise for Lees’ efforts.

“In the three years Andy has been leading the phone group, we’ve come a long way,” Ballmer said. “We reset our strategy, built a strong team that delivered [Windows Phone 7] and [the Mango update] and created critical new partnerships and ecosystem around Windows Phone. That is a ton of progress in a brief period of time, and I’m excited for Terry and team to keep driving forward and for Andy to dig into a new challenge.”

Terry Myerson

The next year is shaping up to be critical for Microsoft’s phone effort, particularly now that key partner Nokia is releasing its first Windows Phone devices.

I had a chance to grill Lees at AsiaD on a number of topics, including the fact that Microsoft would appear to be getting more revenue these days from patent license royalties on Android phones than it does selling its own software.

As for Myerson, he’s a past head of the Exchange team who has been at the company since 1997, when Microsoft bought Intersé Corporation, a company Myerson founded.

Myerson was part of a team brought in to overhaul Microsoft’s phone software in the wake of the success of the iPhone. In addition to being well known within the company, he is tight with various partners, including the folks at Nokia, with whom he went snow-shoeing last March.

Update, 7:30 p.m. PT: Nokia, for its part, praised the leadership of Windows Phone, both past and future.

“We are grateful for Andy’s support and commitment in getting Nokia’s Lumia range into the market, on schedule,” Executive VP Jo Harlow said in a statement to AllThingsD. “We would like to thank him for his hard work and wish him well in his new ventures at Microsoft. We have been working closely with Terry and are looking forward to collaborating with him more broadly.”

Harlow and Myerson are both alums of Duke University (although they graduated at different times). Earlier this year, Nokia presented the pair with their own Nokia phones emblazoned with Duke’s Blue Devil mascot.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111212/exclusive-microsoft-replaces-lees-as-head-of-windows-phone-business/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111122/nokias-windows-phones-not-exactly-flying-off-the-shelves/ http://allthingsd.com/20111122/nokias-windows-phones-not-exactly-flying-off-the-shelves/#comments Tue, 22 Nov 2011 12:35:01 +0000 John Paczkowski http://allthingsd.com/?p=146524 Nokia says it has been pleased with how its new Windows Phone 7 handsets are doing at market. “The level of preorders, as well as reaction in shops today, lead us to be very positive about the launch,” company spokesperson Ray Haddow said of the Lumia 800.

But others outside the company aren’t so sure. And at least one of them — Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette — is predicting disappointing sales for the quarter.

“We believe that shipments of Nokia’s new Windows Phone 7 products have been lower than we had previously anticipated,” Faucette wrote in a note to clients. “We had expected that the company could ship as many as 2 million units into the six targeted markets for the holidays; however, we now believe that those shipments are likely to be less than 1 million for the quarter.”

Less than 1 million? How much less?

Less by half. According to Faucette, December-quarter sales could come in under 500,000 units.

Which could be viewed as a disappointment. That said, these phones are newly launched, and we’re still early in Nokia’s reinvigoration. One could argue that it’s unrealistic to expect blowout sales from the company’s first Windows Phone smartphones, particularly given the market power of their competition — the iPhone and a growing legion of Android handsets. Nokia was never going to just stroll into the market with a few slick smartphones and abruptly reclaim its lost glory.

Nokia declined comment on Faucette’s report.

[Image credit: Someecards]

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111122/nokias-windows-phones-not-exactly-flying-off-the-shelves/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111115/ballmer-didnt-necessarily-say-full-windows-is-coming-to-phones-but-might-it/ http://allthingsd.com/20111115/ballmer-didnt-necessarily-say-full-windows-is-coming-to-phones-but-might-it/#comments Tue, 15 Nov 2011 20:11:03 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=144369 Much is being made over Steve Ballmer’s statements Tuesday at Microsoft’s annual shareholder meeting, which some have taken to indicate that Microsoft plans to bring Windows 8 to the phone.

While answering a question about whether or not we are in a post-PC era, Microsoft’s CEO insisted that Windows would continue to be at the center of things.

“We are in the Windows era,” Ballmer said. “We were, we are and we always will be. That’s kind of what we get paid to do.”

Here’s where things get a little tricky. During the next part, Ballmer talked about several initiatives that the company has going on around Windows and makes some comments that at least one reporter took to mean that Windows 8 is coming to the phone.

Here’s what Ballmer said (I’ve used ellipses to mark where there are brief pauses):

“We’ve got broad Windows initiatives … driving Windows down to the phone … with Windows 8 … you’ll see incredible new form factors powered by Windows from tablets, small, large, pens, smaller, bigger, room-size displays. We are in an era in which the range of smart devices is continuing to expand. That’s a fantastic thing for Microsoft. That is a real opportunity.”

So the question is, in which phrase was he referring to Windows 8? From listening to the audio — I wasn’t in the room — it’s tough to tell whether the Windows 8 piece is part of the sentence about the phone or part of the next one. (I recommend listening to it for yourself. It’s at about 47:30 into the webcast, which is available from Microsoft’s investor relations site.)

But here’s what we do know. Microsoft is moving its phone and desktop operating systems closer together.

Things are furthest along in the look and feel department, where Windows 8’s new look bears a striking resemblance to Windows Phone 7. The Metro look that pervades the phone operating system is at the heart of the new start menu for Windows 8 that Microsoft first showed off at our D9 conference in June.

What has yet to happen is the opportunity for developers to write code once and have it run seamlessly on phones, PCs and tablets. Likewise, consumers can’t buy software that runs on all three devices.

Microsoft has made moves to separate the tools developers use to write their programs from the underlying hardware, be it PCs or phones. With Windows Phone, developers are writing their applications in either Silverlight or XNA — the tools first used to develop for the Xbox. With new-style Windows 8 apps, developers are writing in various Web languages, including HTML5 and Javascript. Microsoft is using this approach, among other things, to expand Windows to run on both traditional PC processors and those using the ARM core found in smartphones and tablets.

That leaves the door open for Redmond to make any number of changes, including moving the phone and PC to a more common architecture, without necessarily forcing developers to do another rewrite.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111115/ballmer-didnt-necessarily-say-full-windows-is-coming-to-phones-but-might-it/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111114/developers-interest-growing-in-windows-phone-waning-in-blackberry/ http://allthingsd.com/20111114/developers-interest-growing-in-windows-phone-waning-in-blackberry/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 13:00:37 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=143582 Mobile developers are very interested in Amazon’s new Kindle Fire, intrigued by Windows Phone and disenchanted with the BlackBerry.

Those are some of the takeaways from the latest in a series of surveys from Appcelerator and IDC.

Interest in the Kindle Fire has been high in a number of recent surveys of both developers and potential buyers, all of whom seem to be attracted by the device’s low price as well as the fact that Amazon has its own App Store. Appcelerator says interest in the Kindle Fire nearly matches that shown in the iPad prior to its launch.

On the operating system side, Apple has solidifed its lead while Android has slipped a bit but remains the clear No. 2 in developer interest. The interesting shift has been for the No. 3 spot, where Windows Phone has been gaining to pass Research In Motion, which is seeing waning interest from developers for both the operating system powering today’s BlackBerry devices as well as the QNX software that runs inside the PlayBook tablet.

Interest in developing for BlackBerry OS phones fell seven points, to 21 percent, with interest in QNX-based tablets falling six points to 13 percent.

Interest in Microsoft’s mobile operating system appears to be strengthened as Nokia readies its first Windows Phone products, with half of developers interested in the OS citing the Nokia partnership as a key reason. Overall, about 38 percent of mobile developers said they were very interested in Windows Phone, an increase of eight percentage points and a record high for Microsoft.

“The third major mobile OS after iOS and Android is now clearly Windows, driven largely by the Microsoft / Nokia partnership and underscored by the new Nokia Lumia 800,” IDC analyst Scott Ellison said in a statement. “Amazon has shown exceptional early success in appealing to developers with the Kindle Fire, showing that price and differentiation are keys to competing in the crowded Android tablet space, rather than simply chasing the iPad market.”

Two-thirds of developers are interested in developing HTML5 apps, the same number as in the prior study.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111114/developers-interest-growing-in-windows-phone-waning-in-blackberry/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111107/samsung-mobile-vp-leaves-for-product-management-post-at-microsoft/ http://allthingsd.com/20111107/samsung-mobile-vp-leaves-for-product-management-post-at-microsoft/#comments Mon, 07 Nov 2011 20:02:13 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=141373 Samsung’s vice president of consumer and enterprise services Gavin Kim has left the company to join Microsoft’s Windows Phone unit.

Kim will be a general manager on the Windows Phone team, Microsoft confirmed to AllThingsD on Monday.

“I will be responsible to help set the future direction for the Windows Phone platform and to accelerate Microsoft’s trajectory to win the hearts and minds of consumers, carriers, device manufacturers, developers and partners,” Kim said in an interview with Boy Genius Report, which broke news of the move.

It’s the latest of several departures at the U.S. subsidiary of the Korean phone maker. Kim was one of two executives at Samsung to take over when Omar Khan left the company in July to take a job at Citigroup. Also last week, Samsung Mobile announced that its U.S. spokesman, Kim Titus, was leaving the company.

Kim’s hiring also comes at an important time for Microsoft, which is just launching a new wave of marketing efforts designed to coincide with the launch of new phones based on the Mango update of Windows Phone 7. Earlier on Monday, Microsoft staged a series of events from a giant functional Windows Phone in New York’s Herald Square.

]]> http://allthingsd.com/20111107/samsung-mobile-vp-leaves-for-product-management-post-at-microsoft/feed/ 0 http://allthingsd.com/20111107/with-glitzy-n-y-event-microsoft-aiming-again-to-make-windows-phone-a-bigger-u-s-presence/ http://allthingsd.com/20111107/with-glitzy-n-y-event-microsoft-aiming-again-to-make-windows-phone-a-bigger-u-s-presence/#comments Mon, 07 Nov 2011 17:20:43 +0000 Ina Fried http://allthingsd.com/?p=140948 A year on, and despite positive reviews, Microsoft is still trying to make a big splash with Windows Phone.

Although the operating system has received praise from reviewers and high satisfaction levels from customers, sales of devices running the software have been markedly less than the company had hoped for.

Having released a major update to its software and with hardware makers ready with a new crop of devices, Microsoft is launching another huge marketing push for Windows Phone. That effort is kicking off Monday with an event in Herald Square that features a six-story-tall functional replica of a Windows Phone.

The giant phone is designed to highlight what makes Windows Phone different, namely its live tiles and its hubs centered around things like music, people and games. At the event in Herald Square, the tiles will open up, with real people coming out to perform the activities marked by the tile.

From the AccuWeather tile, a real-life weatherman will pop forth to deliver a forecast. A concert will take place from where the music hub is located, while a re-enactment of Plants vs. Zombies will spew out of the games hub.

The theatrics are timed to coincide with the arrival of the first new devices to run the Mango release of Windows Phone 7 — a significant update that adds improved multitasking, better browsing and Twitter integration, among other features.

T-Mobile has already started selling a Mango-powered phone from HTC, while AT&T is launching two new devices from Samsung. Microsoft will look to boost sales of the devices by kicking in an undisclosed boatload of money for the hardware makers and operators to advertise their wares.

Windows Phone head Andy Lees has said Microsoft is counting on 2011 to be the year when its phone efforts finally add up to some real market share, though it hasn’t offered up any specific targets.

Whatever those goals may be, Microsoft will face a challenging environment.

Even without radically new hardware, Apple has been riding high with the release of the iPhone 4S and Google continues to benefit from the fact that most of the world’s hardware makers and phone operators are backing Android. And, while the first Nokia-made Windows Phones are finally hitting the market in Europe, the company won’t launch products in the U.S. until next year.

Lees talked about the challenges and opportunities at last month’s AsiaD event in Hong Kong. And, in a spate of good timing, the full video of his chat has just been posted.

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