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This Is What Microsoft Will Use To Fight Apple And Samsung

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Everything’s coming-up Microsoft , right?

Windows 10 is being treated like the Second Coming of Christ, the Surface range is making Microsoft relevant again in the laptop arena, and cleaners are still sweeping up dropped jaws from the Hololens unveiling. Under Nadella, Microsoft has rediscovered its inner mad scientist, which is essentially what passes for street cred in the tech industry.

But there’s still one area that needs some work: smartphones. More specifically, high-end smartphones. Microsoft’s current crop of Lumia devices are mostly low-end handsets aimed at developing markets and entry-level buyers - save for the 930. And they have done well, selling around 8.6 million devices in the last quarter, which Microsoft says is an 18% increase on the previous year.

The mature markets, however, still need some convincing. On the surface, there’s nothing wrong with the Lumia 930 - it has a good camera, decent specifications and has a distinctive look. Where it falls down, though, is that some of the basics don’t work - a problem for the entire Lumia range.

If it works and does the things people need it to do, then consumers are happy. The problem is, Windows on mobile doesn’t do the things people need it to do. Popular apps, like Instagram (launched in 2013 on Windows Phone, still no video support) or the YouTube ‘app’ (a portal to the website), just don’t work on Windows Phone. For many, this is unforgivable.

This isn’t the sole reason Microsoft fails to challenge Apple and Google in the smartphone skirmish - their respective popularity begets more popularity - but you can’t convince people to switch if they can’t even enjoy essential apps.

However, Microsoft’s spate of recent acquisitions, Windows 10 possibilities and rumours of an upcoming flagship suggest that the Redmond-based company could be ready to turn this around.

As I said earlier, if it works out of the box, people will be happy. A comScore study from last year showed that people don’t download apps very often. They download their essentials when they first boot-up the device and pretty much stick with those from then on. This is partly why Google’s productivity suite (like Google Documents and Gmail) - is so popular.

Microsoft knows this. An executive told me that the reason they bundle free Skype subscriptions, Mix Radio and some Office 365 functionality on to lower-end devices is because people will use them out of the box.

So to get people hooked into their productivity ecosystem, Microsoft has been pre-installing its key apps on any Android device (and iPhone) that'll have it - the Samsung Galaxy S6 and LG G4 are two examples. This is part of its plan to take on Apple, Samsung and Google in the never-ending smartphone war for supremacy. Making Cortana available on iOS and Android is a gamble that fits into this strategy too.

The recent purchases of email app Accompli, calendar app Sunrise, today’s news about Wunderlist and Windows 10’s connectivity with other products running Windows suggests Microsoft is gearing up for something big. And I’m guessing it’s related to the recent rumour of the Lumia 940XL.

NokiaPowerUser reported yesterday that the upcoming flagship Lumia will feature a Quad-HD display, Snapdragon 810 processor, 3GB of RAM, 20MP rear camera and 5MP front camera, microSD slot and a thinner metallic design. So basically, it’s parking itself squarely in the midst of the top-end competition.

But it’s the extras that are interesting: native pen support, USB-C, iris scanner and support for Continuum . Combine this with the new productivity apps, existing productivity apps, Windows 10, Cortana and Qualcomm’s brain-inspired cognitive computing platform - Zeroth - Microsoft could be ready to launch a powerful productivity-faced smartphone that can guide Surface and desktop users over to Windows 10 Mobile.

Of course, it still needs to get the essential apps working on Windows 10 Mobile, and it looks like it’s making some headway with easier portability of Android and iOS apps to Windows. But if it can do that and offer a strong out-of-the-box product with a suite of excellent services and maybe throw a curveball (Xbox One remote play anyone?) - all of which is bundled into a high-end smartphone - then there’s hope yet.

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