How Windows Phone 8 'Apollo' Would Stack Up Against iOS 5

Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS is often criticized for lagging far behind iOS and Android, the other major operating systems in the mobile space. Nevertheless on Thursday, a leaked description of Microsoft’s then and there big mobile OS, Windows Phone 8, came to light, revealing how the operating system will improve.

The leak, reported by blog Pocketnow and validated by Windows insider Paul Thurrott, shows that Apollo will be a major improvement over the current iteration, Windows Phone 7.5, if not known as Mango.

“Currently, we have to work around some limitations with Mango, and many of those limitations would be removed with the upcoming Apollo version,” Eric Setton, CTO of mobile VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) app Tango, told Wired.

The current version of Windows Phone

Mango is the current version of Windows Phone. It launched in October, bringing with it a slew of new features, including built-in social media and chatting tool, groups for organizing contacts, multitasking, and improved Live Tiles. A small update called Tango is slated then and there, and at the time the world will see Apollo, which is rumored to launch in mid 2012.

“We think your smartphone should be smarter,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Wired. “When I take a picture, a ‘smart’ phone should anticipate that I may want to share it with a friend or on Facebook and help me easily do that. With Windows Phone these kinds of things are just built in, and we think there's always room for a better way.”

A number of Windows Phone developers were eager to share their thoughts on this rumored “better way.”

Strong push to catch up to the iOS

“I am very excited to hear that Microsoft is making a strong push to catch up to the iOS and Android platforms,” Sina Mobasser, co-founder of iOS and Windows Phone app BarMax said. “Nevertheless while the specs that were leaked are undoubtedly appetizing, they will not be enough.” Mobasser thinks Microsoft is on the whole “holding a lot of cards close to its chest,” and we have to agree. Yet Thursday’s leak is in spite of everything a tantalizing look at what Windows Phone could offer in the nearly future.

All of which begs the question: Is Windows Phone Apollo enough? If it were released right now, how would it measure up against its biggest competitors, iOS 5 and Android 4, aka Ice Cream Sandwich? Here’s our take on how it may fare in six key areas.

Right now, Windows Phones are limited to single-core processors. They as well lack support for removable storage. However Windows Phone Apollo will support multi-core processors, as then as microSD storage.

iOS devices do not include removable storage, so Apollo would trump iOS there. Nevertheless both the iPhone 4S, which was released in October 2011, and the iPad 2, released in March 2011, are dual-core devices that run Apple’s A5 processor. Apple’s then and there iPad is rumored to be built on a quad-core A6 processor, so it’s imperative for Microsoft that Windows Phone run multi-core processors, if only to remain modern and relevant.

Of course, Android began supporting multi-core devices as far back as Android 3.0 in February 2011. And pretty much every Android smartphone allows for SD or microSD storage. The Android OS has supported this feature for quite a long time.

“Hardware-wise, I’m not a big fan of what I call the ‘arms race’ because I think there is all in all a lot of room to optimize software to use hardware like GPUs more effectively,” Windows developer Kelly Sommer said via email. Come to think of it, current Windows Phones don’t exhibit any major performance shortcomings, in spite of their specs handicap. Nevertheless it never hurts performance — or public perception — to match industry-standard specs.

Apollo will as well allow for more screen resolutions and device form factors than Mango currently does. “As a user, different screen resolutions and more powerful phones will help to sell more compelling hardware to better compete with iOS and Android,” Setton said.

Verdict: Apollo in essence reaches parity with iOS and Android in terms of hardware support, nevertheless doesn’t offer earthshaking technology.

Windows Phone Apollo will use NFC innovation to facilitate mobile payments. With a swipe of your phone on a point-of-purchase RFID tag, you’ll be able to buy coffee, cigarettes, and sundry other consumables. Sound familiar? That’s what Google is doing — or is attempting to do — with its Google Wallet mobile payment platform.

Unlike Wallet, but, it looks like Microsoft’s version of NFC payments will play by carrier rules. According to the PocketNow report, “The ‘Wallet experience“ will have the capability to be carrier-branded and controlled.” This is a point of contention for Android’s Wallet feature. Google has been battling carriers like Verizon over whether Wallet will appear on upcoming Android 4 devices. Wallet, actually, did not make an appearance on the latest flagship Android device, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

Carriers just as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon want a piece of the mobile-payment pie through their own version of Wallet, dubbed Isis. This leaves Sprint as the only U.S. carrier that currently offers Google Wallet. And it as well opens up a huge window of possibility for Windows Phone to take charge in the mobile payments arena.

The research

Developers could as well take advantage of the research, if the API is exposed. “Developers can leverage that to create some brand new experiences for smartphone users,” Sommers said.

Although many people expected — hoped? hypothesized? — that Apple’s 2011 iPhone, the 4S, would include NFC, Apple hasn’t but adopted the burgeoning research.

Verdict: When it comes to mobile payments and NFC, Apollo is ahead of Apple’s current curve, although this could change if the iPhone 5 supports NFC in a big way. As for Android, Apollo’s NFC support might as a matter of fact trump Android’s, if only because it would receive carrier blessings.

Windows Phone 8 Apollo will offer “companion” experiences with its desktop counterpart, Windows 8, which is as well set to launch mid year. Right now, Apple’s Mac OS and iOS are completely separate code bases and platforms. The upshot? Apollo could offer an unprecedented level of what we’ll call “pan-OS unification.”

One of the most interesting components of OS unification is how it will be implemented: Windows Phone 8 will use the core system from Windows 8. Exactly, the updated OS will be based on the NT kernel in other words than the Windows CE kernel, which is currently employed in Windows Phone. After all, Windows Phone 8 will be very closely related to Windows 8, even to the level where desktop apps could be more easily ported to simplified phone versions.

The world of Google

In the world of Google, a deliberate focus on product compatibility helps keeps user data synced across Android phones and tablets, desktop web browsers, and Chromebooks. That said, Google doesn’t have a desktop OS the way Microsoft does. What’s more, the Google user experience is very different between mobile and web, from smartphone to tablet, and even from smartphone to smartphone, due to fragmented OS versions and rampant OEM and carrier UI skinning.

In iOS land, the interface is in essence consistent across iPhones and iPads. Nevertheless the Mac OS desktop interface, clearly, in spite of a bit of window dressing, is a completely separate experience, both in terms of UI and cross-platform app compatibility. As for cloud support, the iOS iCloud ensures your data and apps are synced across devices. In Windows Phone Apollo, SkyDrive will do the same.

Verdict: Awesome sauce! Apollo looks to offer a heretofore unseen level of integration between Microsoft’s desktop and smartphone products.

That’s all? By Apple’s latest counts, there are more than 550,000 apps in the iOS App Store. And according to the unofficial count from AndroLib, the Android Market has more than 750,000 apps for the moment.

Microsoft is working hard to offer incentives just as funding, guidance, and marketing opportunities to attract developers to its mobile platform. Windows Phone is currently the fastest growing mobile app platform and just crossed the 50,000 app mark in late 2011. However it’s for all that got a long, long way to go previously its offerings are on the same level as iOS and Android.

And let’s not forget that Windows Phone 8 will allow for native code support, which means devs can easily port apps they’ve already written for another platform to Windows Phone. This is at any rate something developers are excited about.

“The vast majority of mobile app developers have built apps for iOS or Android,” Mobasser said. “We hope the porting of code is so then thought-out and allows us to smoothly transition our app to Windows Phone without having to deal with a number of compatibility issues and bugs.”

Windows Phone 8 will as well allow for app-to-app communications, something both iOS and Android already offer. “App-to-app communication can create some actually interesting user experiences between applications,” Sommers said.

Windows Phone Mango’s Yelp-like Scout feature, which helps find local restaurants, businesses, and activities based on their proximity and rating, will get personal recommendations added to its list of functions. This is something the Foodspotting app just added to its repertoire as then.

Apollo should as well feature its own Skype app, or have Skype baked right into the OS — the exact implementation isn’t quite clear from the leaks. Skype is already available on iOS and Android, if you’re keeping score.

Finally, for its camera app, Apollo will include new “lens apps” for more powerful smartphone image-capture abilities. Now, there are plenty of third-party photography apps already available on iOS and Android. And many Android phones currently have robust filters and scene options built into their native camera apps. So during the Apollo camera update looks promising, it may not offer much of anything new to the smartphone scene.

Verdict: Windows Phone is after all playing a serious game of catch-up in the apps arena. Nevertheless sharing a code base with Windows desktop, along with native code support, will undoubtedly help Microsoft’s app-related fortunes.

Apollo will use a tool called “DataSmart” to make sure you’re able to easily track your monthly data usage. Available as a Live Tile that you can pin to your home screen, it will break down your data usage and give WiFi networks — even carrier-operated WiFi hotspots — precedence over cellular data connections whenever possible.

In iOS 5, you can track your cellular usage, nevertheless it’s buried inside the General settings menu. Yes, there are in fact a number of third-party iOS apps you can download that do the trick, yet these features should in effect be exposed directly in the OS — like they are in Android.

The advent of Android 4

Data management is better than ever with the advent of Android 4, aka Ice Cream Sandwich. The built-in Data Usage app provides numerous charts and graphs that reveal your data-gobbling habits, and you can even set governors and alerts to help you control data usage. Android sets the new standard for data management, so during Windows Phone’s solution sounds helpful, it will have a long way to go in matching Android’s approach.

To grab a piece of that market, Windows Phone 8 will offer the same native BitLocker encryption as Windows 8. That’s 128-bit, full-disk encryption. This could be good news for potential switchers, as built-in encryption in iOS devices reportedly has some security flaws. For Windows Phone 8, companies will as well be able to create personalized, proprietary software for their employees, which Windows 8 will allow as then.

Now, does anyone moreover developers use Android for enterprise applications? I kid — sort of. Google as well offers storage encryption, as then as third-party encryption solutions.

Verdict: It looks like Microsoft will be ahead of the curve. And it should be. This is a Windows product, in short. If Microsoft can’t appeal to the mobile enterprise crowd, it’s got problems.

Windows Phone Apollo looks like it will address a number of the issues currently holding back the OS from equal footing with its peers. However there are after all a few areas that need improvement. “I think the biggest gaps are nonetheless software and design,” Sommers said. “Microsoft needs to be obsessed with paying attention to detail in its user experiences.”

This is an area that Android addressed in its Ice Cream Sandwich update in late 2011, and an area that Apple thoroughly excels in.