In an interview with “Techradar.comCorporate vice president of the MS Windows Phone Division, Terry Myerson has shared some very interesting tidbits which can put many questions to rest. He confirmed Nokia’s status as “Priority platform development partner ” and gave them full credit for bringing innovations like “wireless charging” to the table. It was also revealed that WP7.8 will coexist with WP8 for a long time to come and will empower cheaper low-end devices. He also hinted that “they have lots to say about WP7.8” in coming weeks ;).

  • Nokia gets priority when it comes to development because of the commitment it’s made to Windows Phone; “Nokia is exclusive to Windows Phone and we definitely, on the engineering side, prioritize platform work to support their differentiation coming through.”
  • “In the case of wireless charging, that was definitely Nokia’s initiative to say they wanted that; they had technologies inside their labs, they took the initiative to put forward a number of engineering designs. There were definitely platform modifications we made to support their innovation but Nokia led on that. All the credit goes to them.
  • Windows Phone 8 is the future and it’s getting all the marketing love at the moment, but Windows Phone 7 is far from dead. Myerson assured us. “We’re going to have more to say about 7.8 in the coming weeks,” he promised.
  • “I would expect both platforms to exist for quite some time, from a global point of view. Windows Phone 7.8 devices will span much lower price points than windows phone 8 devices, initially, and given the application compatibility across the platforms, it makes the ecosystem stronger to have more device and more price points. We value every 7 and 7.8 customer we have; we’ll continue to work for them as well but it is true that Windows Phone 8 is our future platform.”

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