As Samsung announces the Focus S and and Focus Flash Windows 7 Mango phones, there’s been some serious questions raised about the company’s long term Windows Phone 7 strategy.
But first, the phones. Slashgear reports that AT&T in the US has announced it’ll be selling the Focus S and Focus Flash later this year. No shiny pictures as yet, but it’s known that the Focus S and Flash both run from 1.4Ghz processors, and both feature AMOLED displays. The Focus S has a 4.3″ Super AMOLED Plus display while the Flash gets a 3.7″ Super AMOLED panel. The Focus S has an eight megapixel camera on the back (similar to the HTC Titan), dropping to only 5 megapixels on the Flash. No prizes for guessing which is the premium model there.
While there’s no exact dating or pricing for these phones — or even if they’ll carry the same names when and if they get a local release — PCMag reports on a prominent Samsung-focused tech blog that reported over the weekend that “Samsung will support Windows phone till end 2012.” Does that mean they’ll stop on the stroke of midnight? Something tells me probably not, but then it’s not as though Windows Phone 7 has really set the smartphone market on fire to date, and Samsung does have its toes in the Android market and its own Bada platform; stranger things have happened.[Slashgear and PCMag]
olearymo
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 2:10 PMSurely with all the lawsuits flying around, Samsung is safer with WP7 than Android. After all, Apple can’t sue Microsoft (I believe that agreement is permanently in effect?)
Sicarius123
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 2:15 PMPaying Microsoft for a licence means Microsoft are responsible for the patents in Windows Phone 7.
Much safer than the freebie Android.
Samsungs gen1 windows phone devices weren’t jaw dropping, but damn they had fantastic screens!
Hmm
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 7:31 AMMicrosoft owns may patents, including some that apply to Android as well
Steve
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 4:49 PMWP7 is safer, but the market is heavily stacking towards Android and Samsung will choose whatever sells them more phones.
And half the injunctions against Samsung from Apple are due to hardware, not Android so it doesn’t exactly dispel the litigation issue,
TSH
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 2:21 PM*shrug* if Mango is everything it seems to be already, it’ll be my platform of choice when my plan’s up. I will definitely consider a Samsung handset, regardless of their support plans. Nokia and HTC still have a chance to impress me too…
highlydubious
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 4:16 PMSo, TSH – what you’re saying is that you have no idea what phone you’ll get… Cool story bro!
Adam
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 11:59 PM@highlydubious
Actually he does have an idea. When he was talking about Mango he did say “It’ll be my platform of choice”. So really, it’s only a matter of the manufacturer.
Sheeds
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 2:28 PMHey Alex.
I think it’s a little presumptuous to speculate on Samsung and WP7 beyond 2012…when the Focus has been arguably the best selling WP7 handset to date. We haven’t even seen the official release of it’s GEN2 successors yet from Samsung!
I just hope Telstra pick up the Focus S – I cannot understand why they didn’t take up the Focus – which IMHO was the best of the GEN1 devices…
More on this – and on my Telstra challenge to meet AT&T with their guarantee on prompt Mango approval over at my WP7 blog:
http://www.wpdownunder.com/?p=2528
Sheeds :D
(PS must have tipped you guys to this AFTER slashgear’s article).
BenDTU
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 2:36 PMI guess the threat of being forced by Microsoft to support handsets for longer than 6 months was scarier than the threat of patent litigation? :P
But seriously, I’d really like to see some of the effort they put into Android handsets in their WP7 line. I can’t help but feel the OEMs aren’t putting much effort into their WP7 hardware right now.
Stefan
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 3:02 PMConsidering I personally think they currently have the best WP7, the Focus. It would seem idiotic to leave, especially if the new focusi :P have “expandable” memory.
MotorMouth
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 5:34 PMI bought a Samsung Focus on eBay earlier in the year and I absolutely love it. It looks gorgeous and WinPhone 7 is really, really good. I was interested in an iPhone 4 but 15 minutes in a Telstra Shop convinced me that WP7 was the way to go.
Maybe the reason Samsung are not committing to support WP7 beyond 2012 is that WP8 is due for release next year? In fact, maybe Win8 will work OK on phones? After all, most phones have as much grunt as tablets, so why not?
widowmaker
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 11:29 AMPeople keep talking about “the market…” WHAT MARKET, LOL… until recently if you wanted a smartphone and were on any carrier in the U.S. besides AT&T your ONLY choice was Android, one choice DOES NOT a market make. If Coka Cola was the only soda would you say, “the market is stacking toward coke,” of course not. coke by itself cannot constitute a soda “market.” When a sizeable number of devices running WP7 hit stores and IOS is running across multiple carriers and you can go to a store a look at all these devices side by side and make a CHOICE (because you’ll FINALLY have one) only then can we call it a market. I question if people are really “choosing” Android, I think it’s the affordable, knock off alternative to what people have really wanted up ’til now, Iphone. Android is just an Iphone clone having copied Iphone functionality and made it available to a broader audience (Including me). WP7 is the most thoughtful alternative to IOS.What it’s missing is great hardware.
widowmaker
Wednesday, September 14, 2011 at 11:34 AMSamsung getting out of the WP7 biz? You wouldn’t know it from their bahavior at BUILD today – handing out tablets running Win8 like candy… and you wouldn’t know it from them producing new WP7 phones and refreshing old ones. The rationale that they are leaving because, “WP7 is behind Bada in market share…” would be silly. Raise your hand if you want a smartphone running Samsung Bada… Samsung would be foolish to want to compete with MS, Apple and Google in producing software. It would be a good start on the road to not selling any more phones… just like what happened to Nokia.