Now,there is another breed of smartphones to keep tab of. Microsofts Windows Phone will be the latest operating system to take on the clout of Apples iOS,Googles Android and to some extent BlackBerry,Symbian devices. And from first looks,the Metro user interface of the Windows phone seems to have what it takes to last a long race. The Windows Phone tries to be different from the popular breed of smartphones by reducing its dependence on apps. Yes,the new tile-based Metro interface will have them,but users will not have to turn to them for regular functions. For example,FaceBook and Twitter feeds,mail and messages will all be in one integrated stream,all built in into the phone and obviates the need to download an app for basic tasks. Microsoft thinks this is the smarter way of looking at apps. Contacts will also become threads,with all conversations becoming a single stream in the People Hub,another bunch of live tiles with familiar faces. Moreover,the interface is very fluid and intuitive. The multi-tasking here is very real and you can simply switch from one process to the other. But is India ready for another kind of phone? Its never too late for anything in India. We see a huge opportunity, says Bhaskar Pramanik,chairman,Microsoft India. And he has a point. For,the smartphone segment in India has been growing at around 60 per cent and roughly around 3 million high-end phones were sold last year. Industry experts feel around 70 per cent of Indian customers would be using some kind of smartphone by 2015. HTC Radar,will be the first phone in the country to run the OS and will cost Rs 25,490.
