Microsoft made the announcement on Windows Phone 7.8 in June this year, and after there is no official word on when it will launch. Everyone thought that it will be available to users by the end of this year, but today Microsoft announced that it won’t be available until early 2013.
If you own a Windows Phone 7.5 device you already know that Windows phone 7.8 is the last version you will get to your phone and you will never get recently launched Windows phone 8. Microsoft’s Terry Myerson wrote on the Windows phone blog “We know you’re eager to get the Windows Phone 7.8 update, and we want you to know that we’re working closely with our hardware and carrier partners to get it tested, approved, and rolled out to as many devices as possible in early 2013.”
The announcement is welcome for Windows phone users who are waiting for the update to rollout, but they won’t be happy as again Microsoft postponed the release to 5 to 6 months, we can see the user reactions to this announcement in the comments section of that blog post.
Microsoft didn’t give details on all the features that we can expect from the WP7.8 update, mentioned only some, most notable is the addition of the new start screen with a Live Tiles approach that is going to change the user experience of Windows Phones. Other features include new themes and more color options, automatically display Bing picture and ‘A1B2C3’ PIN/ Password challenge to prevent accidental device wipes on phones connected to Exchange accounts.
Microsoft also says that new apps will be available to WP7.8 devices as well, for example games like Words with Friends, Draw Something, Angry Birds and Angry Birds Star Wars. But don’t expect too many of these as developers will focus their efforts on the latest operating system that is Windows Phone 8 and not Windows Phone 7.8.
Via WP Blog
