| Windows Phone | |
|---|---|
| Developer | Microsoft Mobile |
| Written in | C, C++, Assembly Language, C# |
| OS family | Microsoft Windows |
| Current status | Discontinued |
| Source model | Closed-source |
Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement to Windows Mobile and Zune.
The user interface of WP is derived from the Metro design language.
WP is primary aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market.
History
Origin
The project "Photon" (codename) started In 2004, which was a big update of Windows Mobile. But its progress was slow and it was ultimately cancelled.
In 2008 Microsoft reorganized the Windows Mobile group and started work on a new mobile operating system. WP was developed quickly.
Windows Phone 7
Windows Phone 7 was launched in October 2010.
Its kernel is Windows CE-based.
The XAP file for the Speedy Blupi game is intended for Windows Phone 7 or newer and it should run on Windows Phone 7
At least 512 MB of RAM is required for devices to run Windows Phone 7 (in 2012, the Tango update lowered this requirement to 256 MB of RAM).
Windows Phone 7.5 (internally identified as version 7.1) was released in 2011.
In 2012, a minor update known as Tango was released. This minor update contained some bug fixes, but also lowered the hardware requirements to allow run this OS on devices with 800 MHz CPUs and 256 MB of RAM.
Windows Phone 7.8 was released in 2013. This update is the final major release of Windows Phone 7 and mainly brings the user interface improvements backported from Windows Phone 8, as existing Windows Phone 7 devices cannot be upgraded to Windows Phone 8 because Windows Phone 8 introduced major changes to the system’s architecture and hardware requirements, making them incompatible with the older devices. This difference also impacts app compatibility, so a Windows Phone 8 XAP will not run on Windows Phone 7 devices.
Windows Phone 8
Windows Phone 8 was announced in 2012 and its kernel is Windows NT (the same as PC versions of Windows).
Due the changes, Windows Phone 8 was not compatible with all existing Windows Phone 7 devices.
Windows Phone 8.1 was released in 2014.
Speedy Blupi relationship: Speedy Blupi runs on Windows Phone 8.
Windows 10 Mobile
Windows 10 Mobile was announced in 2015.
Many Windows Phone 8.1 devices were able to be upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile.
Speedy Blupi relationship: Speedy Blupi runs on Windows 10 Mobile.
In 2017, the active development of Windows 10 Mobile was stopped. Windows 10 Mobile was declared the end of life on January 14, 2020.
The reason, why the Windows Phone platform is discontinued, is the diminishing interest and application development for this platform.
Windows Phone Store
Windows Phone Store was used to distribute: music, videos, podcasts, third-party applications and game.
Third-party applications and games for Windows Phone can be based on XNA or several another technologies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone). The used programming language can be one of: C#, Visual Basic.NET ,C++, HTML5/JavaScript
Windows Phone Store was killed and replaced by Windows Store in 2015.
On 16th December 2019, Microsoft killed the part of Windows Store for the Windows Phone support.
- This means, that since that day no application can be installed on Windows Phone devices using Windows Store.
But it is still possible to install applications on Windows Phone devices even now (in 2024).
- Use "Windows Phone Internals". This tool is created by a hacker and is used to unlock the bootloader of WP and root the device. You need a XAP file, than you can install this XAP file (application) on the given Windows Phone
- https://github.com/ReneLergner/WPinternals
Emulators
There are 3 emulators for:
- Windows Phone 7/7.1
- Windows Phone 8/8.1
- Windows Mobile 10