Microsoft To Unveil New WP7 Hardware Reqs at MWC?

With Chassis Specifications, Microsoft has tried -- and so far managed -- to impose a standard among available Windows Phone 7 hardware in order to avoid fragmentation on one hand and to guarantee the same user experience among all devices on the other hand.

We know that, even with the current hardware requirements, there are differences in Windows Phone 7 devices in terms of performance, which are mainly referring to the use of different storage media. While processors all clock at 1GHz -- and even though some devices might only have 256MB of RAM, beyond the bad report scenario -- some OEMs opted for microSD cards as a storage solution while others went with NAND, which significantly decreased application loading times.

According to recent Rumors (note, capital R), Microsoft is set to unveil new hardware requirements for Windows Phone 7 with the occasion of the upcoming Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. We've already heard that Windows Phone 7 will offer support for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon MSM7X30 System on a Chip architecture -- as opposed to the currently supported QSD8250 -- that will benefit from the Adreno 205 GPU.

What other requirements might there be? Well, Microsoft might require devices to have a front facing camera. You might remember that one of the developer devices, namely the Samsung Taylor, indeed had a front facing camera. Also, the required memory on board of devices might be bumped but so far, Windows Phone 7 is rather fluid and smooth -- and with the upcoming Windows Phone 7 update, performance will be further improved. Also note that dramatically changing the specs will not be possible for the exact reasons Microsoft put out the hardware requirements in the first place! In plain English, Microsoft can’t require something hardware-wise that will not be backwards compatible with wave one devices as it will generate hardware (and software) fragmentation as well as break the global user experience standard.

So we're not quite sure what's in store (IF) for second wave devices but since we're talking Rumors, let's end with a rumor: can it have anything to do with today's Nokia announcement, which, if true, might bring a new player to the Windows Phone 7 game?


Source:(pocketnow)