Microsoft Updates Smart Phone Chassis

Software giant Microsoft has updated a minimum of smart phone chassis requirements for its Windows 7 Phone mobile operating system. Additional equipment, which was announced during the company's Mix11 conference, require that future Windows 7 Phone smart phones using the second generation Snapdragon processors, an upgrade from the first generation of processors used in today's WP7 phones. According to an article at Mobile Tech World (http://www.mobiletechworld.com/2011/04/14/new-windows-phone-7-chassis-unveiled-msm7x30-and-msm8x55/), the original equipment manufacturers be needed to use Qualcomm MSM7X30 MSM8X55 and processors in the future WP7 smartphones. The Snapdragon processor, which comes with Adreno 205 GPU, is referred to as second generation Snapdragon processors that have more processing power and drain battery power more slowly. Microsoft said that it was working with silicon vendors to take advantage of the latest processors for Windows 7 Phone platform.
In its desktop business, the Microsoft Windows operating system runs on just about anything with an x86 chip.
We will produce the most common device driver code for the platform, and hardware vendors only need to enter the silicon-specific components, Microsoft Itsvan Cser said in a statement, while unveiling the new chassis.
Sure, there are minimum specs for each version of Windows, but these specs are really looking backward, not forwards looking.
Microsoft does not set the minimum specs on the latest version of Windows for the sake of ensuring that manufacturers make their Windows-based computers competitive with Macs, it sets the minimum specs to be sure Windows is running on so many computers out of the box as possible.
For Windows 7 Phone, Microsoft had to take the opposite approach.
The only way to be competitive with the likes of Apple and Google in the mobile operating system market was to ensure that WP7 experience was just coherent and immersive as Android or Ios.
It meant clamping down on OEM and demand: either make smartphones with this minimum spec, or shop around for another operating system.
And actually, that's exactly what Microsoft has just made, and reveals the updated specifications for Windows 7 Phone handset chassis design.
The big difference is the processor.
Currently, all WP7 smartphones on the market running Qualcomm MSM8 × 50 Snapdragon processor, which is a 1 GHz affair boasting Adreno 200 graphics.
Microsoft just upped the ante to be competitive with the likes of Apple A5: The new specification requires a minimum Qualcomm's MSM8 × 55, which also upgrades the graphics to a Adreno 205 GPU.
It's a small change, but as the core multiply, WP7 has changed chassis specifications indicate a hard truth of the competitive market for smart phones: the Apple in the game, nothing less than the best will do.
Read more at Engadget.