Nokia's Stephen Elop and Microsoft's Steve Ballmer Q&A

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irXEA7k67aM' target='_blank'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irXEA7k67aM</a><br /><br /></div><p><object width="600" height="360" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/irXEA7k67aM&amp;ap=%26fmt=18" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/irXEA7k67aM&amp;ap=%26fmt=18" /></object></p><p>This video is worth watching - Elop stresses that one of the key benefits Nokia brings is the ability to get Windows Phone 7 into markets and price points where it isn't currently. The "price points" is an important factor; we know that HVGA (480 x 320) is in the cards for future Windows Phone 7 devices, and you can bet that Nokia will be all over that: they're great at building both low-cost and middle-of-the-road hardware to serve a variety of markets. I can see a small HVGA Windows Phone 7 device hitting the market in late 2011/early 2012 that would allow Microsoft to reach new markets.</p><p>This is definitely the biggest&nbsp;announcement&nbsp;yet made for the fledgling Windows Phone 7 platform.</p>

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

HVGA is like going backwards. My views are probably coloured here, but with iPhone adoption rates as high as 50% here, I don't see why MS should move on to 800x480 as mid-range and pushing for even higher resolutions and screen sizes.

[Jason Dunn]

HVGA is like going backwards. My views are probably coloured here, but with iPhone adoption rates as high as 50% here, I don't see why MS should move on to 800x480 as mid-range and pushing for even higher resolutions and screen sizes.

It's all about cost. There are only so many people who are going to buy a $600 phone (if it's unsubsidised). HVGA screens are still expensive, as are the CPUs/GPUs that need to go with them. I bet an OEMs can build an HVGA phone with a 600 Mhz processor and hit the $299 price point and have it still feel as fast as the phones we have today.

I doubt anyone here would buy one, but there's a large untapped market of phone buyers who would be interested in a "step up" smartphone that has all the same software features but costs less.

As for pushing higher with resolution, until we see 1600 x 960 screens, I think we'll be at WVGA for a long while. I don't see Microsoft breaking the platform by moving to a completely different resolution.

[RichL]

The two mostly costly components in a phone are the screen and the memory.

The question is - how does Microsoft prevent fragmentation and app compatibility problems?

[Jason Dunn]

The question is - how does Microsoft prevent fragmentation and app compatibility problems?

Great question: I'd think they'd be well aware of the problems they had with Windows Mobile and would strive to not repeat that hell...maybe it's as simple as them asking developers to support HVGA resolution in their apps. Maybe in the long term plan HVGA evolves into 960 x 640 and WVGA becomes 1600 x 960. Resolution doubling is easy for developers to deal with; supporting eight different screen resolutions is not.