Where oh where is Windows Phone 8?

As a user of WP7 who is looking forward to WP8, I really really want to give them the benefit of the doubt that there is a major ace up their sleeve they can't talk about for competitive reasons. Something like Nintendo announcing the Wii remote early enough for Sony to quickly switch to motion-sensing controllers as well. Something huge and disruptive that is so critical to their success that none of their competitors can know in time to ape.<p>I can't recall a single time Microsoft has ever done that, though...

<i>But what was a little surprising is that there were no handsets for the press to play with. There were some demonstration units carefully attended by PR personnel, and while we were able to get kind of close to them, the general rule was "you can look but you can't touch."</i><p>Looking at this [1] video I would say that this article is just another BS from Ars.<p>[1] <a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/nokia-lumia-920-slate/4505-6452_7-35437152.html" rel="nofollow">http://reviews.cnet.com/smartphones/nokia-lumia-920-slate/45...</a>

Essentially ...<p>"Whatever the cause of the delays—whether they're because Microsoft has bitten off more than it can chew with the kernel transition, or due to some other reason—the situation is now growing critical. It's not just that it's annoying developers; the delays are undoubtedly hurting Redmond's hardware partners."

So they ended up doing (what sounds like, or may as well be) a complete rewrite and it's taking them much longer than they expected? Shocker!<p>It sounds like they're running the WP7 apps in a compatibility box. Is that right? One issue developing for Android is the huge API sprawl. Android has this immense surface area of public API now, and they only add new methods and classes every release (I'd love to know how the framework engineers on Android feel about this, because it certainly detracts from the app development experience...). So a compatibility box sounds like a good idea in that case, though making everyone rewrite their apps isn't a good idea...

The core operating system swap. Taking a desktop operating system and shrinking it down to run on a phone is no easy task. In fact, it's a gargantuan undertaking. Add a bunch of new end user features and you get that the amount of technical work that is going into WP8 is phenomenal. However, the windows phone engineering team is superb. I have no doubt's that both consumers and developers will be thoroughly impressed come holiday season.

If there's one thing Apple has executed on, it's the synthesis of hardware and software.<p>That's an often overlooked key to a successful customer experience. Android has some decent hardware - Galaxy S III apparently but I haven't tried it yet - but unless you luck out and a carrier throws you an Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean, what's the point?<p>Microsoft knows they need something, but if they don't have some pretty awesome software they'll be in the same place Android is. (Sans patent lawsuits)

Its crazy that Windows 8 runs better then Windows 7 on the same computer. I love it. Would love to try the Win8 phone is they ever get one released.