Samsung is not set on being the (current) king of the Android market with its range of Galaxy smartphones (including the Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy Ace 2 and Galaxy Note), but now in some new information it has been revealed that the Korean manufacturer is also gearing to take on Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 software.
Currently Nokia holds the crown of the King of the Windows Phone, but the area itself is not hugely contested with most manufacturers releasing only a handful of Windows Phone sporting devices and putting very little behind them.
In the ongoing legal wrangle between Samsung and Apple, Samsung has provided some court documents which show their plans for a duo of Windows Phone 8 handsets, named the “Odyssey” and “Marco”.
Samsung has previously released a range of Windows Phone 7 sporting devices with the Omnia brand names (akin to Galaxy in Android) but found little success with the devices. It wasn’t until Nokia placed their faith into the operating system (and then throwing a lot of money at the marketing of the devices) in the form of the Nokia Lumia line that people started to move towards the Windows OS. Now with the next iteration of Windows Phone software coming it would seem Samsung wants a slice of the pie.
The “Odyssey” and “Marco” devices are marked as running on the Qualcomm MSM8960 processor chip and have a dual-core 1.5GHz system-on-chip that Microsoft has been using to test Windows Phone 8.
Samsung has a lot of steam behind it with the Galaxy S3 smartphone so the documents describe the “Odyssey” as an “iconic smartphone,” which will also feature a 4.65-inch Super AMOLED display with HD resolution, NFC capabilities (for support with Microsoft’s upcoming Wallet Hub and Tap + Send features) and an 8-megapixel rear camera.
The “Marco” will be a slightly smaller offering with a a 4-inch S-AMOLED display with WVGA resolution and a 5-megapixel rear camera. Both phones are also rumoured to have 4G capabilities ahead of the service coming to the UK in 2013 (its available in the US) and we are sure Samsung will port across a host of its Android TouchWiz feature to the new operating system.
Things are definitely looking up for Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 OS if these documents come into fruition, and they have already piqued our interest.
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Source: The Verge