Happy New Year

Another year is in the books and it was a good one for Windows Phone in my book. While the market share is still pretty low on my favorite OS, there were some very important things that began to happen in 2013. The low-cost Lumia’s began to sway some users to the platform. The App gap continued to close. Some top end devices, including and phablet were released. Most of all though, the Microsoft buyout of the Nokia Devices division will give an already brilliant relationship even more leverage going forward.

The lower cost Lumia series phones have really started moving like hotcakes all over the world. As the Lumia 520 and Lumia 521 have shown in the US, a sub $100 handset will sell extremely well – especially without a contract. These two phones can be purchased outright from any number of retailers and activated on their original carrier or any number of cost saving MVNO offerings. That makes the Lumia 520 (AT&T) and the Lumia 521 (T-Mobile) a great addition to anyone;s retail lineup.

Apps like Instagram, Vine, Pandora and Kik Messenger finally found a home with Windows Phone this year. This means that the App gap that is so well known is finally starting to close. Sure, there will be some that haven’t ported in yet, but Microsoft really delivered on their promise of getting the top 10 Apps brought to Windows Phone this year. Hopefully, 2014 will bring a few more to that total.

Nokia took advantage of the new GDR3 update’s ability to run larger format screens about as quickly as one could. The Lumia 1320 and 1520 broke late in 2013. These sister phones offer users a 6” display, a 5MP or 20MP camera and one of the best Windows Phone experiences available today. Even the ‘low cost’ Lumia 1320 is a smoking fast device. The $350 street price on the 1320 just makes me dream they would bring it to the Windows Phone store in the US, but for now you need to pick up the overseas version to get this steal. For those that want it all though, the 1520 has the full 20MP PureView camera, 16GB of internal memory and SD slot that will hold another 64GB should be enough to satisfy just about anyone on the planet. The 1520 can be had for about $650 without contract and $199 with 2 year agreement from AT&T.

Probably the most exciting news of the year was the agreement in principle for Microsoft to acquire Nokia’s devices division. This move should allow Microsoft to develop hardware that is more to ‘their desires’ than to Nokia’s. This could be a good thing or a bad thing, but either way, it will be very exciting to see what the first line of devices looks like for 2014. Hopefully they launch that Zune Phone that every has dreamed of for the last few years. If not, maybe the Xbox Phone or the Microsoft Windows Phone One will join the mix later this year. Until then, I will just sit back and enjoy the ride!