The East coast of the U.S. may be almost entirely shut down today, but the West coast isn’t worrying about Hurricane Sandy. Google’s big Nexus and Android announcement event that was scheduled to be held in New York today has been indefinitely delayed, but Microsoft is going ahead with its Windows Phone 8 event in San Francisco.
While the Windows Phone OS is certainly good looking, one of the potential problems users might have with the platform is the lack of available apps, when compared to Android or iOS. In an effort to combat this viewJoe Belfiore, Microsoft corporate vice president, took the stage today and announced that Windows Phone 8 will launch with 46 of what Microsoft has determined to be the 50 “most-used” smartphone apps.
In particular, the Skype app for Windows 8 will be heavily integrated into the OS. Belfiore stated that the app will be “always on” and ready to accept calls.
Games were also a big portion of the app announcement. Windows Phone 8 will have popular games such as Temple Run, Fruit Ninja, the upcoming Angry Birds Star Wars, Jetpack Joyride, and Fairway Solitaire, which can be synced for seamless play on Xbox 360 and PC.
Perhaps the biggest app announcement at Microsoft’s event was Pandora for Windows Phone 8. Although the music app itself isn’t a surprise, Microsoft has paid for Windows Phone 8 users to be able to listen to music on Pandora streaming radio for one year with no ads.