Categories
WIndows Phone

How To Use Local Scout On Windows Phone Outside United States

Local Scout is one of the most useful integrated applications that come with the Windows Phone 7.5 Mango OS. The app lets you check out the places to eat, drink, shop or just about anything else in your vicinity with just a few taps. The best part about the application is that it is tightly integrated with Bing Maps. So, if you find something interesting to check out your neighborhood, you just have to tap the directions to get started on your turn by turn navigation. The application is also integrated with other third party apps like FourSquare to instantly check in, find reviews,etc. For a comprehensive understanding of how it works, click here to visit the Windows Phone website.

Local Scout on Windows Phone Mango OS

But here lies the problem. If you do not reside in one of the following countries; Australia, France, United Kingdom, and United States ; then Local Scout is not available for use in your country. So how do you use this? Follow the steps below:

1. From your Windows Phone Home Screen, swipe to the right to view the comprehensive list of all applications

2. Scroll down to the bottom of the Screen to view the ‘Settings’ options. Tap once to open the Settings

3. You are by default on the ‘System’ tab. Scroll down to an option that reads “region+language”. Tap once to open

4. There are a lot of options to set. Scroll down right to the bottom of the screen to an option that reads “Browser & search language”. It should be set to the default language of your choice.

5. Tap the field. You will be taken to a list of all languages available for ‘Browser & search language’. Scroll down to the option that reads “English (United States)”. Tap this once to select this.

6. Tap the ‘Windows’ button on your phone to return to the home screen.

You are done. Now when you tap the search button on your Windows Phone, you should see an additional ‘local scout’ button on the left. Enjoy this awesome Windows Phone feature.

Categories
WIndows Phone

Windows Phone 7 Newbie Guide – I

Like every other smartphone OS, Windows Phone 7 needs a little bit of learning and unlearning too. If you are a new user to Windows Phone, then these topics will help you with several simple tasks that you may take a little time figuring out. This is the first in the series of many topics.

Not able to store new contact number on WP7 phone
How to view SIM card contacts on my ‘People’ list on WP7
How to transfer contacts from SIM card to phone with Windows Phone 7

Categories
Microsoft Mobile

Smartphone Market Share : Windows Phone Vs. iOS Vs. Android

Microsoft may have been a late entrant to the Smartphone segment (not considering the popular but old fashioned Windows Mobile here) but it does look like Redmond is doing a lot of things right so far. The Windows Phone UI and functionalities are extremely slick and despite the relatively few apps available on the Windows Phone marketplace compared to the iOS AppStore or Android Market, a lot of people have started to check out their smartphones. Today, Windows Phone enjoys an encouraging, but not so great 1.9% market share. But that could apparently change in the next few years thanks to the Lumia series of phones from Nokia that run on the Windows Phone platform.

According to the latest report from IHS iSuppli, Microsoft Windows Phone could beat Apple’s iOS in market share as early as 2015. In their report, IHS claim that 2012 could be the watershed year for Microsoft as their Windows Phone grows in popularity from a market share of sub 2% levels to as much as 9%. This is good not just for Microsoft but also Nokia that has seen its popularity fizzle in recent times to the iPhone and Android handsets.

Read : Number of Windows Phones Sold To Be Higher Than iOS by 2015?

Here is how the market share of the three big Smartphone players expected to move over the next three years.

iOS
2011 : 18.0%
2012 : 18.0%
2013 : 17.3%
2014 : 16.8%
2015 : 16.6%

Android
2011 : 47.4%
2012 : 53.9%
2013 : 55.9%
2014 : 57.8%
2015 : 58.1%

Windows Phone
2011 : 1.9%
2012 : 9.0%
2013 : 15.3%
2014 : 16.1%
2015 : 16.7%

The share of the rest of the Smartphone OSes is expected to fall from 32.7% in 2011 to just 8.6% in 2015. Is RIM going to be dead by then?