Windows Phone is a series of proprietary mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market. It was first launched in October 2010, with a release in Asia following in early 2011.

The latest release of Windows Phone is Windows Phone 8, which has been available to consumers since October 29, 2012. Microsoft also has a new version, code named "Windows Phone Blue" (previously "Windows Phone Apollo Plus"), in the works, which will either be named Windows Phone 8.1 or Windows Phone 9. With Windows Phone, Microsoft created a new user interface, featuring its design language called the Modern design language. Additionally, the software is integrated with third party services and Microsoft services, and sets minimum requirements for the hardware on which it runs.

Microsoft and Nokia announced a partnership between their companies in which Windows Phone would become the primary smartphone operating-system for Nokia, replacing Symbian. Features a user interface based on Microsoft's Windows Phone design system, codenamed Metro,and was inspired by the user interface in the Zune HD. The home screen, called the "Start screen", is made up of "Live Tiles", which have been the inspiration for the Windows 8 live tiles. Tiles are links to applications, features, functions and inpidual items (such as contacts, web pages, applications or media items). Users can add, rearrange, or remove tiles. Tiles are dynamic and update in real time – for example, the tile for an email account would display the number of unread messages or a tile could display a live update of the weather. Since Windows Phone 8, live tiles can also be resized to either a small, medium, or large appearance.

SOURCE: INTERNET