In a move seen as an image boosting campaign to increase its almost non-existent cellphone markets, Microsoft is laying the groundworks to help Windows –based Phone owners to use cloud computing to store their personal data as part of its planned future service.
A job listing for a software engineering position is inviting applicant to join its “Windows Phone Backup, Migrate, and Restore team.”
The job listing also read, “Our goal is to ensure that no matter if someone loses their phone, drops their phone in a lake, buys a new windows phone, or just has their toddler wipe their phone by entering the wrong PIN over and over, a user can quickly and seamlessly get their phone back to a good state.”
Microsoft notes that those promised features are meant for “the next version of Windows Phone,” which effectively ended any speculation that current Windows Phone users would enjoy them.
Presently, the Redmond giant uses Zune software as the back-up solution for its phones. That means users must go back to their home computer running the Zune app to get a back-up. Competitors like Google, for its Androids, and Apple have abandons such schemes and are already offering cloud-based data recovery services for their respective mobile OS platforms.
Android phones can already re-download apps, settings and personal data when users log in to their Google accounts from their smartphones. They can also install third-party apps that make a copy of their phone settings and data in an authorized cloud storage service. In the meantime, Apple has recently introduced its iCloud to store messages, media files, apps, app data and ringtones on Apple’s cloud computing network and can re-load stored data into any authorized iOS gadget, whether an IPad or another iPhone.
The job posting gives a peek at Microsoft’s plans for the next Windows Phone. And they are not exactly ennobling but more an embarrassment of visionary bankruptcy. It appears Microsoft is only now making plans for something that its direct competitors have already done. A leaked roadmap that was picked up in the wild the other day points to a major software release in the second semester of 2012. It could be Windows Phone 8 for dual core handsets, more features and higher screen resolution support. That’s where its planned cloud back-up may end up with. Then again, by that time, who knows what Google and Apple already have?
