Windows phone 8 wont start on a high like the one Android has with fragmentation and OEM skinning. So most of the Windows phone 8 devices will be pretty much the same in user experience, save for the few things that are phone specs. Yes, the camera experience, the processors difference, the overall design and build, storage size, screen size, pixel density and RAM will be there to differentiate devices from various OEMs, but the interiors will be similar. Thanks to Microsoft.
Now Nokia is promising the ultimate experience with extra application add-ons out of the box, these include Nokia Drive, Nokia Maps, Nokia City lens, Nokia Transport, Offline maps, PureView imaging and Nokia Music Store all which are great features for everyday smartphone usage. But Nokia is letting go of that edge, starting with Nokia Drive which provides turn-by-turn directions for more than 110 countries, along with maps for 190. Nokia recently confirmed that Nokia Drive will be available for al Windows Phone 8 devices, although the application was not there during launch of Windows Phone 8. That is at-least for the ATIV S which I already got a hands-on experience for a short time with recently.
Nokia drive is one of the best applications Nokia has, considering how well developed Nokia maps is, Google envies this and Microsoft wanted this bad. Now this isn’t about Google and Microsoft, but Nokia and other OEMs already outed Windows phone 8 devices like HTC and Samsung. See what Samsung did with TouchWiz and apps that came to make the Galaxy S III the way it was, trouncing the HTC One X which was perceived to be an equal. I dont forget the part where marketing, Apple and distribution played a huge role in the success of the Galaxy S III, but we clearly saw a losing One X. Over to Lumia, HTC 8x/x and ATIV S.
Samsung and HTC have not added much out of the box in terms of software, but as soon as we start seeing applications start getting ported from Lumia to these others, the line becomes thinner, and there wont be really a difference in terms of experience. Unless Nokia wants to charge for these, which has not been mentioned anywhere, or as to the terms the app will be available to other OEMS.
