The wait is over. Microsoft has finally revealed the secret and offered a tantalising teaser of OS, initially known as Appollo. The official name is now just Windows Phone 8. The new hardware support it offers is slowly being unravelled.Lets get done with the bad news first. You are not in on the action, if you own a Windows Phone Device. Unless you are willing to shell out for a new phone. All that hype about requiring hardware upgrade to enable WP8 has now turned on its head. You have to go for the whole deal. There's no other option.

This app requires special hardware which is faster, better, enhanced and will be able to feature new, faster games and apps. For the first time the demanding apps can be written in native code. To enable Windows Phone 8, you will require multi-core processors (up to 64), WXGA (1280 x 768) displays and SD for external storage. All this will run on a shared platform with Windows 8 and Windows RT. Microsoft has already started one running platform on laptops, desktops, phones and tablets. The idea behind this is that apps can be easily ported from one to the next. This will enable us to see games we've never seen on our phones before.

The NFC support gives us wallet functionality that is dependent on augmented SIM and not any hardware on the phone itself. This gets rid of the need for carriers to remove apps as was the case with Google wallet. They can block support entirely. Built into the OS is Nokia Maps which comes with offline map support.

This is a giant leap for Microsoft on many aspects but Microsoft is still holding on to its roots and assures enterprise-ready security and support. This will enable admins to monitor or restrict apps on corporate provided phones and manage them. It also features encryption and secure booting integrated. The arrival of this is timed with Windows 8 and other cool, new tablets that will be shipping in fall.