The Windows Phone 8S by HTC was announced by

HTC Corporation HTC Corporation ( zh, t=宏達國際電子股份有限公司, s=宏达国际电子股份有限公司, p=Hóngdá Guójì Diànzǐ Gǔfèn Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī, first=t) or High Tech Computer Corporation, (literally ''Hongda International Electron ...

on September 19, 2012 and released on December 7, 2012 in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It is a cheaper, lower-end version of the Windows Phone 8X by HTC. Despite its availability in Canada, HTC announced that the 8S will not be sold in the United States because the company plans to focus instead on the 8X, which is considered its signature phone on the

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

operating system. Because of the limited memory available on this phone, certain applications and features will not be able to run.

Availability

In Canada, the HTC 8S was first available released for

Virgin Mobile Canada Virgin Plus is a provider of Postpaid mobile phone, postpaid and Prepaid mobile phone, prepaid wireless voice, text and data communications services throughout Canada. They also offer home Internet and TV services in select areas of Ontario and ...

on December 7, 2012. HTC plans to make the 8S available at

Koodo Mobile Koodo Mobile is a Canadian mobile flanker brand started by Telus in 2008 and mostly oriented toward younger customers. Koodo differs from its parent Telus by not requiring a fixed term contract. Koodo currently provides postpaid, prepaid, and w ...

Mobilicity Data and Audio-Visual Enterprises Wireless, d/b/a Mobilicity, was a Canadian mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) owned by Rogers Communications. Its name was a portmanteau of the words "mobility" and "simplicity". Mobilicity was one of several ...

and

Wind Mobile Freedom Mobile Inc. is a Canadian wireless telecommunications provider owned by Shaw Communications. It has 6% market share of Canada, mostly in urban areas of Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta. Freedom Mobile is the fourth-largest wirele ...

in 2013.

Reception

One week after launching the device, Virgin Mobile Canada reported that the phone has been "flying off the shelves". At that time, the Mobile Syrup blog stated that the 8S was "the best deal on a no-contract phone at the moment" The blog also praised the device's size and design, and claimed that the phone "makes a number of compromises ��but it’s still able to perform ��well". Ewan Spence from All About Windows Phone wrote: "While there are clear use cases for the 8S (and I can think of a few people in my family that would get by easily with the 8S) it feels like a missed opportunity. It's going to fall seriously short with anyone who is looking to really push the Windows Phone 8 platform."

OS updates

The HTC Windows Phone 8S has received the

Windows Phone 8.1 Windows Phone 8.1 is the discontinued third generation of Microsoft's Windows Phone mobile operating system, succeeding Windows Phone 8. Rolled out at Microsoft's Build Conference in San Francisco, California, on April 2, 2014, it was released ...

update, but has not been updated officially further to Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 (however, the latest 8.1 updates can be obtained via Microsoft's "

Preview for Developers A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...

" app), despite its relatively better counterpart, the Windows Phone 8X, having received this latest update. As such, it has become highly unlikely that there will an update to

Windows 10 Mobile Windows 10 Mobile is a discontinued mobile operating system developed by Microsoft. First released in 2015, it is a successor to Windows Phone 8.1, but was marketed by Microsoft as being an edition of its PC operating system Windows 10. Wind ...

for the 8S.

References

External links

* {{Windows Phone Windows Phone devices Windows Phone 8S Mobile phones introduced in 2012 Videotelephony Discontinued smartphones Smartphones

Availability

Reception

OS updates

See also

References

External links