ALTHOUGH Microsoft got off to a late start with mobile apps, the company has quickly made some strides. As more people buy Windows Phone, it is anticipated that, there’ll be a much better chance of its platform catching up with Google Play and Apple’s App Store. It’s not always considered, but apps and the growth of application marketplaces is extremely important.Like Microsoft’s new mapping features in Windows Phone 8 could very well be its best addition. Thanks to help from Nokia’s mapping services, the operating system will now offer built-in turn-by-turn navigation applicable in many countries, more detailed maps, and the ability to store those maps offline. In some ways Windows Phone 8’s mapping is believed to come better than anything Apple or Google are offering in their own operating systems.   Microsoft has made the smart decision to deliver a very similar experience across Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. By doing so, it might be able to attract more Windows 8 customers to its mobile operating system, since they’ll feel right at home with its design. Windows 8 might just be the Trojan horse Microsoft is counting on and everyone is forgetting about.Because it has been in the background, nobody has been seeing it.  Instead, the likes of Samsung, HTC and Apple have been in the limelight and we might be heading to a turning point where the scenario will rapidly change to favour the new entrant! People might say, "We have seen the rest, let us look at this one”! The future of the mobile market resides with near-field communication. That technology, which allows for mobile products to wireless communicate with other devices, is a key component in Windows Phone 8. According to Microsoft, users will be able to make mobile payments and use the NFC features built into its operating system for a host of other uses. It’ll be a nice addition.  Samsung has already announced a slick Windows 8 phone whose specs make it seem as if it can provide serious competition to iPhones and Android phones. With HTC and Nokia slated to announce Windows Phone 8 devices, and carriers lining up behind the operating system, the news is all good for Microsoft.  The new phone, called the ATIV S, sports some serious specs. It’s got a big 4.8-inch 1280-by-720 Super AMOLED display, a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor, and has NFC integrated. There’s a 8-megapixel camera on the back and a 1.9-megapixel unit on the front. Despite its serious specs, it’s svelte at 8.7 millimetres thick. This means that people who want the latest in high-end phones will have a Windows Phone 8 choice later this fall. They’ll have lots of other choices as well; adding to the push is the fact that many carriers will likely try and get consumers to buy Window Phone 8 devices as a way to fight back against Apple.  Carriers are not pleased with the high subsidies they pay for people to buy iPhones and the high royalties they have to pay to Apple for each iPhone user up to $600 for per user.This fall will be the first time that Windows Phone has somewhat of a level playing field with iPhone and Android devices. Carriers have generally been cool to Windows Phone and have done a very poor job of highlighting the devices in their stores. And there simply haven’t been that many Windows Phone devices from which to choose. All that is about to change!