 Welcome to News Desk on SiliconANGLE TV for Tuesday, October 9th, 2012. I'm Kristen Folletti. Microsoft's first Windows Phone 8 devices will be available for pre-order in the U.S. on October 21st. CNET has learned that a Google Nexus 10-inch class tablet is in the works, and Google is offering a plea to developers to create better tablet apps. Join us now with breaking analysis on some of today's big headlines is SiliconANGLE contributing editor, John Casaretto. Welcome to the show, John. Good morning, Kristen. So Microsoft announcing that some of the first Windows 8 devices are going to be available for pre-order in the U.S. October 21st. Can you tell us about some of the new devices that will offer the Windows 8? Well, Microsoft has been rolling out a number of devices for this launch. I think there's a good amount of anticipation to see how this is going to play out. We've seen tablets, and now we're seeing some of the phones come out. There was also an announcement that some of these mid-market tablets are also on the way. So it's going to be pretty interesting. Now, from the phone perspective, I think that they're really going to need to shoot for the high-end. Customers expect high-end phones, high-end features, high-end camera, high-end displays, and things like that. So we're going to see some real, real good offerings, I think, in this particular announcement is the first event of a number that we'll see. Any idea on the number of devices that will offer Windows 8? No, I think under 910 at this point, as far as the phones go, I think that a good lineup across all the carriers, you're going to have two or three devices per carrier, and some of those will be in common. So you don't really know what their end lineup is going to be in terms of across the spectrum, but you can expect that. I know you just heard the droid here. When I was looking for my phone, I was looking for a Windows 8 phone or hoping that a Windows 8 phone was on the horizon, and those are a little bit darker times there where we had no idea. But now that these announcements have come out, I think that you'll see a lot of consumers are going to be curious about it, and when they turn that corner and see that these devices are pretty neat and pretty intuitive, I think that you're going to see a big uptake on these. Now, do you anticipate there are going to be a high volume of pre-orders on these new devices? You know, that's a great question. I think that Microsoft has done a great job at marketing and rebranding themselves. I think that they'll try to exploit some alignment with some of their marquee products potentially here. We'll see some promotion along with Xbox, you know, just an all-out barrage and try to make something of it. And I think that, you know, that's pretty much where they need to be with this. We've heard a lot of mixed reviews and even some negative feedback prior to the Windows 8 unveiling. What do you expect consumer reaction to be to these new phones? I think that when people get their hands on the phone, that'll really be the big thing. The question is getting it actually in people's hands. I think that they've done a lot with the functionality aspect of it. Again, slick hardware is really going to be the key differentiator here. So I think that, you know, that there will be a big interest in it. And I think that that's really going to be the things that distinguish the phone from the rest and how successful this launch is. We know the pre-order date is going to be October 21st. Any idea when the phones will be available in store? There's reports that it'll be available in early November. So and that's just in time for obviously the holiday season. You'll probably see some really cool phones coming out with cool color schemes and things like that. So, you know, they're shooting for a hit market, not just a black phone or a corporate phone, if you will. I think that that's part of their strategy as well is going after that. So I think November, holiday season, all these things, they line up and make sense. CNET has learned that a Google Nexus 10 inch class tablet is in the works. The 10.1 inch tablet will have a higher pixel density than Apple's third generation iPad. So how much better will this display be? You know, all these things are like a neck and neck race. You know, Apple comes out a little bit more, competitors come out a little bit more, much like the phone market. I think that, well, what they're reporting is that this new Nexus will have greater performance than the Retina iPad. So you'll have a high density, the PPI, which is the pixels per inch. So you can expect them to kind of extend that line a little bit more. You know, what that means in the end, you know, we don't know. But what we do know is that this is a high end device and we're looking at some high end features on it. Absolutely. With the upgraded Retina display, is that something the consumer eye will actually be able to tell the difference on? That's a good question. I think that what you're going to see is the technophile bunch, really, you know, looking at those things, the bottom line feature per feature. You know, it may not be distinguishable to the average person, but the technophiles will be the ones that really, you know, take this to that next level, right? Of, you know, hey, this device has got this feature and it's better than this feature. And it's, you know, if it's so moderately detectable, it will remains to be seen what that means in terms of adoption all term. Now you mentioned the tablet is projected to be a high end device. Can you explain what high end device means in terms of price for consumers? Yeah, you know, Apple really sets the market there. So that's that's what everybody shoots for there. They're the dominant tablet. So, you know, whatever, you know, whether it's 16 gig or 32 gig or, you know, whatever the scale of the highest end tablets are, and in this case, being Apple at the moment, that's what's really going to set the market. So, you know, the price will fall in line with that. My Apple will probably adjust at some point as, you know, there'll be a price war just like anything else. Google will be partnering with Samsung on this device and it'll be a co-branded device with Samsung. So what's the significance there of the partnership? Well, it's quite significant considering Samsung's background of litigation with with Andrew with Apple. And, you know, I think that Google aligning with Samsung, you know, they do it already on the Galaxy Nexus. So it's it's a strengthening of that relationship with Samsung. And I think that we're going to, you know, products along those lines and we're going to see, you know, and it's coming to the tablet market. Android tablets began appearing about a year and a half ago, but the company's still having trouble getting third parties to design applications optimized for their larger screens. Can you tell us why that is? Yeah, well, a lot of developers have not been very quick to adopt to a larger tablet space. So the big complaint that you see a lot of developers have not really created applications that are suited well for the tablet. So so a lot of the things are like just blown up versions of phone apps. And I think that might be the biggest thing that the issue that that's going on right now. And now Google is attempting to resolve the issue by putting out a tablet app quality checklist. And that's going to be designed to assist developers in creating better tablet apps. Can you tell us what kinds of guidelines the checklist mentions? Yeah, absolutely. It's a it basically starts out as a checklist. It addresses the layout, the quality of the core apps, whether the application uses a full screen asset utilization. There's a whole list of things like that, the fonts that was particularly interesting. So, you know, all those different elements that make for a great tablet app are part of the checklist. And reportedly, they're also continuing to to offer assistance and best practices. So there's going to be additional guidance apparently throughout the week for developers to optimize their apps for the tablet. So with the previously discussed rumors about Google pushing their own hardware further, do you think this is a move to set the bar higher for other hardware? I think so. I think that there is definitely a push to address the quality of the entire ecosystem, including the app store, clean that up to give a better experience. They definitely want to, you know, make a bigger push into the higher quality tablet space. So I think that it's a great effort. It's a great effort. And we'll see how effective that is in the long run. Well, John, thanks so much for your input this morning and we'll see you again soon. Thank you very much and have a good day for all the latest in-depth coverage and breaking analysis on tech innovation. Keep up to date with Newsdesk on SiliconANGLE TV.