windows phone 8 for business

i have spent most of this morning listening to the windows phone summit keynote in the background. i started paying a lot more attention when the windows phone 8 for business part came up. it's not too awful. this speaker is pretty good!

if you missed the video, it's located here: http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Windows-Phone/Summit

the stuff for business (as in manageability, encryption, etc) starts ~28 minutes in. big news is the windows phone and windows 8 os share a common core, thus providing some really interesting benefits. here are the key items:

• complete security platform: encryption and secure boot covered by bitlocker
• flexible app distribution: signed applications deployed by internal application store instead of marketplace (think sideload-esque) supporting on-premise intranet or cloud
• device management: covered by the same technologies that manage windows os
• deep voip integration: skype or cell looks identical -- could mean reduced minutes plan
• company hub: company-personalized application to highlight apps, provide news, provide alerts, self-service profile capability

by the way, the consumer video demo around ~1:03 is REALLY cool. the other demo around ~1:25 is pretty cool, too. the current inrix app, by the way, is pretty stellar for traffic information.