exclusive

In an interesting story over at the Inquirer, Raj Talluri, VP of product management at Qualcomm revealed that they were never exclusive to Microsoft or Windows Phone, that in fact there was and still is not a written agreement between them and Redmond.

At least with regards to the first generation of Windows Phone, Qualcomm was thought to be an exclusive partner with Microsoft. As it turns out, they are certainly a valued partner but there was no reason for companies to use other, competing platforms like Broadcom, nVidia or Texas Instruments. Even the Focus and Omnia 7 eschew Samsung's own processor for Qualcomm's. That for us raises the question as to why? One reason is we know Qualcomm had ported and worked on WP7 for a long time and perhaps their processing solutions were just a better value for OEMs. From back in March:

“We stepped out some time ago with a major investment in high level operating system and porting to Microsoft was one of those. So we’re the first to port the Win Mobile 7 and I think we’re the only chip set provider yet today. That was a good year effort of hard work for us to get to that point.”

Will the second generation of Windows Phone devices be any different? We've heard of ST-Ericcson stepping into the picture, but nothing concrete yet. Even Nokia is using Qualcomm now. What about you? Are you happy with Qualcomm or are you looking for some alternatives from other vendors?

Source: the Inquirer; via Windows Phone Daily

You know what we lack on Windows Phone? A good strategy turn-based fighting game. Yeah, never thought of it, did you? Luckily, "Fight Game: Rivals" seems likely to fill that roll. From Dutch based Khaeon Studios, the game is a MMA style with fairly impressive graphics and seemingly rich player content.

What's really kind of neat is how the fighting styles and even fighters themselves are based on real life e.g. the studio worked with experts to replicate as much as they can.

• Prove yourself in underground fighting tournaments all over the world to earn the chance to go toe to toe with world-famous martial art champions like Alistair Overeem and Sem Schilt!
• Striking visuals with highly detailed environments and characters
• Unlock a large variety of unique moves, skills and abilities with detailed animations throughout your fighting career
• Genre-bending 'strategy, turn-based, fighting game', optimized for mobile devices and touch screen operated game-play
• Earn 20 unique Xbox LIVE Achievements

"With Fight Game: Rivals; here is your chance to become the king of kings amongst tournament fighters around the world! Fight the opposition on distinct locations in Europe, Asia and America and unlock a wide variety of devastating attacks and skills. Grow ever stronger, prove yourself in fighting tournaments all over the world and get ready to face the elite of combat sports, world-famous martial arts champions Sem Schilt and Alistair Overeem, and become the new champion!"

The game is exclusive to Windows Phone 7 for the first 3 months and looks to drop "mid September"/Q3 in the Marketplace. From the graphics, new style of gameplay and overall detail, we're pretty excited about trying this one.

Check out the interview and some gamaplay from RagingNerds.net above and see the game's site here.

via: InsideGames; Big thanks to Matt B., for the heads up!