Background and Identification
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly known as Hewlett-Packard or HP, is an American information technology company. HP develops and provides a variety of hardware components, software, and related services to consumers and small, medium, and large businesses.
Windows Phone is a family of operating systems for smartphones developed by Microsoft. Windows Phone was launched in October 2010, though work on the Windows Mobile project may have begun as early as 2004. Windows Phone replaced Windows Mobile and Zune and was primarily aimed at the consumer market.
The Windows Phone 7 was launched in October 2010 and the Windows Phone 8 succeeded the 7 in 2012. The Windows 8 operating system was incompatible with all existing Windows Phone 7 phones. However, Windows Phone 8 still supported applications that were originally developed for Windows Phone 7. In 2014, the Windows Phone 8.1 update introduced the Windows Runtime platform (which supports cross-platform applications between Windows Personal Computers (PCs) and Windows phone), and the Cortana virtual assistant. Microsoft released Windows 10 Mobile in 2015, which increased integration with the Windows 10 PC operating system.
The final Windows Phone update was released in June 2015. Windows Phone is now a discontinued family of operating systems. HP Windows phones include the name “hp” in lowercase letters on the phone’s backing.