Making phones quicker to use tends to revolve around processor power or app switching.

But Microsoft is in the process of investigating whether it's the apps that need to be made smarter.

Microsoft Research has detailed internal tests that look to make apps predict the information you're after, pre-loading content before you've even started them up.

A question of time

Such a process relies on the phone being able to gauge the context in which the app is being opened and forms one part of a wider Microsoft project aptly dubbed Context Data OS, or ConDOS for short.

"As mobile apps become more deeply integrated into our everyday lives, mobile app interactions ought to be rapid and responsive," details Microsoft.

"Unfortunately, even the basic primitive of launching a mobile app. is sorrowfully sluggish: 20 seconds of delay is not uncommon even for very popular apps. We have identified ways in which context can benefit key OS services such as memory management, scheduling, I/O and security.

"As a first step, we have built a prototype of Falcon: Fast App Launching with Context. We have designed and built Falcon to remedy slow app launch. Falcon uses context such as user location and temporal access patterns to predict app launches before they occur.

"Falcon then provides apps systems support for effective app-specific pre-launching, which can dramatically reduce perceived delay."

Falcon flies?

Microsoft Research estimates that, when used properly, Falcon can save users up to 35 seconds on a single app launch.

String those launches together throughout the course of a day, and you could significantly lesson the amount of time users have to spend looking at their phone – ironically the very 'glance and go' concept Microsoft pitched at consumers with its Windows Phone launch ads.

Falcon operates as an OS modification to Windows Phone, the company states, though no date has been given to any possible release date – that's if it ever makes it out to consumers in the first place.



[source: I Started Something]