At MWC 2014, Microsoft's press conference introduced new hardware partners, expanded Windows Phone support and new enterprise features, as reported by Rafe in the links below. Official video of Joe Belfiore and Nick Parker is now online, linked below. Worth a watch, if only for Joe and Nick's confidence in their platform, and for the teasing of new hardware.

Here are Rafe's stories from the MWC press conference:

• Microsoft announces 9 new hardware partners for Windows Phone
• Microsoft set to expand Windows Phone hardware support
• Next version of Windows Phone to add new enterprise features

But if you want the news from the horse's mouth then it's worth watching Joe Belfiore and Nick Parker explain it all in person, in this slightly edited 13 minute video from Microsoft. The embedding doesn't seem to work properly from the Microsoft network servers, so clicking the image below will take you to the original page. The video stream itself is also available from there in various download formats:

The wording used by Joe implies that we're going to see new hardware announced before Microsoft's BUILD conference in April. This isn't that far away and we remain a little miffed that Nokia (for one) didn't use MWC to at least tease something. A missed opportunity for Nokia and Microsoft and its partners, definitely.

There's also mention of all current Windows Phone 8 devices being technically compatible with the upcoming update, though there was an implication that it was, as ever, up to carriers around the world, for certification of the update for various network variants.