Windows Phone 7 Goes to Mobile Device Makers

Microsoft has sent Windows Phone 7 Series to mobile-device manufacturers to produce devices for the holiday season. CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled Windows Phone 7 in February with an emphasis on games, music and video. An analyst said the leading vendors for Windows Phone 7 Series are likely to be HTC, LG and Samsung.

Finishing touches complete, Microsoft sent its latest Windows Phone 7 operating system to equipment manufacturers Wednesday, paving the way for a round of Windows-based mobile devices to debut in time for the holiday season.

"While the final integration of Windows Phone 7 with our partners' hardware, software and networks is under way, the work of our internal engineering team is largely complete," wrote Microsoft's Terry Myerson on the company's Windows 7 blog.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled Windows Phone 7 Series in February at the Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, Spain, promising a fresh approach to phone software and design. The new OS brings together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience on a mobile phone. "In a crowded market filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience," Ballmer said.

He demonstrated the new system's "live tiles" that show real-time content directly, rather than static icons, and a dedicated hardware button for Bing that allows searches while using applications. Windows Phone 7 devices also feature six hubs for people, pictures, games, music and video, marketplace and the Office suite of productivity software.

"It's a big step forward even from versions as recent as [Windows Mobile] 6.5," said Strategy Analytics wireless-device analyst Alexander Spektor. "Microsoft has revamped the user experience and refocused the way they present information and the types of information they present. They made it more about the social space, the gaming aspect, and the web [browsing] aspect."

Microsoft said in February that the company has Windows Phone 7 commitments from worldwide partners, including AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Orange, Sprint Nextel, Telecom Itali, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone, Dell, HTC, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and others. But which company will be the first to debut a Phone 7 device is anyone's guess.

"The leading vendors for Windows Phone 7 are likely to be HTC, LG and Samsung, those who in the past have worked very closely with Microsoft on Windows," Spektor said. "I expect they will continue that relationship, despite the fact that Samsung has their own platform, Bada."

Samsung released Bada, Korean for ocean, late last year but currently sells only one smartphone that runs it, the Wave S8500. "They have been focusing on [Google's] Android, but there is still room in their portfolio for Windows phone devices as well," Spektor said.

Microsoft has struggled to gain a foothold in the soaring U.S. smartphone market in which Android, Nokia's Symbian, Research In Motion's BlackBerry and Apple's iPhone are the top players. An August study by the Nielsen Group found that sales of handsets based on Windows Mobile dropped from 27 percent to 15 percent over the previous year.

The new features of the rebranded Phone 7 are a chance to gain some ground, Spektor said.

"If Microsoft can deliver a similar user experience -- in terms of web browsing, multimedia and interactive, engaging applications that are friendly and fun to use --- to what Apple and Android have done, that will give consumers an alternative and help build out their market share," the analyst said.

Posted: 2010-09-02 @ 3:24pm PT

If you haven't noticed, HP dropped their windows phone 7 partnership and from rumors and from supposed statements from LG, LG is going to be the first to release a windows phone 7 handset. Also if you haven't noticed, they're going for a completely different UI than either apple or android. The Metro UI, imo is better. No boring grid of icons which statically represent an app that does only one task, but instead a new dynamic set of "tiles" showing you information you want. Sorry if it sounds a little PR-y but even by my name you can tell that I am a Microsoft lover. Don't write articles like this, unless you are up to date with all information dealing with the topic.