Microsoft Announces Nine Windows Phone 7 Phones

[engine]

Microsoft Announces Nine Windows 7 Based Phones [microsoft.com]

Microsoft Corp. today joined its partners in revealing nine new Windows Phone 7 handsets that will be available this holiday season from leading mobile operators in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. With more than 60 mobile operators in over 30 countries worldwide committed to bringing Windows Phones to market, the millions of people around the world looking for a phone that plays as hard as it works will have a variety of phones from leading device-makers to choose from.

Microsoft and its partners have worked together closely to create a different kind of phone with new experiences that bring together what people care about most. Windows Phone 7 will be available in a variety of sleek form factors from device-makers such as Dell, HTC Corp., LG and Samsung, and from mobile operators including América Móvil, AT&T, Deutsche Telekom AG, Movistar, O2, Orange, SFR, SingTel, Telstra, TELUS, T-Mobile USA and Vodafone. All Windows Phone 7 phones will include the high-performance Snapdragon™ processor from Qualcomm. A broad selection of phones will begin shipping in holiday 2010 with more arriving in 2011, including phones from Sprint and Verizon Wireless. In addition, select models will be available at Microsoft Store locations and from Amazon.

Press Conference video [microsoft.com]

[ByronM]

They look amazing. Reviews seem to be speaking for the product rather well. Responsive, fast and well designed.

Zune got the software update as well that now has windows phone 7 marketplace.

[engine]

I found a demo video
[bbc.co.uk...]

[BillyS]

Interesting layout on these devices. Looks like they're made to eat a lot of bandwidth too.

[engine]

Did you watch any of the video? They look pretty interesting devices.

[ByronM]

nteresting layout on these devices. Looks like they're made to eat a lot of bandwidth too.

Thats why they include wifi :)

[atom42]

I'm amazed to hear myself say, but I really hope that they can make this work.

It's incredible to see a company who have had such a head start in so many areas, manage to fall behind so quickly. I still remember being amazed at those old orange SPV things that everyone who worked at microsoft had, and thinking that they looked like the future. And to think that they also had a head start in tablets, but nobody seemed to care, because they didn't quite know how to polish them.

Still - this is Microsoft we're talking about - and no matter how late they are to market, I guess it would be crazy to write them off.

[tangor]

Welcome to Webmasterworld, atom42!

MS was (and in many ways remains) a technology leading company. I, too, liked their early tablets, but couldn't figure out how to make them productively useful... the "web" and people's interest in entertainment via same had just not gotten there. Just a matter of being ahead of their time... at the time.

[atom42]

Thanks for the welcome Tangor. It's good to be here amongst such a vibrant community of technology fanatics! I have to admit - I've been a voyeur for some time now, but figured it was about time to get my hands dirty.

Microsoft must be kicking themselves for just not making their technology just a little bit sexy. My understanding is that their commercial setup on Windows 7 phones is a lot stronger than the competition, getting income from the software market, as well as licensing revenue from the handset manufacturers. Maybe that'll help them claw back some of that $400m marketing spend.